Wednesday, July 20, 2011

July 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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52 comments:

  1. Corporate vIsits - who is getting them and when?

    I assume these visits will all be via private jet. How much money would be saved to fly commercial?

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  2. Can you imagine the corporate brain trusts flying in on a Jet Blue flight, just the rest of us working schmoes would have to on our shitty salaries? Ain't gonna happen.

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  3. We are being told to watch expenses. Shut lights off, turn computers off over night, scan and email instead of printing hard copies, etc . I would love to hear what measures corporate is taking to reduce expenses.

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  4. One of the top stories on Post-Crescent business section on Wednesday morning is a story about how stocks opened higher. (Oh, it's an AP story from 8:58 a.m. on Tuesday.) You think maybe something else occurred involving stocks after that yesterday? You think? Maybe? Hmmm? Duh.

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  5. Can't wait 8:45 til someone sees your post and has someone change that story. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick....

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  6. 8:52 I read that page yesterday, and noted on the Amish crash that they seem to have taken an AP story, stripped the AP credit from it, and also took some facts out like the speed limit and a few other details. I was going to post about this yesterday, but then thought they were just looking to create timeless news they don't have to update. That's a solution. Let's manage the news that readers want to read. So I didn't bother to post because we already know that's what they are doing.

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  7. WUSA9 in Washington, D.C. strikes again. Last night it posted a story with video about the Navy spending $300 million to junk two tanker ships that were never finished. This was first reported last Friday by the Virginian-Pilot, a non-Gannett daily in Norfolk -- a fact the Gannett-owned TV station never bothered to mention.

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  8. p.s. I guess only those of us in the news business would notice this.

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  9. Too funny, 8:52 a.m. The story has vanished!

    But there's nothing there I don't already know or haven't read elsewhere. The NFL lockout nears an end, it's hot out!, and a Dem candidate won his recall election.

    For always thinking they're the big dogs in the state, the PC isn't so impressive anymore.

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  10. @10:07, some readers do notice. And they mention it in the story chats, like how it's old news or isn't a complete story.

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  11. Yesterday The Press-Gazette based a story on GB players being told to be in Green Bay on Saturday for a meeting on stuff written by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Last night they had to crank out a story of the Packers denying what Florio had written. Considering Florio's track record, one would think they'd be a bit more careful using his info. Readers were saying, "Hey, Florio said. They were saying, 'The Press Gazette said.'" Look who ended up looking stupid. Not Florio in the PG readers' eyes but The PG.

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  12. Hey, at least Appleton knows where the "Chicaco" Bears play their "Foruth" downs.

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  13. More humorous trivia.
    It is hilarious that Gannett employees continue to criticize the management of their particular site.The posts here seem to be as if it were
    people whistling their way through a cemetary
    and scared out their minds.What possible difference could any of your helpful insights or constructive ideas have on management?Your postings are just useless gossip going out into cyberspace.But this is good for Jim site ,his blog depends on it.Stop wasting time and get the hell away from Gannett before the next round of layoffs pushes you out the door.Or wait until then and take that handout called unemployment !You have had 3 years,how much time will take for you to realize you are just disposable expense to Gannett?

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  14. Re 10:57, what? Speak for yourself; I'm not "scared" at all. I think the reason people post gaffes they see is a way to say, hey, we don't have enough people, or good people, left to avoid the mistakes good journalists wouldn't make. The cuts have decimated our products severely, and posters here are just pointing that out.

    And you really needn't waste any more time here saying, "You've all had three years." Anyone with a pulse knows that, and we're all dealing with that fact in our own, varied ways.

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  15. All the talk in the last post about writing what readers want was excellent, and it reflected a big problem. It's very difficult to determine what that is. You can't base your content on anecdotal conversations with readers because that doesn't give you a broad enough sample of the reading base. Well-conducted surveys might work better, but they're expensive and respondents don't always tell the truth. I.e. some people will say they want to read about one thing just because it seems like they should be interested. In reality, they won't. Just think about how many Americans have unused treadmills in their houses. The bottom line is that this is where professional editors and journalists earn their money. If you write good, compelling stories that relate to people's lives, readers will come. But these stories are not written using formulas. They require good instincts and excellent followup, qualities that we are losing in Gannett's ongoing attempts to McPaper all it's properties.

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  16. Some of us are just bitter and cynical, right 11:21?

    I mean, if you can't be on staff anymore, may as well deride the ones that are left.

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  17. The Post-Crescent has ignored a county judgeship, vacated by a retiring judge. No story on the applicants that include a failed candidate for AG but has the inside track because of his ties to Walker.

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  18. I stand corrected. The PC got around to a story three days ago. It didn't turn up in my initial search. I beg forgiveness.

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  19. Gannett is aiming to be a digital news company, which means it will employ low-paid aggregators who put together Huffington Post - like bottom-feeder stories with off the shelf photos that attract clicks. That means tiny "information centers," a handful of ad pros and no other departments. It's sad and shameful.

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  20. 11:30 great post

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  21. Totally unrelated to anything here, but I thought this was typical.
    I tried to look something up on the Cherry Hill employee handbook (electronic version) the other day, and had a good laugh. The 'about us' section is signed by Douglas H. McCorkindale, Chairman, President and CEO. Only about 5 years out of date!
    Oh, and that the company employs over 54,000 people. Ha!

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  22. More hard-hitting news from the Cincinnati Enquirer which highlights its lead web story as Barry Larkin coming back to Cincinnati to broadcast Sunday night game for ESPN.

    Then, a story about a union president charged with stealing $750,000 from her union, a handout story from the feds. Interesting to note the "Enquirer exclusive" label no longer soiling the posting as if the LIC was really out there ferretting out corruption.
    Then, we get to the Enquirer's real bread and butter:
    • Heat index could reach 100 today

    Updates: Reds vs. Pirates 1 hour and 23 minutes ago
    •Naked man beaten by cops loses appeal 15 minutes ago
    •Busken sells summertime schnecken 28 minutes ago
    •Learn Couponing 101 at free workshop 1 hour and 6 minutes ago
    •Top five things to do today 1 hour and 51 minutes ago
    •Monster Jam truck downtown Thursday
    Washburn needs to get back from D.C. brain-storming session pretty quickly because her second-in-command, Julie Engbrecht, isn't putting out too much news in a metro area of 2 million people. Couponing 101, the Heat Index, five things to do and summer schnecken just don't rise to the level of news. Nor does Barry Larkin.

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  23. I saw a thing in a newspaper that I didn't like.

    Secondly, I saw another thing.

    Finally, I saw a third thing that I didn't like.

    I will be back in touch.

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  24. Gannett earns a spot in a list of "10 companies that will never trade at their all-time highs": http://247wallst.com/2011/07/20/ten-companies-that-will-never-trade-at-their-all-time-highs/5/

    Gannett will never make it back to the upper $80s. The next question is how long Gannett can afford to have multimillion-dollar executives traveling on corporate jets. Eventually, it won't be able to afford them either.

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  25. 11:49 you are forgiven. I know how hard it is to find something on our sites. Sometimes if I do the same search a second time, it works. And sometimes I don't even bother.

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  26. A salmon swimming up stream7/20/2011 3:46 PM

    11:21 makes a good point. Back at the C-N we had a feature called "A day in the Life." A suggestion was made by a reporter that we do "DITL" in two towns which hadn't been covered before and had downtowns or a retail base for ad sales to support the DITL supplement fell on deaf ears. Instead they "visited" the same towns that had been DITL subjects twice before. So much for trying to improve the product. A suggestion that doesn't come from a glass office has no shelf life.

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  27. Hey 12:11, does the incompetence at the courier post surprise you? It shouldn't! The human resources "manager" is clueless. She can't answer the most basic of questions.

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  28. @11:21 a.m. Ah, DITLO, the bane of NJ Gannett reporters for years. It's funny how the APP kept rolling them out even after the paper was heavily criticized on the way the entire affair was handled in the book "The News About the News." I believe that the APP DITLO'ed nearly all of the towns in its coverage area twice, and then moved on to do quasi-DITLOs in all the school districts.

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  29. You have to love this story on the APP website:

    Helicopter crashes at South Brunswick high school: http://www.app.com/article/20110720/NJNEWS10/307200064/Helicopter-crashes-South-Brunswick-school?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

    In the first paragraph of the three paragraph story states the copter crashed in an overgrown field on the property of Medicia, a pharmaceutical company.

    In the third paragraph it then says the crash occurred behind Indian Fields Elementary School.

    The story was posted at 1:46 p.m. People who are commenting are finding the irony

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  30. You newspaper people are nuts, lets talk about some issues that effect us, not waste time on the big clowns who run this sagging company. Lets dig deep and find out what the hell is going on! That's what we do in the news biz.

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  31. As someone who used to work at the Asbury Park Press, I am ashamed. Workers are doing the best they can, but management and ownership is awful.

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  32. @5:18 out of curiosity when did you start to be ashamed?

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  33. 5:03, What was that someone wrote here Tuesday?

    If it's first and wrong, it's still first.

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  34. 5:16 I agree with you wholeheartedly. But how can you concentrate on the basics when you are listening to all the rumors about what is going on in the front office, or upstairs in the publisher's office. I realize now I know more about this publisher than I've ever known about any publisher I have had in my life. I really don't care what they do, or which clubs they dine with, or with whom.

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  35. Actually, 2:17, I thought the Enquirer did a pretty good job with that union president story. Originally, it was a story about her being MIA with an inside source saying that the union was under investigation by the feds. Then it was updated later in the morning to say she was indicted, and update multiple times after that to reflect new information. Good reporting, I say.
    However, what may be most interesting is that the Enquirer put the word - and please don't mod me for this Jim - "bullshit" on its front page twice, in the form of a photo of a cell phone (showing a texting dialogue) and in the text of the story (direct quote from a text message attributed to the union prez). Wonder why they elected to use that word? Could have blurred it out in the photo, could have obscured it in some manner in the quote.

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  36. 6;46 Well, they wouldn't have sold any cellphones if the screen had a fuzzy or blurred image. Duh.

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  37. Will someone, like the Board, bring Saridakis back? We need someone running this company that has a set of balls". Seriously, I do not mean this in a chauvinistic way. We just need someone with vision and someone who can help get us out of this malaise. Help! We have an attorney running Digital. We have a bean counter as President of a media company and we have a broadcast sales manager as the CEO of a newspaper company. Do you think there is something wrong here?

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  38. 7:46. Everything is wrong with this picture. I don't think the board really cares. Considering the stock price went down again today, I don't think Wallstreet really cares either. Not to mention, the morale is so low none of the employees care. What does all that amount to?

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  39. Newsroom employees at my site are being forced to falsify their time sheets by their managers. These are 40 hr a week employees and are hourly. As far as I know, according to labor laws, anything worked over 40 hrs. must be paid at time and a half.

    What about employees that are grandfathered in at 35 hrs? I know they only receive straight time over 35 hrs but are they required to take comp time or do they have a choice? Any accurate information is appreciated.

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  40. The Wage and Hour division at the U.S. Department of Labor can help you with these overtime issues and this is a Democratic, pro-labor government. Look them up on the Internet at www.firstgov.gov

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  41. 8:42, you have many options to report improper and illegal behavior in the workplace. Gannett itself wants its employees to report such violations of ethical policy (compelling employees to falsify documents is a violation). You can use any of these contact methods and remain anonymous. You would be doing the company a big favor by reporting this immediately.

    Ethics Violations Reporting Policy


    Every Gannett employee is responsible for ensuring that the company’s actions and associations maintain the highest professional standards. These standards guarantee the independence and integrity of our news, editorial, information, advertising and marketing services. As an employee, you are obliged to report any suspected violation of company policy (including violations of accounting or auditing policy) or any suspected violation of the laws governing the Company’s business. Reports can be made:

    • Via voicemail to 1-800-234-4206 (in the United Kingdom, dial free 0-808-234-8157)

    • Via email to gciethics@flynn-law.com

    • Via mail to Law Offices of Garrett S. Flynn, LLC, Pondview Corporate Center, 74 Batterson Park Road, Second Floor, Farmington, CT 06034-0887

    Employees will not be disciplined or suffer retribution for reporting honestly and in good faith suspected violations. There is no need to identify yourself, if you prefer not to. All reports will be confidential except as necessary to conduct investigations.

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  42. Hey deal chicken! Read this http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/18/amex-facebook-deals-go-social/

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  43. The Salinas property is for sale. With all the cuts they've made, 3/4 of the building must be empty. Sad.

    http://www.showcase.com/property/123-W-Alisal-Street/Salinas/California/8098556#.TidrXUa3FQ8.facebook

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  44. Sale notes: Tenant to relocate.

    How sad is that? To a strip mall?

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  45. Think I will just report my paper to the local labor board in my state. I have emails that document the injustice that is happening. Gannett will have to pay the piper on this one. It is going to STOP!

    The Wage and Hour division at the U.S. Department of Labor can help you with these overtime issues and this is a Democratic, pro-labor government. Look them up on the Internet at www.firstgov.gov

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  46. http://makethecharts.com/aboutus.aspx

    This is a Gracia Martore $3mm project!

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  47. Nice. How is Cozi doing?

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  48. 10:41, let us know how that goes. You'd be the first person here in more than two years to take some sort of action.

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  49. 8:42 and 10:41...

    Overtime is required to be paid for time worked over 40 hours. Time between 35 or the 37.5 hours that I get are paid and 40 hours is paid at straight time. This is legal,

    This is one of the ways that the company gives itself a few hours leeway when asking for more than scheduled time. Other employers of mine scheduled 30 hours and considered that FT. Any time between 30 and 40 was paid at straight time. That also meant that those who worked 30 hours a week on a regular basis got health insurance.

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  50. Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor. www.firstgov.gov

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  51. Isn't Make the Charts another Michael Maness "innovation"?

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  52. I refuse, let me state again, I refuse, to work for free for Gannett. I am tired of being told I am “lucky to have a job, yet told to falsify my time sheet” Won't happen on my watch and I will document everything! Are you listening Gannett corporate? I won't lie! And if your trained monkey managers try to make me lie you will pay dearly. I need my job, I need my benefits but I refuse to be intimidated by your fear tactics. This is real — and it is happening at a Gannett newspaper near you. Will keep you updated with emails and proof this is really happening!

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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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