Saturday, December 10, 2011

Dec. 5-11 | Your News & Comments: Part 5

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47 comments:

  1. Louisville is printing the Indy Star, Orlando is printing Florida Today, then Florida Today is printing Orlando. Were are the facts, what is true and what is BS? O forgot, Tucson going to Phoenix, Gannett does not own The Arizona Daily Star, but does GPS still own the production facility in Tucson? Lots of question that need answers....

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  2. What's the word on the USAT production department in VA? Did they really receive pink-slips?

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  3. Do you think the once star of Gannett Production, who installed that waste of Iron in Detroit, now Publisher of Florida Today ( Mark Mikolajczky) allow GPS to close his baby? Does Mr. Mik. still have any pull with Mr Ryan, GPS Senior VP?

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  4. 5:19 Who cares about Michalobe light, he isn't much of a publisher

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  5. So, did USA Today production in VA receive pink slips?

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  6. 5:38 - The majority did, yes.

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  7. Jim any word on FT?

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  8. Any word on USA Field Operations?

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  9. All right, got these two emails today in Lafayette, Indiana. Any one knows whats up?

    Downtown staff:

    Please plan to attend a staff meeting at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the third floor conference room. News staff who attended the 4:30 Monday meeting need not attend.

    A significant initiative will be announced at that time.

    Not since the Berliner have we embarked on an adventure of this magnitude. It’s an exciting development and we strongly encourage you to join us to hear about this historic step forward.

    News staff who attended the 4:30 Monday meeting need not attend. I look forward to sharing this information with the remainder of the downtown staff on Tuesday.


    Gary Suisman
    President and Publisher
    Journal and Courier Media Group
    217 North Sixth Street
    Lafayette, Indiana 47901


    All,

    Please plan to attend a staff meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the upstairs conference room.

    A significant initiative will be announced by Gary, Michael, Nancy Jo and Henry at that time to News staff only. (The announcement will be repeated at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday for other J&C employees and those from News who are unable to attend Monday.)

    Not since the Berliner have we embarked on an adventure of this magnitude. It’s an exciting development and we strongly encourage you to join us to hear about this historic step forward.

    We’ll give you a hint: It’s infinitely more important than the second point-and-shoot camera we now have at our disposal.

    Thanks,
    Michael and Henry

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  10. Lafayette: My guess is that they're going paywall.
    Meanwhile, The Street has more doubts about the company, as short interest on the stock climbs to 11% with over 26 million shares short:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-09/largest-s-p-500-short-interest-as-a-percentage-of-float.html?cmpid=yhoo

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  11. I always found these kind of "teaser" communications for some gee-whiz meeting to be condescending and patronizing, addressed as they are to adults. But it was the same tactic at my locale.

    Frankly, I did not have time for their silly meetings. They usually had nothing to do with me, whatever "initiative" was trotted out was of the "Well, why didn't you just say so in the e-mail" variety, and the ego trip just put me and my colleagues behind.

    Hopefully that's all it is at 9:38's job: dogs and ponies. Although who knows anymore these days?

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  12. @9:38

    Nice: "We'll give you a hint." Everyone knows the company is in shambles financially -- no doubt people are fearing bad news will be revealed at your meeting -- and the writers of the email are treating it like a game. I agree with 9:59. Why not just say what's being done in the email, and then hold the meeting to give more detail and answer questions?

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  13. We are a marketing company, so we should market everything, including our internal meetings to 'roll-out' the conversion from Charmin to Cottonelle in the executive washroom.

    Though you have to admit, the above emails are 'infinitely' easier to understand than the ones from the Palace. About as informative, but at least they say something: "There's a meeting coming." Got it.

    (Though a small pet peeve. I could punch someone in the neck every time they use 'literally' when they're not being literal, or 'infinitely' when the range isn't infinite. Silly me.)

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  14. 3 people this morning, who should know such things, say there are no notices given to press people at Fl. Today that they are leaving as of 4/1. In fact they even brought one back to replace one who left. What makes people like 6:06 pm, part 4, say such things when not true? Either they are reporting something said to them in error or they are the initiator. Too many people are on edge. Too many people need their jobs regardless of what some think about Gannett. People should not repeat things in a forum like this unless they know it to be true.

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  15. 8:39 sounds right to me, I would of had people calling if it where true!
    If it happens let it flow on it's own we don't need the fools joke.

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  16. The big news is a paywall and it will be announced at certain sites next week.

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  17. Should it bother me that I am not the least bit curious what the memo from Lafayette is referring to? My level of disdain for this company has reached a new low. I am sure it is paywalls and I am sure those will be the beginning of the end of Gannett.

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  18. Good link, 9:51. Thank you.

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  19. What you can expect when your site goes "paywall":
    1) Lots of angry comments initially, including many who say they are done reading your content.
    2) A 60-80% drop in pageviews the day it happens.
    3) A very slow dropoff in viewership from then on, about 12% over the following year from those already-reduced numbers.

    I think it would be better to implement the Facebook requirement for commenting first; that would result in fewer negative comments to deal with when the paywall gets green lighted!

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  20. Just looking at the right rail tag column and noticed the top 7 tags. Interesting.

    This Just In (733)
    Real Time Comments (714)
    USA today (620)
    Executive Suite (616)
    Stock (545)
    Widows and Orphans (531)
    Layoffs (504)

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  21. 11:03 I remember when it occurred to me one day that it was time to create a layoff tag. It wasn't always that way.

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  22. So Jim, you're saying that if you'd have created it months earlier, it might be nearer the top tag now?

    Oh my.

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  23. I daresay without layoffs, few would be here.

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  24. 7:20PM, the posting that printing of FT was moving to Orlando was complete BS. Not saying it won't happen sometime in the future, just that there was no announcement or layoff notices at FT.

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  25. Gannett is consolidating all of their non productive sites. The Hubs were created with this particular thing in mind. This is why they separated the printing end of the product. The post office is headed in the same direction. Just hope that you are one of the more successful sites .

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  29. It's interesting. Well, not really. All this, attacking someone else, and not the statement. Too many X-boxes I reckon. You folks come off as being really young and slavishly insecure. Regardless, you have no objective debate skills at all. Just personal put-downs of strangers! Effin' junior high. I only mean to remind folks to please just get off the ego crap and discredit a statement, not a complete stranger. Is that impossible?

    No knows me here. My family. My wife. My work. How dare one presume this other tact of denigration. Really. Look at it some time.

    Within my free participation of this blog/forum, I have never denigtrated a single other participant personally. I deride corporate, but then again, they never post here.

    It's just so immature, so petty, when all one sees is jibes personal against people that in reality one might have a couple of beers.

    I'm an adult. And even in high school I could give a rat's ass about the some of this shit. Yet the blog serves a purpose, and I wish it would be respected at the only opportunity it represents, it's only "rasion detre" the fact that Gannett doesn't tell anyone anything.

    This is not a major concept.

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  30. 10:53:

    Let me explain something to you. If you want to know the cause of all of that, all you need to do is find the headshot in the rail.

    Jimbo lets this place descend into personal attacks and name-calling. He could have set the tone from the start, but he chose not to.

    This is not a major concept.

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  32. 1:13 I remove comments with name-calling ("lap dog"), including those comments meant to defend me.

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  35. There is no online forum, anywhere, that does not contain a certain number of incoherent and offensive comments that personally attack people.

    None. I challenge you to find one.

    We all know this. So why do some people clutch their pearls and affect to be all offended by this when it happens here, and pretend somehow that Jim condones and encourages it?

    It's ridiculous, and you know it. This blog is about as civil as anyplace on the Internet.

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  39. Why removed,nothing offensive.

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  40. out of curiousity, was Laura H instructed to frown and suck lemons all during the debate last night- while others around her did show smiles and emotion - she just looked plain miserable while sitting there - some coaching of being on network tv would have helped her....just saying....

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  41. The News Press cover story today (Every Day's a Gift) by Janine Zeitlin is beautifully done. We need to see more stories like this from journalists like her.

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  42. 12:23 It appears to be the same comment as posted too many times before. Please find a new perspective, new news -- something different. Reading essentially the same post over and over is boring.

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  43. 1:09, that's a a nice thing to share, but it would be more helpful if people mentioned the city and state of the newspaper. I know where some of the newspapers mentioned here are, but not all 81. (I'm guilty of that too sometimes, so this is a reminder to me as well.)

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  44. 1:09 is referring to The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.

    Is that Zeitlin story a print exclusive? I've searched and searched, but can't find it online. Can you provide a link?

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  45. The News Press does print exclusive every Sunday but
    It finds it's way online within a few days.

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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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