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Friday, March 23, 2012
52 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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Happy Friday!!!!
ReplyDeleteHave you filled out your anonymous survey?
ReplyDeleteReapplied for your job today?
Figured out the new new healthcare plan?
Looked at other life alternatives?
The things we have to deal with because our information centers are failing and our business partners are abandoning us.
Something must be very wrong. Hunke has failed to name a vice president for at least two weeks.
ReplyDeleteI did the survey. Was very honest, w/out being sarcastic. Wrote in that we cannot grow while cutting and cannot possibly expect customers to Pay more for less with pay walls. That we need to expand our newsroom, not cut it to the bone. Also said that moral is at a point that more rounds of furloughs would be absolutely devastating to our newsroom coming right after these buyouts.
ReplyDeleteStart cleaning out your desk. You now have a bullseye on your back.
DeleteWhy is Louisville hiring a Director of Advertising when they recently hired a new VP of Advertising? Seems like too many layers!
ReplyDeleteJim: Does an anonymous poster always remain anonymous thru you or do you give that info out to someone or anyone?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/02/the-seven-habits-of-spectacularly-unsuccessful-executives/2/Heed
ReplyDeleteIs it strange that neither Gannett's Management Committee nor the board of directors has one actual journalist as a member? For all the token appointments this company makes, could we have just one on either? Even a suck up ass kisser would be better than no one.
ReplyDeleteHas Gannett ordered all its outlets to mix religion and newsgathering? Yesterday the Daily Record (NJ) did a front-page piece on how pastors were pleased that Tim Tebow was joining the New York Jets. This morning, USAToday.com/sports blurbed a rant by Pat Robertson saying an injury to Peyton Manning "would be karma".
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of stuff that will drive away readers, religious or not. A non-Gannett daily in California folded in the 1990's because they adopted a fundamentalist slant to the news.
9:41
ReplyDeleteDo you understand how people get on the board of directors of a corporation? Find me any company that has a "journalist" on it's board of directors.
Around 10 people taking buyouts in CHL newsroom. How will they still operate?
ReplyDeleteThe Borg strikes again! Up in New England, the Burlington Free Press is bullying a local blog that embedded a video from the Gannett-owned daily.
ReplyDeleteThis is a toxic company. From top properties like USA Today right down to the smallest newspapers, this chain is horrible. I've worked at several Gannett papers and TV stations over my 25 years, and now it's time to get out. Probably should have done so 10 years ago, but I am voluntarily leaving now because I don't want to spend the rest of my life worrying about layoffs, dealing with the constant flow of lies from mid and upper-level managers, coping with less-than-competent new hires creating more work than necessary, etc. I am leaving this summer -- with or without a job lined up because staying here is no longer an option.
ReplyDeleteI have watched other once-mighty newspaper chains collapse. Newspapers are and always have been mismanaged when run by large companies. While Gannett has survived, I don't see how its luck will continue with the way it operates and treats its employees. I expect that Gannett will eventually sell off a lot of its properties, including USA Today which has returned to the days of being considered joke.
If you don't want to die young or get pushed out by Gannett when you've developed a few gray hairs (when it's harder to find work), I would get out now. Everything in life is a gamble. Don't let the illusion of a steady job in this company keep you from doing what your gut knows is right. This place is as toxic as it gets.
Oh yes, everybody is running for the doors screaming to get out. They just can't wait to tell their spouses why they gave up a good paying job. The kids will just have to understand it was all an illusion. Give me a break.
DeleteApparently, newsroom air conditioning has been out at the Courier-Journal for four days - in the midst of a record-setting March heat wave. Maybe not enough people volunteered for buyouts, so they decided to turn up the heat....although they are handing out free water. Magnanimous, ain't it?
ReplyDelete@9:41, 10:47 – Gannett seated Lou Boccardi, former President and CEO of The Associated Press (who earned his master's degree in journalism from Columbia University) to its board in 2003.
ReplyDeleteNow, the following isn’t commentary on Boccardi’s tenure, but board members do not need journalism degrees to be effective in their roles as respect for quality journalism, and the significant contributions that makes to this company, is what’s far more important.
Moreover, isn’t that what many of you really seek, respect for it and how if done right, Gannett will profit more from it.
Looks like GCI is trying to bolster sales of USA Today weekend. Healey's car review has been moved from Friday to Saturday and a lot of folks I know look for that car review column.
ReplyDeleteLooks like this is the reason that GCI thinks people will pay for digital content [url] http://www.freep.com/videonetwork/1524564474001?odyssey=mod|tvideo|newswell [/URL]
ReplyDeleteBanikarim gets a FEE to speak at all these useless conferences? Is that going back into the company to cover her abundant expense reports or into her pocketbook?
ReplyDeleteOf the people being offered buyouts that want to take it but are refused due to company need, how many will walk out anyway?
ReplyDeleteNone of them. They have mouth's to feed. Next question.
Delete20.The appropriate people will be deployed to the transformation effort – versus those resources that are simply available.
ReplyDeleteThe last clown to say that was red-nosed David L. Hunke with his 1,001VPs deployed to his Transformation bullshit. So this means that we're just "resources" who are nothing more than "simply available" and sitting around doing nothing...sort of like Hunke, Ellwood, Jones, Micek, Weiss, Frank, Banikarim, Motif, Consavage and Barrett.
You left out the biggest of them....Gracia Martore.
Delete941, you are forgetting that the company used to have CEOs who were actually fomer journalists. Many board directors also have some sort of experience as CEOs or experience in similar industries. The guy from PBS? Didn't have the same profit or delivery concerns.
ReplyDelete.
But I see your point. The poster does have a point about the makeup of Gannett's management committee. That is not made up of board members, but Gannett employees.
NONE have any real journalism experience. They are the ones coming up with the plans for this company. Not one has ever worked in a newsroom. That is indefensible.
9:13 asks: "Jim: Does an anonymous poster always remain anonymous thru you or do you give that info out to someone or anyone?"
ReplyDeleteAnswer: I don't reveal the identities of anonymous posters for one very simple reason:
I don't know the identities of those people, who are 99.999% of the posters here.
Purely from a technical perspective there's no way for me learn their identities, even if I wanted to; the publishing software I use, Google-owned Blogger, doesn't offer me that option.
From Day 1, this has been my goal: to create a safe place where employees can share information without fear of retribution so they can make informed decisions about their lives.
That wouldn't be possible without my promising anonymity.
Hey Martore, this one's for you and all the others making hell out of our professional and personal lives.
ReplyDeletehttp://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/02/27/bad-bosses-often-source-of-unhappy-unhealthy-workers-study-fin/
10:58 Encouraging other publishers to embed video is Social Media 101, because it extends the potential for viewership. That, in turns, boosts pre-roll advertising revenue.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Gannett's chief digital officer, David Payne, will rectify that as part of his plans to relaunch websites and put a greater emphasis on video production.
11:25 And, returning the "favor," the AP elected Craig Dubow as one of its board members; he's due to retire next month.
ReplyDelete11:55 There's something else interesting about that Lauren Stoner bikini video: The Detroit Free Press offers the code making it possible for publishers like me to embed the video on sites other than the Freep's.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why Gannett Digital has such an inconsistent approach?
12:01 Banikarim's accepting speaking fees -- if, indeed, she is doing that -- would no be unlike a Gannett employee freelancing articles; photographs; advertising art creatives, or other such services off the clock.
ReplyDeleteWhat's going on with the Cincinnati Enquirer Sports department? Did the sports editor and asst. sports editor really resign? What happened?
ReplyDelete12:41 According to one of my readers: Yes, they have left the Enquirer. But my reader didn't know why.
ReplyDeleteI've searched the forum at sportsJournalists.com, but haven't found anything there.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJim Healey's Test Drive is in today's (Friday), USA TODAY.
ReplyDeleteNot Saturday. Today.
Don't believe everything you read here.
@ 11:23-- temperatures in the CJ office have been 85 and above for the 4 days (including today).
ReplyDeleteHere's a fun tidbit-- we just got a tornado warning. Sirens were sounded. After our supervisors were informed it wasn't a test they decided they'd rather us stay in our desks. You know. The ones near big windows.
Assistant leaving Enquirer sports over a day care issue and editor leaving for some position at ESPN. Also very competent sports copy editor veteran leaving too after taking buyout.
ReplyDeleteShip sinking fast. Editor won't be missed. Been there less than two years and made no attempt to get involved in newsroom.
Regular baseball season starts in Cincinnati the weekend the two editors leave.
Gannett's president of sales reports to the chief marketing officer? Isn't it usually the other way around?
ReplyDeleteCincinnati SE is actually coming to work for us at FOXSports.com. He tried to make difference in Cincinnati but nothing he could do because (a) top editor didn't know what she had in him and treated him like a Gannett mule, (b) Daugherty is only talented writer on sports staff (c) zero depth on writing staff (d) too many middle-aged writers with no digital focus. Won't get anywhere near the caliber of SE of Forbis w/ next hire. Ship's about damn near fully submerged.
ReplyDeleteThe News Press - Fort Myers has been in Heaven this week with our HR Queen out of the office. Back to Hell next week! Can we give her a buyout?
ReplyDeleteWashburn treats everyone at all levels of the newsroom like a Gannett mule. Not to mention, the level of micromanaging she does is obscene. No wonder people are jumping ship left and right.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete5:55 we could lock her out like she does our feelings. How does she sleep at night?
ReplyDeleteFORMER GANNETTER - someone better look at how the finances are handled in Shreveport. There is some under handling going on.
ReplyDeleteHow would you know? You don't work there.
DeleteTnis company will be out of newspaper business by the end of 2013, so why would it want a journalist on their board of directors? I mean, what would be the point?
ReplyDelete5:55, How dare you speak of Gannett Royalty in such a manner. She does a superb job. I have never seen someone in such a role share private details of staffs lives with her inner circle quite the way she does. Not to mention she bashes those she does not like. Avoid speaking with her like the plague because if she knows half the building will know.
ReplyDeleteThis will prove to be interesting. In a message from The PC Publisher, she applauds the Gannett Wisconsin Investigative Team that uncovered 29 judges had signed the Gov. Scott Walker recall petitions.
ReplyDeleteUpon further investigation, it was also discovered that 25 Gannett Wisconsin Media journalists had also signed the petition. (Hey, yo! Remember those ethics quizzes we all had to take and pass?). Pretty much a violation of the Gannett ethics code. Those critical of the media are going to have a field day with this.
As to the micromanaging? Amen, 6:28 p.m.
ReplyDelete@12:53, too bad "Gannett" and "ethics" don't belong in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteThese people who signed petitions should be canned. period. i have never signed a petition, even before joining Gannett. Its just basic common sense when you are in the media. didn t any of these cheeseheads follow what happened regarding keith olberman and other media types?
ReplyDeleteThe FOXsports.com folks who hired former Cincinnati SE are in for a rude awakening if they think he will make a difference in anything other than his Facebook page. In 20 months at the Enquirer, he barely emerged from his office, managed to visit the newsroom one weekend night (the inaugural NASACAR Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway a year after his arrival)and failed to produce a single piece of enterprise. He can blame it on the same reporters that he praised in his going-out-the-door note, but the fact is he was one of the most ineffectual employees, not to mention managers, to work here in years. He will not be missed. Compare his farewell with what he told his new bosses and decide if this is the kind of guy you would want to work for. We only pray that the new SE is not of his caliber.
ReplyDeleteFarewell from Forbis
By April 4, I’ll be on the road to L.A. I’ll be joining Fox Sports as deputy managing editor in charge of ego writers. That’s not the exact title, but it’s kind of what I’ll be doing – working with the best writers on the biggest stories, doing big coverage and things that are important to a mega-sized company. I’ll be working with Jason Whitlock, Jen Engel, Bill Reiter, Greg Couch, Reid Forgrave, Mark Kriegel and A.J. Perez, not to mention a bunch of old friends. It’s a talented group, the job pays pretty well, and, uh, it’s L.A., so I’d have to consider it even if everything were perfect here.
It’s not, of course, but you know as well as I do the challenges we have faced and the challenges you will continue to face.
I want you to know how privileged I feel to have worked with you. I’ve worked with a lot of great sports departments. I don’t know of any who did more with less. You guys are better at just plain getting it done than any group I’ve worked with.
Thanks for your patience when the new guy walked in with a lot of crazy ideas. Thanks for not being dismissive of alternative story forms and pop culture features and just trying something new.
I hope you’ve had at least some fun while we’ve battled the dragons. Please know that I’m in your corner now and forever, and if I can ever help you in any way, don’t hesitate to call
Original post
Anonymous said...
Cincinnati SE is actually coming to work for us at FOXSports.com. He tried to make difference in Cincinnati but nothing he could do because (a) top editor didn't know what she had in him and treated him like a Gannett mule, (b) Daugherty is only talented writer on sports staff (c) zero depth on writing staff (d) too many middle-aged writers with no digital focus. Won't get anywhere near the caliber of SE of Forbis w/ next hire. Ship's about damn near fully submerged.