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Wednesday, September 07, 2011
19 comments:
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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Unlike most advertising initiatives, you can see how well Deal Chicken is doing in real time.
ReplyDeleteJust look at any market's "recent deals" and figure that Gannett and the participating businesses split the take 50-50. (It can vary, but that's good for ballparking.)
In Des Moines, for instance, when 6 people recently bought carpet cleaning for $69 each, that's about $207 for Gannett. That's not enough to pay for salaries -- or cut-out cardboard chickens.
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ReplyDelete@7:51: I've made a game of Deal Chicken tracking versus Groupon. I see some immediate trends: restaurants are drawing some support, but nothing approaching 200 buys so far on a single Deal Chicken item (with restaurant deals priced at $10 or $15) in the new markets. Some offers (such as the discounted dance classes in D.C.) have NO takers. Oddly, D.C. has been sending the same Deal Chicken emails twice in one day.
ReplyDeleteLooks like USAT bungled a simple tax story.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/06/usa-today-math-for-grownups_n_950707.html
9:07 Wow. Why does that argument in the USA Today story sound familiar to me? Seems like I read it first here.
ReplyDeleteYes, we don't need no stinking raise. Do we?
ReplyDeletePost-Crescent staff learns about Passion Points or whatever they want to call it this time at a staff meeting this Thursday.
ReplyDeleteWondering if anyone who comes here was left scratching their head recently after discovering what their retirement benefit was. I left the company a few years back after seven years and took a lump sum that was more than $10,000. My wife, who started about the same time I did, and wasn't too far from me salary-wise, stayed until being let go earlier this year. Her pension stuff just arrived in the mail and it said her benefit was $2,500. Doesn't make sense to me...anyone know how the number is determined?
ReplyDelete9:17 You are right. We need a big raise, not one of those stinking little ones. I suggest the Guild might help.
ReplyDeleteRe: 9:07AM Finally the truth is out. Gannett's not trying to keep employees impoverished. They're trying to keep us out of higher tax brackets. We should send thank you cards to Martore and Dubow.
ReplyDelete10;36 See how kind and felicitous they are towards their employees.
ReplyDeleteNow I feel bad for M & D because they are constantly pushing themselves into higher tax brackets. I wonder if there's any way we can help them out. Perhaps volunteer for MORE furloughs?
ReplyDeleteHey 9:25 Am you asked the million dollar question. How is the Gannet pension figured out for each individual. I cannot help you with that but I have something that might be helpful about the pension freeze.
ReplyDeleteTry copying and pasting this to your browser!
https://doc-0s-9c-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/n2mpnbga91v7h9cdlpada5m8c12j193q/1315408500000/07892359969385388197/*/1RdAVadfz2awTVLtqCDgkmV8TMIEOmw2jlbBm34HpV9p5lToMYmtZ7diXvik3?authkey=CP-tmNYM&e=open
9:25 a.m. As required by law, Gannett should have sent you and your wife the Pension Summary Plan Description at some point. As a first step to calculating the value of your wife's pension, I'd contact your HR rep or the Gannett Pension Plan Administrator and request a copy of the Summary Plan Description. This Department of Labor link will be helpful to you. http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/retirement/planinformation.htm
ReplyDeleteThanks 11:29, 3:05. On the pension thing, turns out they had the wrong starting date. Whoops. Though I still think the number sounds low, based on my experience. But we'll see...
ReplyDelete3:57 When Gannett initially figured the value of my pension, they calculated the value according to the wrong plan. Make sure they send you the appropriate summary plan description. 3:05 p.m.
ReplyDeletePensions are figured like this (not the original plan but the one in place before the freeze). Take the average of your last five year's salary say for example $50,000. You get 5% of that salary for each of the first 10 years of employment so that would be $2500/yr for each of the first ten years. If you worked longer, you get 7% of the next ten years so if you work for 15 years and made an avg. of $50,000 your last five years you would get 10 x $2500= $25,000 plus 5 x $3500 = $17,500 for a total lump sum payout of $42,500. Plug in your own numbers for your payout. BTW- if you worked longer than 20 yrs, you would add 9% for each year after 20 years.
ReplyDelete9:25 Remember the plan was frozen in 2008, so any time she had after that "doesn't count." So you may have been paid out for 10 years, but she only got 7. And a wrong starting date on the calculation will ruin it for certain.
ReplyDeleteJim: Here is a link on the purchase of US Presswire by Gannett, and another link which discusses Bob Rosato, who has worked at Sports Illustrated for 17 years, leaving the magazine to run it full-time, avoiding a possible conflict of interest:
ReplyDeletehttp://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2011_09_04_archive.html
http://www.photographyatthesummit.com/blog/?p=679
So far, noting in print from the Crystal Palace or from the photo agency.