Friday, July 01, 2011

June 27-July 3 | Your News & Comments: Part 5

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54 comments:

  1. I feel sorry for the Springfield News-Leader having Linda Greiwe as Publisher. While everyone in Gannett is worried about their jobs...she has taken her family on a European vacation to France and Spain. Must be nice to have that kind of job security.

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  3. Jim...please remove @ 7:12. Are we teenagers here people?

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  4. 7:05 Are you referring to the Controller in Indy? Can you tell us what happened to him?

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  5. 7:12 is a reflection of what Jim has allowed here for two years. Looking for someone to blame? Look at the mugshot to the right. There's your guy.

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  6. The mugshot to the right gave thousands of people advance warning that their livelihood was in doubt. I'm forever grateful to that mugshot.

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  7. Thank you, 7:34. I agree.

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  10. Hmmmm BIC lighter?

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  11. Of course we all know what is going on. But we don't know how many and where and when. The company treats us like someone growing mushrooms - keeps us in the dark and covers us in manure. How else are we to get a handle on what, exactly, is in store? That's why this blog is valuable. That's why so many people come to it. If that's not why you are here, then why ARE you here? To puff up your fragile sense of smugularity? Yawn.

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  12. I watched co-workers pack their desks and leave their livelihoods today. I don't really see how turtles, MILFs or other such nonsense is relevant or productive to the dialogue here. So ... STFU!

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  13. wHAT LOCATIONS DUE TELL. iGNORE THE KIDS. lETS TALK gANNETT EMPLOYEES PACK UP FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY hOLIDAY.

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  14. 9:00, do you mean GCI Crystal Palace employees off for a good time? That country club set always begins its holidays and takes off far earlier than the rest. The GCI tower looks like a ghost town.

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  15. Linda Greiwe hasn't been in office since she started, always off somewhere. But she in in bed with DesMoines publisher, so to speak. So does what she wants. Never ever engaged in community either, thats how Des Moines likes it.

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  16. Jim:

    Either you have been too busy to flash your revenue numbers or Gannett is never going to hire you for the business side! Hasn't anyone else donated to this historical account?

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  17. 9:26: Apparently that's how Corporate likes it too.

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  18. 8:30 The problem is these MF..kers are raping this company. Every cut that is made is more money in their pocket as bonuses. Do you see these executives taking a pay cut of 5% like many of the smaller newspapers. Many small newspapers cannot cut anymore staff so the executives at the group level and at corporate are implementing a 5% pay cut across the board. How is this fair? I don't think there is an issue for anyone that wants to expose or curse at any of the swines that are making these decisions and benefiting from it. FU

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  20. Any one read the new book by James O'Shea "The Deal form Hell - How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers?" My copy arrived yesterday and I hope to read it cover to cover this weekend. Here's an interesting quote (from page 61) about Paul Miller and Al Neuharth: Miller became the forerunner of what would become a fixture of American newsrooms - the respected working journalist who assumed a high-profile position in the corporation to give cover to corporate predators like Neuharth, whose second wife compared marital life with Al to "riding a roller coaster with a snake."

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  21. 7:30 You point to Jim as someone to be singled out to blame for what is happening in Gannett. Why is that? How many people has Jim laid off? Is Jim responsible for these silly and meaningless plans which we all realize are ripping these newspapers and this company apart? What responsbility does Jim have for this? He just runs a blog, and it looks like he has only one hit his quarterly goal for raising enough money from it to keep going. You and other corporate interests don't want us to hold those really rsponsible for these layofs, and choosse to whip up some smokescreen that somehow blames Jim for the anger and bitterness we see on this blog. But is Jim the one operating behind the scenes and maintaining a low profile who is doing this? Answer that question for yourself.

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  22. "Any one read the new book by James O'Shea "The Deal form Hell"

    Yes, reading it now. Not as far into it as you but it is interesting so far.

    az rep employee

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  23. I haven't read that far, I just checked the index for Gannett and read a few of those pages!

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  24. 11:56, you do not have the first damn clue what the hell you are talking about. I blamed Jim for allowing anonymous slams like the one at 7:12 that have no place here.

    That should have been abundantly clear. For you not to grasp this shows that either (1) you are a complete dumbass who deserves no further response or (2) you are intentionally twisting the comment so you can then deliver a pathetic sermon like you have.

    You are just another of the idiotic lemming trolls who lurk here and drag down the dialogue. Go away, pinhead.

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  25. 12:54 I certainly do have a clue, and your use of the term lemming troll gives me a good inclination of who you stand with. The poster at 7:12 is expressing his anger in the strongest form possible that is permitted under the rules of this blog. Those rules prohibit the use of certain words like b--ch, but the words he use are just those in fair debate. Of course, you don't like that because you don't want GCI employees expressing their true opinions. It is not libelous for 7:12 to say what he said, and it is in accordance of these rules. You then point to Jim and say he is reponsible. Again, I refer you to my response, which you have also taken objection to. Face it, corporate interests, you cannot control the views of your employees -- they are free agents, in spite of all your efforts to tell them otherwise. We employees have rights and in this case a responsibility to speak out and say as forcefully as we can what we think is wrong.

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  26. For those of you who read everything carefully, sorry that this is a repeat. I mistakenly added it to a previous string, but I'm asking again here, in case most people are like me and only look at the most recent discussions.

    What I said was:

    I'll admit I'm a latecomer to this blog, but am trying to understand it and its codes as fast as I can. My big question so far: Why all the crypto stuff? We're (presumably) anonymous here, so why use initial, veiled references and snarky pseudonyms instead of offering each other real information? We may not all be insiders, but aren't we all in the same boat? So don't we owe it to each other to be as clear and straight about things as possible?
    At this point, playing Spy Club seems counterproductive. Or are we afraid -- perhaps justifiably; I don't know -- this can be traced and used against us?

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  27. 1) As soon as someone uses the term "lemming troll," please stop reading. You know who they are.

    2) MBO bonuses for laying people off? Please, please let me enlighten you. MBOs are for low to semi-mid-level managers. The real hired guns are on executive bonuses. Much, much higher and directly linked to RIFs. How to do I know? I was one of them. MBO bonuses I got early in the game. By the time I was exec bonuses, a whole 'nuther ball game.

    It is all worse than you even imagine. Truly. But I am gone now. And they all will be too! (But, sadly, so will all of you)

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  31. Gannett layoffs accelerated demise of InJersey hyperlocal news sites: http://journ.us/jdmWnj

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  32. 1:15 The reason you are not getting a response is you answered your own question in your post.

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  33. If the person referring to others as lemming trolls were able to identify anyone posting on this blog, trust me that employee would be out the door. That's why the vehemence of the troll attacks, and the efforts to start flame wars. The crypto is a response to even further hide identities. Even though I find it difficult to figure out what some posts really mean, there is a logic behind this that I truly believe. The crypto itself is usually easy to unravel out using Google search, and that is not a state secret the trolls don't know.

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  36. 6:53 I don't know the identities of anonymous posters, nor do I want to; only Google does, because it owns the Blogger software platform that I use.

    Its Terms of Service says Google only releases identities when presented with a subpoena, or some other such legal instrument, for legitimate law-enforcement purposes. (Example: threats of violence toward others.)

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  38. What kind of person can't post even once without calling others "stupid" and "moron" repeatedly?

    Exactly.

    It seems this blog allows childish name-calling. OK, so be it. Good thing there's a simple work-around:

    1. Scan post.
    2. Stop reading post.
    3. Skip post.
    4. Repeat.

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  39. 6:53 Somehow I believe the NSA also knows.

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  40. Barely two years ago, when Robin Pence was talking to reporters, she commented on an incident when the St. George paper refused to run an ad involving a homosexual marriage.
    "It has always been Gannett's practice to have our publishers and editors decide what runs in their newspapers since, as local residents, they know their communities best," she told Gannettoid.com Aug. 19.
    Really, then how come Content One which is imposing centralized copy on the newspapers, and these incredible rounds layoffs which seem to be ordered from Corporate. And how come Corporate is now ordering the papers to begin operating Deal Chicken. Can it be that in just two short years, local autonomy has been changed to central control. Or was this always a company where all decisions are made in the Crystal Towers and everyone from publishers like Crotchfelt to editors like Hillkirk are just following orders?
    http://www.gannettoid.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=308

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  41. p.s. And i don't have to tell you what a terrible precedent the world faced by a group of intelligent Germans who said in their defense that they were "just following orders."

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  42. Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Godwin.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

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  45. I'd really like to see more conversation about the demise of InJersey, because I think a lot of efforts - like Patch - need to pay attention to what happened there. That Poynter piece is excellent.

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  46. For all the anti-Gannett feelings over the years, and all the News2000 and other crazy edicts, one thing that did survive was local autonomy.

    Easy to say Gannett was a big bad corporation imposing its will on papers, but the truth is that most papers, editorially, were independent, were allowed to make their own decisions on coverage, editoial stance and deployment of staff.

    If anything, Gannett, GNS and the rest was considered a nuisance.

    But all that has changed. The new centralized Gannett news stream really will be controlling much of each paper's national and world reports, not through edict but because that will be a paper's only choice.

    Will community papers be told to get rid of AP and instead they'll get a weaker USA Today newsfeed? Who knows? It could happen someday.

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  47. This thread has been especially ignorant, Jim, and you haven't gone far enough is weeding out the nonsense.

    MILFs, FU, and the rest really debase the conversation. Anger is fine and warranted this week especially. It is a time to hate and vent.

    But the juvenile postings of a few shouldn't be allowed to mar a needed discussion here.

    Local autonomy is a good topic. Whether editors are "on the pole" is something else. Please don't hesitate to delete delete delete.

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  48. 8:03 If the shoe fits, wear it.

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  49. Hillkirk has the backbone of a jellyfish. He refuses to stand up for his people, wont replace incompetents and refuses to engage with anyone but senior managers. Power mongers like Heather Frank see a dead man walking.

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  50. 6:53: I don't think a publisher has to be tied to their office because of the situation going on at Gannett, especially if the layoffs are not going on at this time at that site. If there were layoffs while she was gone, that's a different story. If I had a vacation planned with my family there ain't no way this company would keep me from going. I hope she has a great time.

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  51. On "Local autonomy"

    I get the feeling here in Phoenix that Gannett is planning something new, a test if you will, of marrying USAToday to the late, great Arizona Republic. The Republic's national and sports pages have become almost non-existant and anemic at best... I mean, I know there is more going on in the world but you wouldn't know it scanning the Republic's pages of late. So with Gannett's latest move, closing Phoenix Offset and moving USAToday's production under the Republic's roof, it's not too much of a leap to to envision a USAToday "wrapped" Arizona Republic in everyone's future. Gotta save the "Brand" at all cost!

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  52. @10:28 - This is not the first time where she knew layoffs were coming and went on vacation.

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  53. @10:55 - I thought the layoffs already happened at her site.

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  54. Some of you might want to keep in mind that Jim is not online constantly, cannot see every post as it lands. He has to come along behind and clean up. I suppose he could go back to pre-approving every post, but that has a tendency to stop comment threads dead. Notice that he has removed a lot of inflammatory posts today, but he's no magician, so a lot of them were up awhile. In other words, chill out.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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