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Wednesday, January 11, 2012
26 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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A bit about hotel circulation- There was a time when newspapers relied on hotel circulation at any cost, whether the occupied room guest read the paper or not, or stepped over the paper it counted for circulation. USA Today's concerns go deeper as mentioned in a Forbes article-http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2011/08/02/how-usa-today-slips-82-million-a-year-onto-your-hotel-bill/
ReplyDeleteCirc rules over the years have eroded these opportunities and hotels have had to deal with a drop in people finding value in the paper. Hotels rely on customer satisfaction surveys and guests do mention papers being left in the halls. While there are some brand expectations for upper end properties such as Ritz which is owned by Marriott, and some requirement to offer paper service to receive 5 Diamond ratings, the reality is a huge percent of USA TODAY's circ is simply given away to guests, whether they realize they may be paying for it on their folio or not. Newspapers are in new trouble when they can no longer give their product away for free.
Anonymous @ 1/10/2012 5:12 PM said:
ReplyDelete"Yes, regarding Ms. Ellwood's announcement that you reference, Davis came up with a proposal to the hotels for a digital/iPad USA Today product that also provided hotel services including check in and room service orders."
So, all Rudd could come up with in 12 months was buffing a proposal that Davidson, Webber et al. hatched more than a year earlier? Really? And he couldn't improve it enough for the hotels to show any interest? Well, shit, put him up on the 11th floor!
So glad I got rid of my stock! Hunke's management meetings must seem like the conference-room equivalent of a trailer park cookout.
There are still few posts concerning the 2011 Financial Reports.
ReplyDeleteEverything must be great in Gannettland! Revenues up across the board,budgets being met at every site!Life is good,your careers are all restored and once again safe for life.
Be happy ,Life is great here in Gannettland!
I'm really concerned about the people going day by day with the attitude well today was ok so it's all fine when the majority of the time they are miserable. They are vulnerable targets to layoffs especially since they are highly paid. WAKE UP!
ReplyDeleteThe holidays are over, but the Cincinnati Enquirer's only editorial writer seems to be on a two-day workweek. That's how many days a week we see a staff-written editorial in the paper. Nothing since Sunday. Only outsourced "guest" columns, syndicated columns and letters to the editor. Does it require an overpriced editor to sort through mail, choose letters and find people willing to write the opinion pieces that he's paid to write? Since Washburn and Buchanan are also on the editorial board, don't they have anything to say? Other than, that is, the self-serving tripe about the "improvements" going on with the Enquirer.
ReplyDeleteUSA Today iPad app looks great and works well. It is unconscionable that we don't have a similar app for every local paper. That said, the lead headline on the app right now is straight "Romney wins NH primary".. Old news. Got to offer more by this point.
ReplyDelete1:01 why are you bring up a story now which appeared last year? By the way, you might want to read my words at the end of the story.
ReplyDelete11:46,
ReplyDeleteI think their maybe a significant upfront investment for the development of an iPad app. For a "national" product, they can easily substantiate a return on investment. However, for regional newspapers, the investment in a regional- iPad app would not be wise... Only iPad and iPhone users would be able to use it... Meaning do you have enough iPad/iPhone users in a region to justify the investment. I think the standard web-site solution for regional products is the best solution for now.
FAQs on the paywall:
ReplyDeletehttp://jimromenesko.com/2012/01/11/gannett-paywall-faq/
Pierro, Cristiano, Patha, Laurence -- all talented employees grabbed by other divisions/companies. Sandra Micek should be senior vice president of Driving Away Talent.
ReplyDeleteTo: 11:31:
ReplyDeleteAs you note, Enquirer readers are being shortchanged by their editorial page. Hopefully, after all these problems have been pointed out we'll never see another ghost-written column under Margaret Buchanan's name touting improvements. What did someone say, the paper was 20 pages today? The sad thing is that she just doesn't care. Wasbhurn is equally to blame for gutting staff and veterans. At least she still has highly paid online people to put up those metro mix photos of half-drunk college students proudly showing their cleavage.
12:37 ought to keep up with what's happening regarding tablets & news.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible to achieve 90 percent of the usability of a dedicated tablet app simply by creating a website customized for tablets, using HTML5. It works with any manufacturer's tablet, iOS or Android. Once a template has been created, it can relatively easily be modified for other markets.
This isn't hypothetical; The Indianapolis Star has a pretty decent version up right now: http://tablet.indystar.com/
We are a more confused and disorganized company than we ever were before Hunks "transformation."
ReplyDeleteI have just been told that there are no raises this year. Normally I would find this posted all over the place, a memo from corporate, etc...I can't find anything anywhere. Just wondering if this is just local to Wilmington, or for that matter, my department. Anyone else not getting a raise this year?
ReplyDeleteAll that really matters is that we all keep getting our every other week stipend/paycheck.
ReplyDeleteManagement can ___________ the pooch as much as they want with this company. Just keep the money coming.
GCI closed at $14.73!!!!
ReplyDelete2:31 - Let me know when they close at $74.00, then I'll be excited. I have lost over $100,000 on the falling stock price and don't see any recouping of that money in my lifetime.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Sandra and Maryam have launched the new marketing campaign for USAT. The tagline is "News that's real.". Check it out on www.facebook.com/usatoday. What do you all think?
ReplyDeleteAck! I just called up the comments on this blog and they're in tiny green type with zero leading (that means scrunched together for you non-newspaper types)! Terrible! Is this a new design or did Gannett hired hackers to sabotage the board?
ReplyDeleteNews that's Real...as opposed to News that's fake?
ReplyDeleteHow lame.
These people have not a clue about journalism.
3:55 --
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is, Maryam and Sandra didn't make that up. USAT paid consultants about $1 million to do that. Maryam and Sandra either have very bad ears for taglines, or they don't read the newspaper enough to have any idea of what it's about. I suspect both are true, with the latter being the most important part.
You have to wonder what the alternatives to this fucking lame slogan was.
ReplyDeleteI could come up with a much better slogan for a lot less than $1M.
ReplyDeleteExamples:
GANNETT: More with less, more or less
GANNETT: Investing your money in our executive's retirement funds
GANNETT: An overworked employee is a happy employee (because he still has a job)
GANNETT: Your discretionary income - it's all within our reach
Hey corporate, you already have my bank routing number, hah!
Jim why no post that GCI stock has been up every day this week? Aren't you happy for us?
ReplyDelete9:20 - Up, compared to what?
ReplyDeleteOh? You weren't around when it was at $90?
9:20 - It's hard to get excited when it always comes back down again a few days later. Here we are on January 13th at 1:06 p.m. and it's down .19. When it gets up to $75.00, I'll start getting excited about the stock price again and become a firm believer in this company's success.
ReplyDelete