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Friday, November 11, 2011
37 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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Wow! Today is 11/11/11
ReplyDeleteShouldn't we begin a countdown to the end of the world on 12/21/12? A watch company like Timex or Bulova or Tag Heuer could have a lot of fun with this for the year we have left.
ReplyDeleteBTW - totally agree with you about Poynter and Romenesko. I lived in Tampa in the late 80s and early 90s, and Poynter then was full of smug, self-righteous people who thought (like a lot of those Occupy Xxxx people) a trust-fund would insulate them from real life. They should have taken Lt. Dan's advice and invested in that fruit company, Apple.
Our publisher hinted,"hinted"right,
ReplyDeletethat there would be cuts made in early December.
Are there similiar hints at other sites?
Nabors gets SEC inquiry into executive perks:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/10/nabors-aircraft-idUSN1E7A828S20111110?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssEnergyNews&rpc=43
I have unsubscribed from all of Poynter's numerous e-mail lists, and I am deleting Poynter from my bookmarks. I recommend everyone do the same thing because of the horrible way Romenesko was treated.
ReplyDeleteThe Romenesko incident is a journalism mugging. What a load of nonsense. Whoever this Julie woman is should be the one resigning.
ReplyDeleteThe Romenesko mess is an example of spending too much time and effort trying to be an "enforcer." Romenesko was honest, on point and frequently embarrassing to those who thought they could hide their deeds...exactly what journalism is all about. Great post by Steve today http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteIn the digital world linking and crediting the author is the point...only the print world gets hung up on things like quotation marks..
ReplyDelete11:27 It was also an example of rushing to judge. I don't think Poynter's Julie Moos talked to many people, like me, who Romenesko had linked to over the years.
ReplyDeleteIf she had, Moos would have learned that the vast, vast majority of us did not have any issues with Romenesko's attribution -- that he was always, always scrupulous in linking back to our work. That was a great source of attention and traffic for us.
But in rushing to beat Columbia Journalism Review to a story on the subject, she concluded (incorrectly) that she had a major scandal on her hands. And that's how she presented it to the world.
She could have spent just one extra day researching the subject, and then worked out a deal with Jim to adjust his attribution for the final seven weeks of his contract.
But instead, she wound up 1) Looking terribly uninformed 2) Offending a large and important constituency, journalists, and 3) Prematurely ending a critical relationship with Poynter's No. 1 traffic draw: Jim himself.
And now, she's getting no doubt unwanted scrutiny of her own professional background: i.e., the woman running Poynter's online activities, Moos, has a very, very, very thin journalism resume. Sadly embarrassing for her and her employer.
Finally, Poynter will soon have to remove Jim's name from its site -- that's part of his contract with them -- and then Poynter will have lost its most important brand.
What a sad, sad turn of events.
Wow, just read the Romenesko blow-up:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/152838/romenesko-resigns-after-12-years-at-poynter/
Doesn't sound as bad as the tar and feathering Gannett gave me.
Jim, when the other Jim starts up his new blog, please post a link so I can be POYNT-less.
Deleting Poynter from my bookmarks too (though it was listed under Romenesko!). Won't be going back. Wonder if they care about a drop in page views.
ReplyDeleteThe decimated Courier News had to use an AP story based on Star-Ledger reporting to cover the death of a longtime local legislator who died days after winning re-election. Not so long ago, the S-L was cribbing breaking news from the CN.
ReplyDeleteJim, your 11:27 comments are spot on. Now the Poynter faculty have posted their own pro/con Romenesko essays. For the most part, they look out of touch. A few days in any executive suite, newsroom or with ad/mktg salespeople would give them some real ethical and practical issues to deal with.
ReplyDeleteBut like most toothless journalism groups, they won't bite the corporate hands that feed them, even if it's just scraps these days.
This fiasco reminds me about how easy it is to get smeared by an employer these days.
Romenesko did not start out making big bucks at Poynter and earned way his to a handsome salary over many years of seemingly 24-7 work. I will follow him to his new blog and click on his advertisers.
I want you to know that you are appreciated too and you'll get my contribution of $20 asap.
@4:24 p.m. I have to call bullshit here. I'm no Star Ledger fanboy but when the fuck did anyone ever crib anything from the Courier News? That paper needed to be put out of its misery a decade ago.
ReplyDeleteAnyone outraged by Poynter's shabby treatment of Romenesko should boycott Poynter's NewsU. They claim 200,000 registrants, but how many ever took a seminar? I took a couple and found them to be mediocre at best. Poynter/NewsU got a ton of money from the Knight Foundation. Ads on Romenesko are small potatoes compared to what NewsU rakes in. Signing up for NewsU is what passes for training these days for companies on the skids like Gannett.
ReplyDelete@5:26, I agree wholeheartedly that the C-N stopped meaningful local reporting a long time ago. I'm sure JJC will cotinue to write his meaningless columns and not focus on, to his thinking, his secondary duty as newroom editor. How humiliating that the C-N gets beaten badly about a prominent and long-serving local politician passing away the same week he is re-elected.
ReplyDeleteYou guys need to get off JJC's case. The Asbury Press, our "state" newspaper, didn't have the story either. It was on mycentraljersey.com as breaking news...we do want to head to digital don't we?
ReplyDeleteWhen the Occupy Wall Street gang was passing through our area yesterday, HNT didn't get pictures. They took photos of people waiting on the street for them to pass and just said they were 2 hours late. The OWS people were walking south on Route 27 all day. The photog could have driven north a two or three miles and easily found them. Can anyone spell LAZY?
ReplyDeleteNot something I'm happy to report, but have to observe that every ad I've seen on Gannett Blog tonight has been Medicare related. What does this say about Google Sense analytics and what they've determined about GB audience?
ReplyDeleteAlso says a lot about who Gannett is screwing around and thus sending here!!!
ReplyDeleteIt says the users of the blog are the same audience who read (less and less and less) newspapers.
ReplyDeleteI notice another prevalent ad is for education, as in re-education after losing your career job because the career is burning away faster than a Chevy Volt.
Kids, Google Sense tracks more on you, than on site metrics. I'm 40 and I never see Medicare ads but I do see plenty of stuff related to where I travel on the web - politics, newspaper sites, and things in my zip code.
ReplyDeleteThank god it ignores the porn... wait - what, ANOTHER Cialis ad?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteContingency plans for staff reductions.
ReplyDeleteWe have heard the same thing.
Anyone else?
For an institution declaring itself the industry standard of journalism ethics, I find this sentence an stunningly misleading whitewash of reality:
ReplyDelete"A handful of writers agreed with Poynter Online Director Julie Moos that Romenesko had used “questionable attribution” in some of his posts. But many defended Romenesko’s practices, and several criticized Moos’ handling of the situation."
Let's edit that one for accuracy, OK, Mr. Hochberg?
A (handful) COUPLE of writers agreed with Poynter Online Director Julie Moos that Romenesko had used “questionable attribution” in some of his posts. But (many) NEARLY ALL defended Romenesko’s practices, and (several) THE VAST MAJORITY criticized Moos’ handling of the situation.
Why is he not accountable for his own attempt to disingenuously spin what clearly any reader could see was not the truth?
Even if nearly all of the people over there defended Romenesko's practices, that doesn't mean they were right. Nearly all of the people here are wrong about most of what they post.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete10:40 I remove comments that make fun of individual's last names. That means I also remove follow-up comments, since they then don't make sense.
ReplyDelete11:07 It's my impression that virtually all Gannett sites have contingency plans for layoffs on hand -- just in case. No one wants to put a possible layoff list together at the last minute.
ReplyDeleteFrom time to time, publishers, general managers, and other operating unit heads do update them, and that's what you may be hearing about now.
Not something I'm happy to report, but have to observe that every ad I've seen on Gannett Blog tonight has been Medicare related. What does this say about Google Sense analytics and what they've determined about GB audience?
ReplyDelete11/12/2011 1:17 AM
Hey 1:17 AM - the ads are targeted at YOU!
Has anyone heard anymore about the layoff plan at Florida Today?
ReplyDeleteFor those wondering about Christmas job cuts, over in the UK these are well underway. Here's a link talking about cuts at the Argus newspaper, with comments suggesting more in the Midlands: http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2011/news/christmas-job-losses-in-store-at-daily-newspaper/.
ReplyDeleteI'd expect more at other Gannett-owned UK centres too.
Why would we expect any less of a company that buys their CEO a new porche. While the rest of us are laid off before Christmas. Makes perfect sense coming from a bunch of selfish bastards. What comes around goes around. Some day the terrible things they have done will com back to haunt them. It's called Karma.
ReplyDeleteI'm the person who mentioned the medicare ads, and I am 15 years from Medicare. And ads I'm served on other sites don't skew that old and I never see Medicare elsewhere. Just reportin'
ReplyDelete- Proud to be an EX-Gannetter
layoff plan at Florida Today?
ReplyDeleteThere are more Managers than workers here now.How can they let anymore workers go?
@ 4:24. You should do some fact checking. The Courier News had an 7-year-run receiving the NJPA General Excellence award in the 1990's in its circulation category. As far as the Ledger cribbing C-N material, the man who covered Somerset and later Hunderton County government was notorious for constantly glomming on to another reporters interview. The man sat in a Hunterdon County freeholders budget presser and let reporters from the C-N and the weeklies ask all the question while he scribbled down the answers and collected a big paycheck. The man never asked a question even after being invited to do during that meeting. And there were worse scandals with this individual, who was at least smart enough to take the first round of buyouts at the S-L.
ReplyDeleteI am saddened to see the C-N become a shell of what it once was. But once upon a time, the Courier ran with the best of them and issued a few ass kickings in what Rich Leonard called "The toughest market in Gannett" until it's staff and soul were gutted by corporate.
Correction the above C-N post should have been directed at 5:26, who was replying to 4:24
ReplyDelete