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Monday, December 19, 2011
43 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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We're now entering the annual news slowdown that spans Christmas week to New Year's Day.
ReplyDeleteMy impression as a job-seeker is that working under Gannett is generally even more miserable and senseless than the company I work with now.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone here have any experience with the news team in Appleton? I'm wondering if there are any exceptions within Gannett, or if executives are pretty much squeezing everyone to the screws.
Jim I sure read a lot of political commentarty here! I tried to put something in about me not having insurance anymore but was glad to have Obamacare coming forward and you would'nt post.
ReplyDeleteSo I did not submit any more political-now they are doing it and you put it thru
I don't think that is fair. You told me NO POLITICS! Are you flip flopping
If you post on this blog could you please keep it kind of simple- that long story paragraph stuff is weird, but easy to scroll over. short and sweet get read more than long and boring!
ReplyDeleteJust get to the point!
I wonder if a lot of Gannetteers who are waiting to get layed off will get their Christmas present from gannett.
ReplyDeleteThe "we no longer require your services"
line from some do nothing manager.
If so great!
And Merry Christmas!
Jim @11:39, yes, it's going to be a long week. The four day Thanksgiving weekend was deadly, and even this past weekend was bad. Plus many of the folks at my site have been/will be on vacation, either burning through days they couldn't use this year or off for the holidays. Just a few people left to deal with the lack of real news. Maybe we'll cover a few more live nativities to get us through.
ReplyDeleteHow much of the Gannett corporate tower side of Crystal Palace is on vacation this week and next? I'd say more than 60%.
ReplyDelete9:05....I think it's because the subject matter is about political coverage in the papers plus internal politics. It's that time of year!
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard of any price raises in the near future? The Orlando Sentinel is supposed to be going to $1.25 on the daily's and $2.00 for a Sunday between the 26th and the first.
ReplyDeletePersonally I thought we should have kept the daily's at $.75 and raised the Sunday to $1.75 or $2 back when it went to a dollar to capitalize on the coupon craze.
I think raising prices now with still high gas prices and a non-moving, low economy, would be just another nail in the coffin.
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ReplyDeleteJust received news that Mark Mikolajczyk has resigned as Publisher at Brevard.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on partisan political commentary here.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, there was a lot of discussion about The Des Moines Register's endorsement of Mitt Romney. I had tried to steer that discussion toward a separate post about The Wall Street Journal's characterization of the endorsement's presentation.
With that in mind, I'm going to be removing any more comments here about politics unless they relate strictly to Gannett or the news industry. Example: a particular politician's positions on the role of the media in democracy, or on the Freedom of Information Act.
11:15, maybe he's joining Craig Moon's venture.
ReplyDelete11:33 what venture is that?
ReplyDelete11:40: Craig Moon's plans to buy and operate four small North Carolina weekly newspapers with his business partner, former Gannett advertising executive Don Stinson.
ReplyDeleteWhat kinds of bonuses are the worker bees getting?
ReplyDelete@12:00 pm, Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Bonuses, I love a good joke. Keeping your job is the bonus, now repeat that over and over and go back to work before the overseers catch you!
ReplyDeleteNo he is going to work for a technology place.
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ReplyDeleteA blogger dissects Arizona Republic columnist Robert Robb's rosy analysis of Phoenix's economy, demonstrating how Robb is, quite simply, wrong. Robb has never let the facts get in the way of his cheerleading.
ReplyDeletehttp://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2011/12/phoenix-rising.html
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ReplyDelete1:46PM Rochester now has no Operations/Production leader but also no circulation leader except for very few district managers that are left.
ReplyDeleteBREAKING:
ReplyDeleteNYT selling all their regional papers to same company that bought the Daytona News-Journal:
http://www.poynter.org/?post_type=post&p=156625
3:06 If nothing else, this NYT Co. deal shows there's still a market for small newspaper sales. We don't know whether this sale came at a fire sale price, however.
ReplyDeletePlus, what kind if publisher is Halifax? Legitimate, or corporate chop shop?
Sarasota is not that small.
ReplyDeleteIt would be about 13th in the list of the 80 or so USCPs, by circulation.
Literally, is there a list? If so, I'd like to see it just for info.
ReplyDeleteJim, anything that is a LLC like Halifax is a chop shop. http://visulate.com/rental/visulate_search.php?CORP_ID=M09000004032
ReplyDeleteHere's what it did when it bought Daytona:
http://newspaperlayoffs.com/2010/03/the-daytona-beach-news-journal-48/
And they went after employee pensions:
http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/lawsuit/frtHEAD04012110.htm
Newspaper job cuts up 30 percent this year, according to Alan Mutter: http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThis blogger keeps track:
http://newspaperlayoffs.com/blog/
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ReplyDeleteWorking for Gannett - even USA Today - should be a last option for any journalist. In the old days, even though Gannett was hated by most journalists, there were one or two worse chains. No more. Gannett and USA Today are clearly the least desirable places for any hard-working, ethical journalist to be. Hear that young'uns. Stay clear of Gannett unless you're just looking for a year or two experience for your resume. Stay any longer and you risk being damaged goods in the eyes of other media companies that you might like to work for at some point. Stay even longer -- say into your 40s -- and you risk being laid off on a whim. And during your stay at Gannett, be prepared to work long hours for low pay (or no pay when it comes to OT). Unless you kiss a ton of ass, you will work every holiday, be expected to come in when you sick, and you will not be thanked for your efforts to fight your way into the office during snowstorms, earthquakes, etc. If you work at USAT, yeah, you'll have a nice building and decent chair. You'll also be surrounded by some of the most depressed people you've ever seen in one newsroom. The leaders in that newsroom are some of the most heartless and dishonest people you will ever meet in any profession. No, they aren't openly mean. They don't kick trash cans. They just have no ethics, no people skills and behind the smiles they will destroy the reputation of anyone who doesn't play by their highly questionable rules. The smaller Gannett papers have a bit more integrity than USAT but are miserably underfunded and always have been. The economy could make a miraculous comeback and Gannett would still run these community papers like they were cotton fields in the old South.
ReplyDeleteYou've been warned.
10:05 is what us do wrong about our honorable profession. They've spent their entire career telling folks more talented than they are the "right" way to do things in a negative, oh poor me approach. These same peers grew tirehalf hearing thatcreole day in and day out and they were finally marginalized. The guy never leaves the awful company because no one else will hire him and his attitude. Got that youngins?
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ReplyDeleteSusie's new integrity/trust/teamwork mantra will solve most of your complaints, 10:05. it may not improve core competencies, however.
ReplyDeleteA new Production Director is heading to Rochester, he is coming from a small daily in the mid-west.. any one have a clue. Should be an announcement soon, Bill Bolgers buddy
ReplyDeleteI dont get any sense that hunke and ellwood have any interest in improving editorial content. its all smoke and mirrors packaging. dont they knoe thats its the ptodu t that counts? You cant dress up a Yugo and pass it off as a BMW just by marketing it as such. Micek & Co., are you listening?
ReplyDeleteHere's what bothers me. How come so many of these digital initiatives have been so long in the works? It's like the complaint about apps. In the online world, things need to be implemented quickly, every week is lost market. Yet months and months pass and you hear about site redesigns and digital stuff "in the works." Instead of buying buildings and starting video production facilities, shouldn't the digital focus be on moving swiftly instead of leasing office space? They're talking New Media while still using a bunch of old media approaches. Forget about content (they certainly have). They aren't even backing up their big digital talk with any action.
ReplyDelete10:05am, your comments should be re-posted once a week on this blog, verbatim. 100% accurate. Take it from a long-timer who worked his butt off only to find out the hard way that that didn't matter.
ReplyDelete10:14 - everything at USAT is either "in the works", a "work-in-progress" or something they are "working on." We have very few plans to actually make an impact on the market, but at least we're "working". At least I hope so.
ReplyDeleteI retired two years ago, now working part time. I recently got a Christmas bonus from my employer and a cost of living pay increase from Social Security. Funny, getting in retirement what I couldn't get from Gannett in my last couple of years.
ReplyDelete10:54 Touche' 10:05 I feel so sorry for you and others like you.
ReplyDelete7:08 -- Haven't heard about new arrival, but B. Bolger is ex-Rochester production director, so he knows the territory and who might fit with Mr. Kane.
ReplyDelete