Monday, April 16, 2012

April 16-22 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

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72 comments:

  1. At some point, Gannett is going to have to invest in their employees like other companies and professions do.

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  2. Nice job Furloughed workers of Gannett...Keep up the pay back...

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  7. Anonymous said...
    The Journal News and lohud with a pay wall and multi-platforms, what a joke. They can't even get the website right and they will have an app and website that you will have to pay for. I guess the NEWSDAY app commercials caused them to wake up.

    How ironic that it's announced on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic because this plan will sink faster than that ship.

    4/15/2012 6:18 PM

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  12. Sell your Gannett shares. more hollow bs ahead. underwhelmng 1q out today. more excuses, dubow style.

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  13. Anyone want to be entertained read the comments to the story about pay walls at the Asbury Park Press http://www.app.com/comments/article/20120415/NJNEWS/304150026/Enhancements-new-subscription-model-Press-APP-com
    Seems the readers aren't as dumb as Ganett would like to think and share the sane views as the average employee. When I say average I don't mean the Kool aid drinking, boot licking drones.

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  14. And yet,you all voluntarily stay!
    Do you need to get hit with a baseball bat to understand that you could be next,this week,next week,whenever!
    Just like Charlie Brown and Lucy..
    Come on Charlie run and kick the ball,I won't pull it out!And once again Charlie falls for it,and once again the same thing happens.
    Duh,layoffs again? Couldn't be!
    Could not happen again!

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  15. Jim, spambots have hijacked your comments section!

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  16. Gannett results down on advertising slump
    Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:44am EDT
    * Q1 EPS $0.28 vs. $0.37 yr-ago

    * Total revenue down 2.6 pct in line with analysts' forecast

    * Publishing advertising revenue down 8.4 pct

    April 16 (Reuters) - Gannett Co reported on Monday that first-quarter revenue fell 2.6 percent, dragged down by weak advertising sales at its newspapers, and earnings fell further.

    The largest newspaper chain the in U.S. said on Monday that total revenue was $1.22 billion, roughly in-line with analysts' average expectations of $1.24 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

    Publishing advertising revenue declined 8.4 percent to $551.4 million.

    Gannett, which owns several newspapers, including USA Today, as well as broadcast television stations, reported first quarter earnings per share of 28 cents, down from 37 cents per share in the year-ago period.
    ------------
    Gracia probably wants to buy back from stock today, so this is a great scheme to delate the price.

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  17. 8:46 "Could not happen again!"

    We keep thinking that about your inane posts, yet they keep popping up, again and again and again.

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  18. What a fool!

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  19. The Springfield News-Leader not only announced a paywall yesterday, home subscriptions will increase more than 25 percent, from 16.31 a month to $22 a month. Coin and store prices go from 75 cents to $1 for weekday, and from $1.75 to $3 for Sunday.

    I've been a newspaper subscriber all my life (I'm 55), but when the rates shoot up on May 1 I'm canceling my subscription. I can't see paying $264 a year for a paper that's a shadow of what it used to be; almost every senior news staffer has been laid off, has resigned, or took early retirement. There's almost no content left.

    http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120415/NEWS01/304150051/subscription-plan-rates

    P.S. check out the readers' comments, and the publisher's and editor's defensive comments in response.

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  20. Define “we” 9:18 AM.

    Try as you will, but I suspect the “we” you refer to pales to a much larger group of people who have continuing concerns about what Gannett will do next to shore up its shortfall in revenue and earnings, actions that will no doubt include more employee terminations.

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  21. I know the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill just lost a bunch of veterans from the newsroom, but how moronic and insensitive do you have to be to strip a story on the cover about a teen losing her life in a car crash directly above a center package story about hot rod racing at some drag strip?!?
    Is there any news judgment left? Or did it all flee the building with those who took the buyout?

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    1. The judgement there left a long time ago and has just got worse!

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  22. Few business models, if any, work on pricing based on what a business “needs” versus what the actual value of their products can demand from consumers in the marketplace.

    Yet, Springfield “believes” and bets the franchise on the former as evidenced by the significant rate increases 9:53 AM writes about, increases many Gannett papers will obviously follow despite shrining content and page counts.

    Belief systems like those are based in fantasy as consumers long ago showed what they’d do with material changes like those….they flee.

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  23. This was the company that Rob Gatto said was in chaos in his ill-fated note to the sales reps at pointroll. Looks like DGIT just took Pointroll's largest client/agency. Seems like DGIT is feasting on Pointroll now!!!



    DALLAS, TX--(Marketwire -04/12/12)- DG® (NASDAQ: DGIT - News), the world's leading ad management and distribution platform, announced today a strategic partnership for deeper collaboration in advertising technology between MediaMind, its online unit, and 24/7 Media, WPP's marketing technology company. Under the agreement, 24/7 Media will endorse DG's MediaMind as a preferred vendor for third-party online ad serving and TV ad delivery for agencies and advertisers to their clients worldwide.24/7 Media, formerly 24/7 Real Media, is GroupM's technology partner.
    MediaMind's capabilities complement the technology providedby 24/7 Media to many of GroupM's clients. In combining their capabilities, MediaMind and 24/7 Media will work to build a stronger integration between their online advertising platforms utilized for rich and standard media, video, mobile, dynamic creative optimization, analytics, and reporting.

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  25. I will immediately snatch your rss feed as I can not to find your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please permit me understand in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.

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  26. In today's edition of USAToday...

    "More American workers sue employers for overtime pay"

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/story/2012-04-15/workers-sue-unpaid-overtime/54301774/1?csp=ip

    Of course, Gannett does not disclose that they do this themselves.

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  27. 10:00 AM - YOU obviously don't spend much time reading this blog.

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  28. Pointroll sales4/16/2012 12:41 PM

    Pointroll has the same partnership

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  29. Per 9:53 AM, I took a look at the comments on the SNL story, and they are telling. In particular, check out the responses from the pub and EE:

    "We believe we bring more local and unique content to our readers than any other news organization."

    "We continue to have more reporters and photographers on the street than any other local news organization."

    "We believe our content is of high value."

    "The News-Leader strives to give the most local, unique content in the market."

    On the one hand, I commend senior management for responding personally to reader comments. On the other, it's clear from those responses that someone with marketing acumen needs a voice at the highest levels of the company.

    Look at how the change, and its justification, are being presented: product features, rather than customer benefits. That's Marketing 101, folks, and I learned it reading a college text in 1983. Although Gannett has been notoriously unwilling to invest in or even recognize an interpretation of marketing that did not equate solely with advertising sales support, it is still dumbfounding to me that no marketing strategy is apparent in one of the company's key initiatives over the past two decades (i.e., widespread implementation of paywalls). Not even at USAT is there a strong effort at creating consumer-side pull for paid content. And this is at the company flagship, whose genesis was grounded in marketing research and market-centric product development.

    Where's the CMO (i.e, besides MIA)? She's had a year to come up with something concrete that was not a rehash of the existing work. Anything at all to be seen? And Hunke's "transformation" for USAT? We're at the two-year anniversary of its launch and, other than a bloated management team and decimation of content creation and ad-sales staffs, there's no payoff evident ... besides diminished payroll.

    It's been a year since I left Gannett, and I cannot help but remain riveted at the continuing disaster unfolding on Jones Branch Drive. What a sad dereliction of duty on the part of that seven- and eight-figure C-suite.

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  30. Jim has repeatedly shown with his deletions that he doesn't want a balanced conversation. So much for editorial integrity here, he's worse scum than the rest of you cowards.

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  31. Gannett could learn a thing or two about paid content from this blog. Look at how many are willing to send Jim cash, more or less unsolicited, because they VALUE the job he does.

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  32. someone saying-
    no way to any more layoffs!!!!
    You should have been taught
    NEVER say NEVER!

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  33. ATTORNEY'S INVESTIGATING POINTROLL TODAY4/16/2012 1:59 PM

    ATTORNEYS FROM OUTSIDE OF GANNETT ARE ALL OVER POINTROLL'S OFFICES INVESTIGATING ALL THE TOP EMPLOYEES AND ENGINEERS!!!

    SOME CRAZY SHIT ABOUT TO HAPPEN...STAY TUNED!!!

    THIS MIGHT BE SARAH RIPMASTER'S LAST DAY!

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    1. That'll be great. I'm sure you got a bunch of other $15 million dollar accounts lined up so who needs her.

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  40. 10:03 AM

    Cherry Hill has been devoid of good judgment for some time now. The last good journalists just forgot to turn out the lights

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  43. Here's a strong tip when interviewing. Always refer to this blog when some of those tough questions come up. I was sent out the Gannett door in January and in three of my recent interviews, when asked why, I explained that Gannett was collapsing in on itself and refered those interviewing me to Jim's blog (one even joined me while I directed her through it). All were shocked that conditions at Gannett have worsened to this point and the best part, none were at all surprised that I was let go considering the deplorable morale and environment of Gannett -- as well as the ineptness of the leadership...or complete lack thereof.

    The best part, I received two offers this past Friday and have made the decision to start with a new media company (and have been told that I will appreciate a better, cooperative and more appreciative environment than Gannett has been for the past eleven years).

    The moral of the story -- THIS BLOG CAN BE ONE OF YOUR BEST REFERENCES WHEN INTERVIEWING FOR NEW POSITIONS TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU ARE NO LONGER WITH GANNETT OR DESPERATE TO LEAVE. USE IT! THANK YOU, JIM!

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  44. Jesus Christ our stock is sinking like a rock.

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  45. Dear 1:11 PM:

    Jim deleted a bunch of gibberish that was apparently posted by someone (or something) that was repeatedly cutting and pasting the text from the "Leave your comment" box.

    You can take your hating somewhere else - unless of course you're being paid to post anti-Jim trash on this site ...

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  46. 99 questions4/16/2012 3:00 PM

    What's interesting is that how the newsroom, excuse me, the content generation hive, is in a state of flux at APP. We have already had several Content Evolution sessions and assignments have been handed out for the May 1 roll out. But except for the "press on your side" consumer advocate reporter, no one knows what they will be doing. Do reporters, excuse me, "content generation specialists across many platforms", keep the same beats. (excuse me, passion topics)? No one has really said what happens to local news, excuse me, local content generation, under CE? We are hurtling toward a big question mark, but never fear as long as you believe it is all in reach.

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  48. @12:04 – I’VE been reading this blog since its inception.

    Look, 8:46 rambles a bit, but what you specifically take to task is their point more layoffs will come. In all seriousness, if you think they won’t given Gannett’s decreasing revenues and earnings, then you either don’t know much about how Gannett operates or you’re paid to pour its Kool-aide.

    So again, try as you will, but short of a disruptive change of its own to generate revenues ahead of what print continues to lose, Gannett will continue its “cost control and efficiency efforts company-wide” to make up for it, which is why 8:46 says run.

    Like it or not, it’s a point many should consider (especially those in GPS who recently learned news of yet another unpaid furlough).

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  49. Amusing that when there is unfavorable news from corporate there is a much larger percentage of comments that need deleting because of a myriad of reasons.

    If I could spell Machiavellian, I'd suspect intentional seeding of those obnoxious posts - either to discredit other comments by lumping them as the same veracity, or by creating doubt by requiring so many deletions.

    It seems like a lot of effort by someone to impress ... who, exactly?

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  50. 2:38, glad things worked out for you. But I'd seriously caution readers here from taking that advice to heart. If I were a potential employer and a candidate did the same, I'd have reservations about the 'disgruntled employee' thing -- regardless of whether the disgruntlement is justified. In this case, of course, it is. But if I'm hiring and I can't get an interviewee to play up the positive and put aside the prior-employer sniping for a half-hour, that raises questions.

    I was shown the door too after the same amount of time, and I always cast my situation with positives ("I had a great time and grew immensely, but times being what they are, all things come to an end ...") -- regardless of how sincere I was being.

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  51. Morale dropped when GPS was announced, the first quarter furlough pissed people off, and the second quarter furlough made us say enough is enough. I know that the time worked today is 1 day closer to me being able to get out.

    There is no way this is a $15 stock. I've seen homeless people happier than Gannett employees.

    Gannett, you reap what you sew. Every bit of this stock drop is deserved and then some.

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  52. Congrats to the AZ Republic for getting a Finalist award in the Pulitzers for the Giffords shooting.

    Sincerely,
    Another (ex-GCI ) Finalist!

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  53. THREE PULITZER FINALISTS

    IN BREAKING NEWS: The Arizona Republic Staff, Phoenix
    For its comprehensive coverage of the mass shooting that killed six and wounded 13, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, an exemplary use of journalistic tools, from Twitter to video to written reports and features, to tell an unfolding story.

    IN EXPLANATORY JOURNALISM: Tom Frank of USA Today for his sharply focused exploration of inflated pensions for state and local employees, enhancing stories with graphic material to show how state legislators pump up retirement benefits in creative but unconscionable ways.

    IN EDITORIAL WRITING: Aki Soga and Michael Townsend of Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
    For their campaign that resulted in the state’s first reform of open government laws in 35 years, reducing legal obstacles that helped shroud the work of government officials.

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  54. So if 400 people took the first-quarter early retirement offer, I think that leaves maybe 300 people or fewer in the entire company who are 55 or older. That has to be well below 2%. No wonder the company is so eager to hush up the terms of its age discrimination settlements.

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    1. Nice try. All it means is we have a lot of 55 plus employees who don't have 20 years of service

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  55. The Enquirer did write a negative-investigative story about Chiquita several years ago. Mainly untrue, and unproven. Memory serves me that it got the owner involved. Story proven to be mainly untrue. Damages paid. Several people OUT of Jobs!! Since then, never a bad thing about their Cash Cows.....

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  58. Sorry Maura, only negative stuff gets approved on this board

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  59. It would be nice if Jim would highlight these Pulitzer finalists, which have buoyed, at least for a while, the spirits and pride of three Gannett newsrooms and the entire company.

    I know snarling about Deal Chicken is more fun, but these finalists underscore why we work in newsrooms to begin with.

    Congratulations to all. You have made us very proud.

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  60. Who cares stay tuned

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  61. Actually 12:45 it's because Jim deletes any comments that have substance or defend the company or it's management

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  62. Will being a Pulizer Finalist,ensure that they will have Gannett employment a year from now? Doubtful.
    Do you really believe this boosts moral when everyone is wondering when the next round of layoffs will be? Doubtful.

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  63. Not sure if the Chiquita comment has been addressed, but I believe the problem with that story wasn't that it was untrue, but that the information was gathered through illegally obtained voice mails. Big difference.

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  64. Yes, 10:21, but they did get a new press following that big payout while Shreveport, one of the top money-makers, continued to hear about a new press for more than 20 years. Having finally gotten one in 2010, all the hype and expectation is disappointing because the manuel is in German and those who operate it received minimal trainig and there have been problems on top of problems. waiting

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  65. 10:21's Chiquita comment is my recollection as well. It was more about the way the information was obtained than anything else.

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  66. Chiquita story involved ex-Journal News reporter Gallagher and Executive editor Larry Beaupre. They thought their s#$t didn't stink while at The Journal News and were above everyone else. Apparently, s#$t sinks.

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  67. 3:43, you completely misinterpreted my original post.

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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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