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Saturday, May 19, 2012
67 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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Headscratcher: Can anyone explain the Courier News, formerly of Bridgewater, N.J. running two front page stories in its Thursday edition out of Franklin, Somerset County? Circulation in that locality, according to the March 2010 ABC audit, is 672 (six hundred and seventy-two.)
ReplyDeleteNow that Kramer is here can we send Hunke and Ellwood packing? I hope they're not going to hang around and teach Kramer anything like how to transform.
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ReplyDeleteWarren Buffett's buy of Media General shows in a big way that there are buyers of newspapers in the nation's secondary markets, of which Gannett is king of the hill. Rather than managing for decline as it is only capable of doing, Gannett should hire an investment banking firm to solicit bids for its papers. For GCI directors, this would fall into the category of fulfilling their fiduciary duty to shareholders, who have no chance of recovering their lost value (about 85 percent since 2004) through any of the many variants of management's "transformation" plans. The papers belong to owners who will invest in local content and functionality and not suck out their lifeblood to support a corporate vampire that exists solely to perpetuate its worthless husk.
ReplyDeleteAs many companies look for ways to individualize or customize their products, Gannett takes its cues from Henry Ford... Let's find a way to create all the newspapers assembly line style so we can reduce the cost. Everyone does not want a black sedan and town or city does not want the same product. I suppose Gannett stock is falling because it is a tach stock like facebook...ha ha!
ReplyDeleteMarkets like Binghamton and Ithaca are probably similar to those bought by Buffett. The main difference may be that Gannett destroyed those newspapers by cutting and cutting and cutting.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, the coming wire news operation will make the local newspapers seem even more like assembly line products. And will taken even more control out of local hands.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why you are deleting comments about you and the quality of the dialogue/information here. You, intentionally or not, have made yourself part of the Gannett story. How can you allow people to come on here daily to defame people and spread lies, and not allow others of us to call bullshit?>
ReplyDelete10:16 speaks the truth.
ReplyDeleteThis should be a dialogue about the company and wat to do, not an attack pintarest board for people we don't like.
It is horrendous here. Jim needs to take a far more grown up approach.
Is there anything sadder than these would-be Woodwards or Bernsteins who hold themselves up as fearless and indispensable observers of current affairs — yet remain stubbornly clueless about the basic economics of their own livelihoods?
ReplyDelete11:38 How do you moderate comments on your blog about Gannett? I would like to see some examples, so I can do a better job on my site.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to post the address for your blog here; you can send it to me in an e-mail at jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com], and I'll keep it confidential if you wish.
Jim, stop dodging the point.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter what anyone else does. It matters what you do. And you stink at this.
Either accept it, or change. But stop offering the same weak excuses.
So when is GPS going to launch USAT in the berliner format. I herd The Lafayette paper in Indiana will start printing what indy prints nighty, in turn Indy will print the Lafayette paper, but the rumors that The Journal is done at the end of the month , makes sense. this will free up several hours of production time to accommodate USAT. Word is Lafayette is going to spearhead this on going change to USAt, and after that is worked out, Pressline services, will be contracted to convert several other GPS papers to the 3 around format, which is dam close to the Berliner size..makes sense. Estimates of cost savings in newsprint alone will be millions. All the VPs' can continue to get their bonus, and the furlough for the third Quarter will be announced next week , with other wide spread changes to the GPS organizational plan..stay tuned
ReplyDeleteJim
ReplyDeletewhats with the morse code in order to post, you can hardly make out the letters, takes like 5 times to get it right..who running this thing, GPS Tech dept:)
Jim, how's your multimillion-dollar, multiplatform media company doing?
ReplyDeleteBe sure to post some examples so Gannett can do a better job.
Gannett could dispose of properties in some markets, particularly where there is commercial property to shed. But you've got to remember that many information centers are still profitable. Not by the standards that allowed former class dunces to reap in big profit margins. But still profits.as long as there are cash cows to milk, the bean counters still se value in holding them. Any extra revenue they get by charging for web content is cream on the top.
ReplyDeleteSo buyouts are over and now layoffs are under way? Anyone have any idea how big? Or maybe not big at all? At least one position was eliminated Friday at The Arizona Republic, costing the job of one excellent photographer.
ReplyDeleteJim, I do run a blog, and it can be as fierce and ugly as all get-out if I let it.
ReplyDeleteBut I have a zero tolerance policy, and it seems to work. Comments are respectful now, without the vicious tone you (yes, you), have allowed and even encouraged here.
Blogs reflect the tone that is set, and you have set a tone of anything goes ugliness that so undercuts the worthy aims and needs of this site.
You could require people to register with a user name. They would still be cloaked, but if they got out of hand you could ban Alphaboy or whatever the person decides to be called.
There ARE ways to do it. This contunual "how do you run YOUR blog?" Response is prettylame
decides to
12:38 I posted that comment to illustrate a point.
ReplyDeleteAsking me to "take a far more grown up approach" is meaningless without supplying a more specific standard for me to apply.
Ultimately, moderating comments is just as subjective a task as editing a newspaper. What some would consider appropriate, others would find deeply objectionable.
Critics tell me what to do without supplying evidence that they are doing any better.
I write the post he deleted . I was attempting to demonstrate how repetitive these themes are. Yes it's Jim's blog but damn man take a little pride in your product. I like the blog but the same silliness day after day? Cinci sucks, Jersey sucks, Gannett sucks, Hunke, MB, Susie, Dickey, Matire are heartless. Isn't four years enough. It's all been said. Can't we ever move the dialogue forward? I'm sure in two weeks Kramer will be an idiot. And no Jim I don't have my own blog so I guess I am not entitled to an opinion.
ReplyDeleteI just posted some suggestions on how to do it better and Jim apparently blocked it.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jim, be a grown up. Allowing the crap you routinely allow here is not found on most blogs, message boards or public forums.
Reset the blog so people have to choose an anoymous but distinctive user name, and if they persist, ban them from posting.
It works all very the web. Most boards are moderated that way. Just do it, or does that mean you would have to become. Amoderator instead of an enabler of libel, which is the case now.
How about Not reading or posting on this blog if you don't like it.
DeleteIt's a poor attempt to get you to shut down the blog by overwhelming it with garbage. This blog is seen as a threat inside the Crystal Palace and they are doing what they can to shut it down. They will of course deny it, and say that it's just another conspiracy theory, probably throw in some insults and some line like "you've been venting for 3 1/2 years". But the truth is that Corporate does not want this blog to exist and rather than take the initiative to start their own blog and control the conversation, they will instead try to shout loud enough on this one to try to make it go away.
ReplyDeleteProof that they just don't get it and never will.
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ReplyDeleteThe critics have been specific. You just refuse to improve. The same excuses don't cut it.
ReplyDeleteBack off of Jim. He us supplying a platform that this Gannett glob so very much needs. Everone is miserable and feeling anxious to get out of this horrendous company. Instead of shooting the messenger we should be thanking Jim ( and these posts trying to deflect attention to criticisms of this blog sound suspiciously similar to the comments Banikarim, Micek and Ellwood make about this site ).
ReplyDelete"Critics tell me what to do without supplying evidence that they are doing any better."
ReplyDeleteJim, be sure to let us know how your multiplatform, million-dollar company is outperforming Gannett.
A true classic: Fill in YOUR manager's name . . .
ReplyDeletehttp://jimromenesko.com/2012/05/18/that-damn-coach/
Jim:
ReplyDeleteBoy, either 10:16/11:38's burned their breakfast this morning, or is upset that the lawn needs to be cut.
They shouldn't take it out on you and the blog. How long have you been doing this four-plus years?
And to thing that Gannett pays trolls to post things here to defame you and their employees.
What a shame.
2:12 I didn't block your suggestions; they appear above your post.
ReplyDeleteAs to requiring posters adopt screen names so that I could then ban them if they become abusive:
I wish that were possible. I have long wanted to ban posters by name or by IP address.
But the Blogger software I use doesn't allow me to block people by name or address. Perhaps it will some day.
I use Blogger because it's free. What little income I earn here isn't enough to justify switching to more expensive software.
Sorry, Jim, but it's tough to defend you when day after day, week after week, you let people anonymously post damaging, unsubstantiated attacks on individuals and gripe about anything and everything. This should be called the Gannett Bellyache Board. If you bought into the attitude here, you'd think their wasn't any good work being done anywhere in this company and that just isn't true. You have to take responsibility for the lack of balance and fairness here, especially if you're going to claim that it's like editing a daily paper. Step up or step out. You appear to be a really disgruntled former employee who uses this blog to nurse his chip rather than a journalist trying to provide a useful service.
ReplyDelete12:51 am, I'm sure those were two press releases with bylines appended to them. And 90 percent of the 672 copies are likely NIE. Funny how so many schools in the C-N circulation area still get five to six bundles of papers daily, yet only a handful of papers are shown on the ABC audit reports as NIE.
ReplyDelete4:13 I absolutely believe there is good work going on inside the company -- as do you.
ReplyDeleteSo, with that in mind: Please cite five (or 10, or however many you like) recent examples of that good work.
More generally, I'll say this: The market ultimately determines the success or failure of this site.
Allowing for occasional bumps up and down, my traffic has held steady for years now.
Last year, comments -- a sign of engagement -- reached a record high of nearly 28,000.
And my income -- although small at nearly $16,000 -- was higher last year than ever.
All of that tells me that readers like this site as it is currently published. Certainly, there are people who don't like what I offer.
But just as a newspaper or TV station can't please all the people all the time, neither can a blogger.
My thoughts exactly. Keep up the good work
DeleteJim, excuses, excuses for laziness. Not my job or anyone else's to balance this site. It's yours. If you spent 10 minutes looking, you'd find good work. But you don't and you salve your ethics-challenged conscience by citing traffic numbers. I'm sure TMZ has huge numbers, but that doesn't make it journalism. Shame on you for resorting to that lame defense. Do some reporting.
ReplyDeleteMore excuses. No plan for improvement.
ReplyDeleteDespite lame posters pro and con, this site is the most comprehensive information center (sorry about the pun)about Gannett, hands down.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, 4:46, you don't cite a speciic example of a positive initiative. You don't have to be the sharpest tool in the shed, nor a journalist, to know this company is not a great one to hang one's hat on.
ReplyDeleteTo the corporate ass kisser who has nothing to do but post he same criticism over and over without doing anything himself to "advance the dialog" - no one here owes you squat. If corporate knew anything about communications and social media they'd be running their own blog instead of having you try to ruin this one.
ReplyDeleteJim should delete all of your comments to better control the blog as you keep asking, but he's obviously much better at open dialog than you and your corporate cohorts.
Jim doesn't set the tone here, the company does, and it starts with the CP.
ReplyDeleteNot the point, 5:29. But that's all you have when it comes to this fight. All you know is making an unrelated claim about Gannett. That has almost nothing to do with Jim's excuses.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the corporate lemmings are upset with Jim and the blog. There has been more truth on this blog the last couple years than we ever heard from our publisher or editors, and the bosses still have their heads buried in the sand.
ReplyDeleteMaybe corporate should start listening to suggestions - wouldn't that be a change for a communications company? The CP people have no idea what is happening in these local markets and newsrooms, and TV and radio sites are making gains where Gannett properties are losing. Keep defending GCI people - your time will come.
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DeleteAs has been noted, this site serves precisely the same purpose and niche as Jerry Springer. Nothing wrong with that — the kooks, cranks, conspiricists and crybabies deserve a forum, too, and they're enormously entertaining.
ReplyDeleteLooks like 4:46 has literally wasted an entire weekend day of his life in a futile, pathetic attempt to discredit Jim. It must be so sad to be you, 4:46. Tomorrow is another day. Why don't you not call up this blog that you hate so much, get outside, and see all the good that life has to offer? It may make you happy instead of cynical and bitter.
ReplyDeleteUnless GCI Corp. pays you extra for weekend work. In that case, carry on ...
Let's start with Micek at USA Today. What has she accomplished in more than a year except deposit a big paycheck and run like a lapdog to Maryam Banikarim? Sure we gripe on here because 1) we can't trust any of the bloated management and 2) we have no other place to vent the absurdities going on around us every day.
ReplyDeleteI'm dying over all the "you must improve, Jim" comments. Don't like it? Don't come. Simple as that.
ReplyDeleteJim, ignore these snipers. You exposed a seriously raw nerve by reporting Saleh's exercise of stock options for a measly $25,000. Saleh knows what lies ahead, and he wants to redeem some, if not all of his stock options while they're above water. Too bad executives rarely burn bridges when they leave. Saleh knows better than to devote one more day of his life to one of the most blitheringly clueless companies on the face of the earth. I'm sure his shop talk with his non-Gannett friends was very similar to what we read on this blog. Saleh only pretended to drink the Kool-Aid.
ReplyDeleteFolks you all have missed the point on options. When you quit you lose the options. He had to exercise them before he left.
Delete5:29 you missed the point. Jim calls himself a journalist. He should at least make an effort to present some balance here. He doesn't. It's no one's job but his. He's happy to let this site be slimy and unfair if it brings in the traffic. He said so above.
ReplyDelete6:06, what are these great suggestions you have? I'd like to hear them.
ReplyDelete8:05, if you don't like the calls for improvement, why don't YOU stay away? Give it a shot.
8:46, you missed the point. This is his blog, and no one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to read it. If Gannett is so honked about what is said on this blog, then tell your bosses to start their own. Teach them about using social media to control the conversation. The way you're going about it now isn't working.
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ReplyDelete9:53 iit's telling that there's such outrage over a suggestion that there should be balance and fairness here. And that Jim the Journalist should employ some journalistic standards. Says a lot about the audience.
ReplyDelete10:40 Comment threads are the Web version of letters to the newspaper editor. Do you consider those "journalism" or reader opinion?
ReplyDeleteJim, your standards are far below the ones most opinions editors would use with letters.
ReplyDeleteFor example, if someone wrote a letter saying 9 publishers would be fired, it probably wouldn't be printed.
You let that go. No attempt to confirm, unless you seriously think calling one office at 5 p.m. on a Friday counts.
Has anyone heard of the prospect of layoffs in the upcoming months?
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ReplyDeleteJim, as I'm sure you know, editors (journalists) reject letters to the editor for publication all the time. An anonymous personal attack is Reason No. 1 for rejection. An editor takes responsibility for the content that gets published, whether it's produced by the publication or submitted.
ReplyDelete10:40 it's telling that you keep ignoring the recommendation that you tell your bosses to start their own blog and do social media the right way.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the morale in Gannett would be like if it wasn't for the outlet this blog provides. Gannett Blog sniping is probably better than the other kind.
ReplyDeleteBased upon what 10:40 keeps posting over and over, it's not surprising Gannett doesn't have their own blog. They have no idea what a blog is.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteI honestly, as a long-time reader, would not mind if you implemented a policy that posts critical of the blog will be deleted. Whether or not they are posted by corporate, they disrupt the flow of the conversation.
7:24 Agreed, Sandra Micek has been without question an absolute failure since coming on. She has accomplished nothing but laugh during the meeting when furloughs were announced. Stay classy Micek.
ReplyDeleteOh MA give it a rest already. So she didn't think you were any good. Move on
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ReplyDeleteMaybe we need a Gannett Blog blog. The inside story of Gannett Blog and the people who make it happen! And if that takes off, someone will start a Gannett Blog Blog blog. Eventually Gannett will buy the parent company behind Gannett Blog Blog Blog Blog blog and mismanage it out of business.
ReplyDelete