Saturday, July 09, 2011

July 4-10 | Your News & Comments: Part 6

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25 comments:

  1. You are giving too much credit to Banikarim's ability to do great marketing. She is a light weight in the marketing world. Take a look at her previous brand marketing campaigns and prior marketing work.

    Banikarim is a cog in the wheel of business. She has never helped a company GROW REVENUES nor has she been in any strategic role to influence success.

    Her childish newsletter is an example of Gannett executives trying to give themselves more exposure internally, then focus on helping this company grow it's way out of declining revenue.

    So many Gannett executives worry about what employees thnkmabout them, that they forget about their clients. How about Banikarim, Martore and Dubow start VISITING GANNETT'S CLIENTS and stop tryin to impress employees.

    If I was on Gannett's Board, I wouodmask Craig Dubow to show me a list of all the top 100 clients he visited each quarter along with Ms. Martore and the Chief Digital guy who is no where to be seen.

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  2. Jim,
    Thank you for sharing the PointRoll ad campaign "Tap the Ad". I work at PointRoll and this, along with the Size and the Way You Use It" slogans are only the tip of the iceberg.

    PointRoll is going to release more ad campaigns and slogans that are much more vulgar than this. As a mother of a teenage daughter, they are disgusting and the internal jokes are beyond uncomfortable.

    Here are some of the newer slogans coming out:

    "what position do you like?" "some people like it on top" "some are bottoms" (referring the the placement of a PointRoll ad on a web page)

    "what else do you know 'expands' when you 'rollover'?"( referring to an expandable ad's behavior when a user rolls their mouse over an ad)

    "the more action you get, the more popular you are" (referring to the metrics around ad performance and ad popularity)

    "rear entry is more than a destination, it is a way of life" (not sure what they are referring to on this one)

    "who wouldn't want to be 'controlled?" (referring to the PountRoll AdControl product.

    Anyway, there are some other ones, but I think you get the point.

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  3. If that's accurate, that's atrocious 7:16.

    I'm no prude (everyone I ever married, I worked with first) but jeez, would somebody let the adults run PointRoll?

    And if this is such great edgy marketing for an internet age - and us old farts just don't get it - why aren't the double entendres flowing over the DealChicken?

    Seriously, by 'tap the ad' defenders' reasoning yesterday, "Save like a motherClucker" should be plastered all over our home pages.

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  4. When we talk about an industry that "has lost it's moral compass" let's remember that journalism has always been a wandering profession that was comfortable in its amorality.

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  5. 7:16 Those sound very hard to believe. Assuming this is true, however, which one is next, and when will it be launched?

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  6. 7:01 you've got to be kidding! MB is a light weight? Everything you said after that silly statement lost credibility. Thanks for a good belly laugh! You have a good Saturday.

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  7. 7/08 11:11AM, what paper is that? In the south group?

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  8. 7:16: Agree. Absolutely incredible. I cannot believe Payne signed off on this, and I reallly don't see this as a Maryam brainchild. Am I right or wrong?

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  9. Payne is much too straightlaced for this. A former prosecutor signing off on this for a part of his operation giving him headaches? Somehow I don't think so.

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  10. I'm a non-prudish female and this kind of silly garbage makes me glad that I'm not associated with Gannett anymore.

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  11. 7:16 Here we go with another Cardinal Bernadin thing again. Why can't I get away from the image of this?

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  12. On the topic of starting your own paper that is exactly what a former Fort Myers News Press employee did. A couple years ago Florida weekly was started. It looks good, peeople like it and they knew what flaws and problems there are with GANNETT run pubs.

    Looking through it you know the success they are having is hurting the news press.

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  13. 10:49 I thought that the Naples Daily News would move in to pick up circulation from Ft. Myers. Naples is filthy rich so they have money for this. Any sign of that happening you see, or not?

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  14. Yes Naples is trying to push up but I hear the new publisher is working to push back. Note who is sitting on board of directors for the Naples chamber - http://www.napleschamber.org/chamber/directors.aspx

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  15. 1:20 Yes, plus Fifth Third Bank exec from Cincinatti, a very powerful bank which has been getting very favorable coverage in GCI's Cincinatti Enquirer. Very interesting. Thanks.

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  16. 7:01 Since when did dubow et al concern themselves with impressing employees? When it was bonus time? Layoff time? None of them give a shit. Hunke? Among the worst leaders ever at Usat. Tone deaf doesn't even begin to describe their ability to relate to employees.

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  17. 1:20 PM Why would the Fort Myers publisher be on the board of a smaller chamber that is in another city and county outside of their market area? Granted the Naples market is wealthy, but the News-Press is not going to gain any serious readership or business from Naples. Why not focus on their own market area where they are getting their butt kicked by the Naples Daily News? The Naples Daily News does not care if the News-Press publisher is on the Naples Chamber Board -- it makes it that much easier for them to make gains in Lee County. What about their own chamber -- the Southwest Florida Chamber of Commerce?

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  18. I'm amused by the posters in part 5 who suggested "start your own weekly" or jump into the job market. The Jersey towns I cover have no less than 5 to 6 media people covering these towns, the GNJ daily, two to three weeklies, AOL Patch and a local news website. Some times there are more reporters than citizens covering these meetings in towns with tiny business districts. So how many ways can you split that advertising/revenue pie?
    You might as well start a typewriter or cassette player factory while you're at it.
    Spare us the Pollyanna optimism and look at the latest employment figures. We're hanging on to our crappy GCI jobs like grim death because their IS nothing else out there.
    For Gannetteers who have a home in the community, kids in the school system and other ties, "changing jobs" isn't as easy as some posters would make it sound.
    It's like riding out a storm in a boat. Your choices are stay on board and weather the storm, or jump in to the churning, angry sea. Until the economy recovers (insert laughter here), the smart money is on riding it out until you're thrown overboard. (of course there's nothing wrong with taking swimming lessons in the interim).

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  19. 2:59 Agree. It's a lot of driving to Naples for meetings that bring nothing to Ft. Myers. Naples is fat and happy and business isn't particularly interested in Ft. Myers, which is still mired in a housing-led recession. If this was intended as a shot across the bow of the Naples Daily News because it is encroaching on Ft. Myers, it strikes me Naples is in a good position to take the shot and fire back. It doesn't make sense, but then Gannett has a lot of dysfunctional arrangements like this one.

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  20. Lots of people I know who left on their own or who were let go went to internet companies, both for editorial and marketing. Some people started their own marketing or PR companies. Some are making more money, some less. But all are HAPPIER. Very few moved, but some had to in order to find a good job. I do understand why some of us continue to stay, but at least start thinking about other options. It will empower you.

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  21. I had high hopes that maryam would bring something to the table. I don't want on the road pieces from her anymore I want some frigging tangible results. We don't need a corporate version of Heather Frank.

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  22. Finally decided to post a message on this blog... to those who clocked in and out so regularly either on paper or with an electronic device ... was it worth it to clock in and out to avoid the overtime lecture but continued to put in dozens of additional hours at work off the clock. It wasn't worth it, was it? Yes, to some editors you were the dream reporter or copy editor ... but the reality is that it takes you as long to edit and produce copy for the newspaper as everyone else in the newsroom. What you have done is illegal... and in the end, it won't save your job with Gannett. Many have done it for years ... while supervisors, HR and editors knew about it. Okay, a minute here and an hour there ... shouldn't make it so terrible? Yeah, maybe ... but as the responsibilities get piled on and people are let go ... will newsroom staff lower themselves to create the illusion of their magic in the newsroom?

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  23. Quote from Saridakis, after responding to my email, regarding the recent PointRoll ad campaign. "Sad, PointRoll has lost it's way."

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  24. Craig Sevier7/09/2011 10:47 PM

    Thank you, 5:53. This whole thing is falling apart. First a chip there, must be the sun. Then somethin' else, cheap concrete.

    But essentially Gannett has proved itself to be a totally morphed morally negligent organization.

    To be fair, most of those at the top, shielded by obscene incomes, have a really really tough time trying to emulate some actor's portrayal of basic human decency on a movie screen... I mean 80" flat screen home theater.

    When I post here, recounting my first-hand experience surely not isolated, I get called either arrogant or clueless by those types. Me, it's depressing. Point taken. Cruel as the usual SOP, some capos in an extermination camp, destined for the same chimney.

    "Why, Ike, whatever do you mean?"

    No matter the figures, dismal, Gannett is going down and sadly it's gonna take a lot of good people with it, the ones left, the majority already poofed.

    Its business model is a panicked Goth girl already in a padded room.

    I spent years. Years. I thought it important. I really thought I mattered. But when the axe comes, they don't even see the blood. They don't even know you.

    So, me, too. I saw the overturned tables and disconnected the cables. That place makes no sense to me no more.

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  25. @5:53 - you are absolutely right. I wish I had recorded every damn minute. I am ashamed at what I did to help Gannett at my own expense.

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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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