Sunday, April 08, 2012

April 2-8 | Your News & Comments: Part 6

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59 comments:

  1. I thought the lay offs were over. All I read about here are buyouts, and layoffs. What ever happened to we are implementing these furloughs to avoid any further layoffs. Well they are still laying people off, and out sourcing jobs. I am concerned because it is still a tough job market. Does Evan Ray even have a clue what he is doing? You and the underlings beneath you don't care about the loyal hard working people that get the community to buy the paper everyday, and provide excellent customer service. All you want to do is cut expenses. You don't know how to run a newspaper, and even less about how to be a human being.

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  2. Good Morning Friends...I am still with the company, but within the past year, I have moved to a new area of Gannett. I actually got a promotion!

    I waited for enough separation between my prior job and my current responsibilities as I did not want to post too soon after my move to a new division for fear of exposing the My Boss posse.

    My Boss focus will be more business unit level than corporate and will have a bias toward digital, with a sprinkling of USCP. Let me tell you, there is even more disfunction and corporate waste in this new area that every employee and shareholder would be horrified to learn.

    Happy Easter!

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  3. 7:14, no, the process never ends. I survived a reorg earlier this year only to get the boot a little later due to another ongoing con$olidation. Always watch your back.

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. Hhhhmmmm, the original My Boss did not misspell words.

    We shall see what comes from this one, I guess.

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  6. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? Won't get fooled again!

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  7. The old My Boss didn't use exclamation points, either.

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  8. You goofs, the only way to somewhat track veracity is to watch writing styles. You don't share a poker player's tells with him!

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  9. What a farce. Enquirer editrix Carolyn Washburn has donated a lunch date with her to an online auction to raise money for a journalism scholarship in the name of the late Jim Knippenberg. Not exactly a mob of people scrambling to bid on it. The lunch as an "estimated value" of $75!!! (Hmmm, is that her hourly rate, which would make her annual salary $156,000??). The auction asks for an opening bid of $25, but no takers so far. Nor for the "Buy Now Price" of $125!!! If you want to make her feel wanted, enter a sympathy bid: http://tinyurl.com/7yeavut

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    1. Talk about a snooze fest.

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  10. Kudos to whoever assigned Doyle to chased down the etymology of rearranging deck chairs. Congrats to all in the editing process who restrained themselves from making a Gannett reference:

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-04-07/titanic-rearrange-deck-chairs/54084648/1

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  11. It does appear to send the wrong message 12:02 PM in that members of the media can literally be bought – and, cheaply so far.

    BTW, Washburn’s predecessor would have yielded a minimum starting bid of $120.

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  12. Re: Washburn. Good lord, people. That kind of bid-to-have-dinner-with-the-editor thing has been a standard way to raise money for charity for at least 30 years, everywhere I've worked. As I used to tell rookie reporters, just because it's news to you doesn't make it news.

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  13. Ok my Boss, give us a detailed example of Corp. waste

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  14. Jim, Why do you remove posts that are not to your liking, or about GPS division?

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  15. @1:17 -- Thirty years ago, people actually respected newspapers.

    Today, not so much which is why selling access to the editor to raise money has well exceeded its time as people are already cynical enough about newspapers and their perceived biases, no need to feed that even more for the few coins it will raise.

    Of course, a seasoned pro like you will no doubt need more prodding, so consider this: what do you think the community would have thought if Liz Rogers (http://tinyurl.com/86dc3mq) had paid $1,000 to win lunch with Washburn a few months before news of her financial mismanagement broke, a story the Enquirer ignored until Rogers appeared in court a few weeks later for it.

    Again, the few coins this will raise are not worth further harming this newspaper’s (and this industry’s) already declining credibility with its readers.

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  16. Not trying to start rumors but I was told that USA today is on the market for a buyer. Can anyone confirm or deny this? It sure would explain a lot of their high quality News room buyout offers. Have you heard anything Jim. Something is definitely going on here. I'm sure the employee will be the last to know !

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  17. We think Banikarim is going to buy it with all the dough she is pocketing from her guest speaker dates.

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  18. That is complete b.s.

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  19. Here's an example of content that Gannett wants to put behind a paywall:

    It was a rushed promotion and production, admits the South Plainfield Zumba instructor. At best, I figured wed raise about $500. In fact, Id have been happy if wed raise that much. I never imagined wed exceed it by 300%.

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  20. Hey, that story is missing alot of them commas that hang up in the air by the d's.

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  21. Whether or not you are at all religious, this is a weekend in which I hope all Gannet Blog supporters make time for family and good friends. Most of us are having very modest get-togethers, but the point is to take solace in the people who love you.

    Thanks, Jim, for a place where we can vent - and voice support for one another. Hope your weekend is a relaxing one, too.

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  22. Looks like someone smoked too much wed.

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  23. Looking at the main news page on the Cincinnati Enquirer's site...and there's no news. A bunch of photo galleries, quizzes, and other crap. Have all the reporters been fired? Is there no pride left at that paper?

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  24. No way, 8:34. Just finding that the best way to cope with a dead end job from hell and the sadistic people who run the place is to keep my personal priorities straight.

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  25. Did your newsroom sycophant make the Editor & Publisher magazine's top "25 under 35" list?
    Here are the requirements:

    1) Printed paper must be at least 25% smaller than 3 years ago.
    2) Newsroom must be 10% smaller than last year, at least 50% smaller than the beginning of your tenure.
    3) Shameless self-promoter, with style points awarded for lying.
    4) Must be despised by at least 97% of those who report to you.

    E&P lost its credibility a long time ago with its many slanted horn-tooting articles. No self-respecting dead tree would want to end up with its ink stain.

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  26. http://www.pnj.com/article/20120408/NEWS01/204080327/Richard-Schneider-we-say-goodbye-11-our-best?odyssey=tab


    11 more employees booted.

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  27. There's no pride left in any division or any product of Gannett. We are all pouring our talent and time and careers into endless crap. We have become the laughing stock of not inky the news industry but many other businesses.

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  28. 9:32. If you want news from Cincy, may I suggest you buy a copy of Streetvibes twice monthly from one of the street vendors? It's good, and the vendors keep most of the money. They are homeless and formerly homeless. Street vibes digs deep, and I've found it's well worth the 2 .00 monthly investment.

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  29. Fine feature writing by Mike Kilen on the front page of today's Des Moines Register, and a reminder that we can choose how we respond to adversity.
    http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120408/NEWS/304080043/The-Last-Sermon-Dying-priest-teaches-others-how-to-live?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

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  30. In fairness to Carolyn Washburn, no one has bid on ANY of the lunches with Cincinnati Enquirer journalists which include the political reporter (who just took the buy-out), a business columnist/reporter, the TV/media reporter, two arts reporters/critics and the food editor/restaurant critic (you'd think the latter would be the most tempting).

    The auction doesn't end til April 30 - so still plenty of time left and people generally do not bid until the last minute in most auctions.

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  31. Top news headlines today in Salem: Service with a smile and Beginner bags his egg limit at hunt.
    Bring on the paywalls!

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  32. usa today has breaking news story, mike wallace from 60 minutes dies. clicked on photo link to show my daughter, pittsburgh football player mike wallace shows up...come on

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  33. 7:10 p.m. I'd love to relax this "weekend," but it's hard since I work every "weekend." Thanks for the sentiment, however!

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  34. USAToday has been on the market for years. There has never been a seriously interested buyer.

    If Gannett had a buyer, I'm sure they would sell it.

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    1. That is simply not true. It's a myth.

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  35. Would somebody tell me what that "thing" in my paper was imitating USA Weekend? Talk about small! I guess they're running it on a commercial press and not a regular press to get it so small.

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  36. Good point about Editor & Publisher. It's a joke. The entire staff (including editor Greg Mitchell, who knew his way around the industry, and Joe Strupp, who was persistent if nothing else) were let go more than a year ago. What you see are reprinted news releases or unmarked advertorial.

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  37. It's fascinating how unaccomplished "journalists" consider themselves experts about other journalists and publications. I'd love to see some examples of your spectacular work.

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  38. For those who don't know, the entire Newsgate and e-mail system is down Gannett- wide on Sunday afternoon. Still.

    Publishing to the web is hit and miss and publishing any papers is in question. A summit of techies is working on it but it is feeling scary.

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  39. Wow. USAT remote e-mail and vpn have been down all day. Guess those cuts to IT kinda make a difference, don't they? Especially, you know, for a digital company.

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  40. No info on today's major IT disaster?

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  41. 2:07 That was about the size of my Sunday paper that was $3.00.

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  42. Easter Sunday afternoon and apparently there are NewsGate issues companywide. Wonder who would get blamed if none of Gannett's papers were able to publish Monday?

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  43. And some of them may not.

    Congrats Gracia -- you have found out how much you can cut before the product can't even get out the door.

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  44. Rest in peace, Mike Wallace.

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  45. In the IT world, to put all of your eggs in one basket is suicidal!

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  46. 8:22, even at home I have both disparate and redundant tech, each. And Gannett, it's this huge corporation still hookin' up the cheap deals, glad-handing, pocketing more cash the only goal. It's rank negligence. I admire good management and strategies of quite a few companies. Gannett's stewards have not been among them for a long, long time. One would think they would kinda ask for input if they were that clueless. But then that wouldn't be this gang of pompous jerks.

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  47. 8:22 and 8:51 I second those thoughts. We knew it would come one day. We just didn't know when and to what degree. The only thing they know how to do is put money in their own pockets like school children who never grew up nor learn to value those around them. They are children with too much responsibility.

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  48. I no longer work for Gannett.

    Anyone else quietly wondering whether the system outage could be sabotage?

    I used to wonder when things like that happened at other Gannett newspapers where I worked.

    Everyone knows that even novice IT personnel can make this happen with hardly a trace of evidence. It's much easier to do from the inside versus after you've been laid off.

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  49. it's called the consolidation Virus.
    No sabotage required.
    As others have said "all eggs in one basket"

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  50. USA Today used to have a "business continuity plan" that was talked about a lot, with redunant computer systems backing everything up @ remote locations. We don't hear about that anymore. Does anybody know if that got axed in all the cuts?

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  51. 10:39 PM,,,prolly couldnt afford that and dubows 30 million gift....but hey...I get to take another week off with out pay so it all works out.

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  52. @10:02: An incident illustrating the hazard of "putting all your eggs in one basket", happening on Easter? I can see why you would be suspicious. But part of me hopes it was truly an accident, a deliciously ironic accident.

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  53. Looks like about a 20 hour e-mail outage, which seems back up now, not sure about the rest of the other crap like snoozegate....

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  54. E-mail via OWA still dead in the water.

    I always wondered what prompted Gannett to go to Newsgate, a program that was barely in beta form, if that. Was it just cheap? Or was there some other reason?

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  55. 6:50 -- What happened?

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  56. 11:25. Three reasons.

    1. The buyer doesn't understand newsroom needs.
    2. It was cheap.
    3. It promised to eliminate jobs Bynum onsolidaring efforts across Gannett properties.

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  57. Their are ways to not get the paper out. And it is going to start happening at sites, more so than others. We had a bad night a few months ago were at several sites were very late, well this is going to happen again, very soon. Furloghhs = down time...lots of it
    FU Evan Ray

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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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