Saturday, November 19, 2011

Nov. 14-20 | Your News & Comments: Part 5

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50 comments:

  1. I've got a great new vertical subject for USA Today: child beauty pageants.

    I just spent way too much time watching Toddlers & Tiaras online, including an episode where one mother admitted to spending $30,000 on pageants in the previous year. And then there was the mom who kept her daughter juiced on Red Bulls before a pageant: nearly three full cans. That's a lot of consumer spending to capture.

    Plus, the reader demos would complement the paper's mixed-martial arts community, too.

    You're welcome!

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  2. Next week is Thanksgiving.
    A typical time for layoffs to begin,or layoffs lists to be compiled and shortly after implemented.
    How many here are worried that they will be unemployed in December?

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  4. Everyone should be.
    Management here is acting spooky again and I would bet it is because the lists are being made and are much talked about amongst themselves.Scary time.

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  5. Re: 7:55 AM - I am counting on being laid off. Plan B is in place and ready to go. Just want to suck as much TPP out of this company as I can.

    Of course, with the f'ed up logic that is Gannett, it means I probably won't be laid off.

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  7. From 9:15
    Another under the radar layoff.
    How many more at other sites?
    Just as the last time ,trickle in reports and then the flood of mass layoffs.

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  8. Layoffs at Westchester coming soon...

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  9. To 10:07 - how do you know layoffs are coming at Westchester????????????????????//

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  10. Believe it or not, USA Today operations/production center being shifted to Des Moines. Meetings being held this week; production folks in shock.

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  11. 10:07 is right. 50 layoffs is the number I hear for Westchester and soon...

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  12. Yes, Jim, there's $ to be made in kiddie pageants.
    The photo galleries are a real hit with the pervs, I hear.

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  14. I see two bodies were found in Ohio of people who answered ads on Craigslist. You hear horror stories regardling CL scams and crimes often.
    Couldn't Gannett put together a national ad blitz as a safer alternative to the evils found on CL? Our classified's used to be 8-10 pages, now they are often 2-3 pages. I think Gannett is missing out on an opportunity to increase revenue.

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  15. 9:15 There are ways to describe someone's performance without resorting to name-calling, such as "backstabber."

    11:31 I think of the Westchester publisher was sharing information of the sort you're describing, a formal announcement would already have been made, wouldn't it?

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  16. Jim, the bursts of sarcasm like the one at 11:34 would be much more entertaining if you had some wit.

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  17. Why would a Wisconsin site have this as their top hed on the Web? Isn't it 2011?

    Deer Season 2012: A Wisconsin tradition

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  18. 2:07 Except I was being only half-sarcastic.

    I really do suspect there's reader demo overlap between mixed-martial arts/NASCAR/child beauty pageants.

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  19. who cares about the child pageants we know what that's all about.
    Come up with something else

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  20. Classified Ads?

    Have you tried the new ebay Classifieds?

    I've found several items on there thus far!
    Based on the location of your account, when
    you click on, all the locals ads are there.

    They do a great job!

    Reminds me of how the local newspapers used to be!

    Those were the daaaaaaaaaaaaays!

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  21. Happy New Year, Michiganders!

    http://www.wnem.com/story/16072734/more-newspaper-layoffs-revealed-in-mid-michigan-state

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  22. How times have changed - http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/memos-editor-restricts-facebook-twitter.html

    Now ol' Bob has a personal facebook page and one promoting his weekly column.

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  23. An editor at the Arizona Republic wrote about the hassles of NewsGate (which, as someone who has to use NewsGate everyday, I think is Danish for "piece of crap") in his weekly column this morning.

    http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2011/11/14/20111114arizona-republic-newsgate-complaint.html

    NewsGate at the Republic has been a mess. We've had to push up page drops by 30 minutes to get the paper out. Can someone tell me with this is a good thing for our readers? I can see the advantages for corporate, but for individual newspapers and our customers it's another Gannett disaster.

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  24. @11:58 a.m. thanks for the link. Not looking forward to our conversion. I've not heard or read anything good about NewsGate, and horror stories abound. Kudos to the editor for telling the world like it is.

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  25. OK, seriously, the semi-rollout for the Republic's community sections (nine sections rolled out, nine more in two weeks) was far worse than anticipated. No deadlines missed, which I understand is a first. And no I'm not a Crystal Tower hack. Far, far from it.

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  26. The readers and customers are realizing that G A N N E T T doesn't care about them. Even they are feeling sorry for those left working. They see how terribly overworked and understaffed we are.

    Even the best of employees will start to make stupid mistakes when too much is piled on their shoulders.

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  27. 11:58: Why was that column "a good thing for readers?" No one outside of the biz cares. So poor news judgment. Poor time management (taking the time to actually write that drivel). And casually criticizing your employer in a column? Well, it will play well here. But I find it VERY stupid. He'll be lucky if they just lay him off, instead of firing him outright.

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  28. 2:56 As the last line in that section of his column suggests ("Like anything else, I suppose we'll get used to it. Especially once we figure out how to make things stop cutting off in mid-"), it will help readers understand production problems in their papers.

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  29. I attended a RA RA session the other day with Martore. Pumping up the USAT staff while all the while planning the next staff reduction. Disgusting phoney.

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  31. This from someone who is not a former Gannett employee but who spent more than three decades in the business and has (had) a lot of friends working for Gannett in Iowa.

    Here is one perfect example of why going to Facebook for comments is one of the worst decisions I have seen recently for any news company.

    Iowa State upset Oklahoma State last night in a huge win for the Cyclone program and a major disaster for the BCS bowl system. In past years, an upset like this would have generated hundreds of comments on the Des Moines Register site and people would have kept coming back to the site to see the most recent comments. As of mid-afternoon Saturday - not even two dozen comments and I won't be bothering to look again. I can go to other newspapers in Iowa to see more if I want to.

    One reason I won't look again are the typos and the fact that the Register folks can't seem to get a story onto the page correctly. (Since when is half a story one big link.)

    I might save today's sports story from the Register - if I got it. Four days of the last five there has been no delivery. I figure at the rate I have been reporting non-delivery I may have a subscription through 2020.

    By the way, does linking to a video produced by Iowa State count as the Register's video of the day?

    Iowa is THE caucus state right now. I can wait hours to find a story on the Register that I can find almost instantly on small town newspaper sites (sans typos). Same goes for sports stories. I find myself going more and more to Iowa broadcast stations online for my news of the day and more and more they cover a story more in-depth.

    The reason I have subscribed to the Register for years was the substantive reporting it did the Peach (Iowa readers will know what I mean) and the human interest stories it provided that I could not find elsewhere.

    Forget human interest. The reporters don't have time. Forget substantial reporting. The reporters don't have time and, for the most part, there are few reporters left with any historical knowledge and the Peach is long gone.

    The paper has been Gannetized.

    And those of us who read it are the worse for it.

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  32. FYI- Tonight's the night- late press runs across the board. will put a show on tonight, things to come for the big paper this Wed. Several pressrooms are in on it.. Sorry circ.
    They want to stick it to us, time to strike back..o well. we still get paid, maybe lots of OT
    May the Press be with you boys

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  33. Believe it or not, USA Today operations/production center being shifted to Des Moines. Meetings being held this week; production folks in shock.

    What did the operation/production center involve? Was this printing of the paper or distribution of the paper?

    Jim, is this factual? Can you please comment on this.

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  34. 5:47...I live in Des Moines and use to work for the Register in a management capacity about 5 years ago. I concur with your findings...although being Gannetized occurred about 10 or 15 years ago.

    What I find humorous is Hollingsworth's (Gannett's) willingness to do an entire 180 from what they used to hold sacred & snub there noses at when they held the upper-hand.

    Before - Your submitted picture is not worthy of using. Today - All Comers Are Welcome - please snap a picture of your pot-luck dinner and submit.

    Before - Sorry, we are fair to all advertisers and cannot let your business promote itself by running your "Financial Advise" Article. Today - Please submit your information....our readers value your blog.

    Before - We will not pander to our advertisers. Today - "What type of story might benefit your business"

    Newspapers should be held in no higher esteem than any other business trying to turn a buck. Hard times have shown them for what they truly are.

    I think it's high-time they drop the pretense of being better and having higher standards than their media brethren. Enough with the candidate endorsements.....I can figure it out for myself without the help of your editorial board.

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  35. 7:10 I agree. Small town papers have scraped and scrapped for years by working with advertisers for mutual benefit....within reason. Large papers like the Register snubbed their noses at us.

    My how time have changed!

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  36. 5:47 fir someone who never worked for Gannett you're a pretty bitter guy. Me thinks thou protest too much.

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  38. I was at the same Martore ra ra meeting as 5:17. Huge waste of Time, unless you wanted to get her version of the world compared to dubow. On hindsight, in light of all the bloodletting in ad ranks, pretty fucking sleazy. If she wanted to inspire more fear, she definitely hit the mark.

    Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. We won't get fooled again.

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  39. 8:26 Please don't guess or reveal the possible identity of anonymous posters.

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  40. 8:57 I thought it was a great meeting. She is NOT CD. Maybe you're the one that needs to leave.

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  41. Jim....Diane Chambers - Cheers! Woody, Cliff, Sam Molone, Norm, Frasier.

    Jim, you need to be more well-rounded. Diane uttered "I think he doth protest too much" about thousand times during the show.

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  42. 9:03 Ooops. Here's the original comment:

    Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Nov. 14-20 | Your News & Comments: Part 5":

    Diane Chambers....err I mean 8:19
    I didn't sense anything bitter about the post.

    But if you had friends that suffered under Gannett you might have a little bitterness about their experience. Almost easier to go through it yourself than see others suffer.

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  43. Romenesko's new site debuts http://jimromenesko.com/

    Hope you dumped the Poynter medianews bookmark, got off their solicitation list and got off their godawful newsU email list.

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  45. What do you think of all the recent changes in Phoenix's ad division? Lots going on....promotions and departures.

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  46. 9:02. She is definitely not CD. You are correct. But you fail to realize the decision to cut more than 20000 employees under Craig's watch came from Gracia. She is the bean counter.the onlyway she could possibly rally the troops would be judicious cuts in the bloated ranks of management. And by getting revenue up for the first time in years.

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  47. 7:04 wrote: "Believe it or not, USA Today operations/production center being shifted to Des Moines."

    This sounds like it's part of the company-wide consolidation of printing and distribution into the new Gannett Publishing Services, led by Evan Ray.

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  48. When you say USAT operations/production center, do you mean prepress?

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  49. Yes. Pre press. The satellite room...

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  50. No, Martore is not Dubow. But let's also remember who was handing him the spreadsheets with recommendations on staff cuts. She's as responsible as he was for all of them. And any attempts to rally the troops while still planning more cuts is disingenuis at best.

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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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