Wednesday, January 18, 2012

First: Moms Like Me. Then: Metromix. What's next?

Chief Digital Officer David Payne appears to be triaging Gannett's portfolio. Moms Like Me is gone, and Metromix is being absorbed.

What other digital ventures might be next?
  1. The Bold Italic
  2. ____________
  3. ____________
  4. ____________
  5. etc.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

19 comments:

  1. First they came for Moms Like Me, but I said nothing because I wasn't a mom.

    Then they came for Metromix, but I said nothing because I wasn't a cleavage-baring twentysomething.

    Then they came for BNQT, but I said nothing because I had other sources of lite quasi-porn.

    Then they came for me, and there was nobody left to say anything.

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  2. Anything they take from the local level and try to make a national footprint with. Moms was doing great as individual sites in each market. GMTI thought they could improve on that.

    My guess is High School sports will soon follow. Ech site had it's own niche and passion for High School sports, GMTI thought they could improve on that. Now we don't care about it because the product is terrible and it makes us look bad. If they don't care, why should we.

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  3. You're giving GMTI waaaaaay too much credit. They don't do anything there unless directed by someone at corporate. GMTI doesn't make decisions like "we can improve on that."

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  4. Here's a second vote that High School sports is a good candidate to be jettisoned.

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  5. Metromix isn't getting shut down; it's getting streamlined and solely-owned by Gannett. Huge difference.

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  6. NOT My Boss, but great intel1/18/2012 7:12 PM

    So, this is a great strategy by the new digital chief and Martore. It looks like they are closing down more digital investments, then they are starting new ones!

    Mark my words!!! GannettLocal AND Deal Chicken will be gone in another 12 months.

    Both of these "concepts" are performing miserably! If anyone thinks differently, show me the numbers as I have seen BOTH of their results and budgets and they are disasters!!!

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  7. Good call for Metromix. It was just a disaster from the start. Our own local young reader site always did better. This was WAY over due!

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  8. Not My Boss, but good intel1/18/2012 7:30 PM

    Failures to be announced:
    High School Sports
    Planet Discover
    GMTI
    BNQT
    Gannett Local
    Deal Chicken
    PointRoll (to be sold)

    Investments by Jack Williams:
    Cozi (true failure)
    4Info (still no real business model)
    Livestream (is that arrogant British guy still running that mess)
    Ongo (this is supposed to be the AP killer!)
    Topix (not relevant to anyone)
    QuadrantOne (closing by this year)
    Imaginova (when stars were important)
    MetroMix (tits, ass, and more)
    Homefinder (anyone ever hear of Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com?)
    Military Times (enough said)
    Classified Ventures (uh....hello Craig's List)

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  9. High School Sports.net = An absolute disaster.
    Many of you who don't work in Sports don't understand the mechanics of how high school sports stats are collected. Each paper does it differently. Each paper has its own market. The concept of developing a program that would make collecting stats easier and uniform across gannett sites is a good one. The execution was a disaster -- and so Gannettish. How about that for a new word? Anything that's all F'd up is Gannettish. The program absolutely sux and the idea that all gannett sites could be inputting results at the same time while using one server was just laughable. Total lockup.

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  10. 4:31 That's a distinction that means nothing to the employees put out on the street.

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  11. Not My Boss, but reliable intel said...1/18/2012 8:22 PM

    Failures to be announced ...

    Newsroom employees who don't understand their own company

    Within 12 months. Mark it down.

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  12. I sympathize with anyone who loses a job, 8:03, but putting people on the street doesn't mean the entire idea is a failure.

    Gannett must think otherwise, or they'd be getting rid of it.

    The idea of a successful business as one that only hires and hires never lays off is naive at best, especially in these times.

    Also, in b4 "corporate shill": Not a corporate crony, I don't work for Metromix. Not that you'll believe me.

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  13. The problem is the suits come to town and preach "LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL. That's what we have that the googles, and the yahoos want." Then they turn around and force a new product run from the mothership down your throat. I think they believe all of our customers are idiots and won't know the difference. You're trying to use our brand equity to sneak into the local market. What you're really doing is killing our brand.

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  14. HSS is what caused me to leave GMTI...


    but my sources tell me DealChicken is next. (yes, already....)

    do stay tuned.

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  15. Well, with the "deals" the chicken is offering in my area, I can't believe it's not already on life support. Six times a week it's been, "$10 for a $20 meal at Joe's Schlumphouse Diner," and honestly, most times it's a place I've never heard of, so it's probably not even in my city.

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  16. I love the new "Not My Boss"! Bravo!!!

    Jack Williams is milking this cow big time. Has anyone thought he should have been fired already? I do!

    Does he have something on Gracia Martore? Seems like it. She treats Jack with kid gloves.

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  17. ah, deal chicken. In areas where the economy is strong it is going gangbusters, which makes sense since the concept is based on people actually having money to spend. 2:19-if the deal is from out of town it is a corporate deal that must run and those generally don't do very well as compared to the local deals. They aren't 'local local locally' targeted and so they fall flat. But I think deal chicken is here to stay.

    Homefinder! 7:30-you are correct. What is the first thing you look for when looking for a home? Area, Area, Area. What can't you look up property by on Homefinder? AREA. If you want to live a specific neighborhood you cannot do a search using neighborhood on homefinder. You can use zip codes but that just doesn't cut it because many good and bad neighborhoods exist in identical zip codes. The 'advanced search' is pathetic as compared to other sites.

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  18. dealchicken will be next.

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