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Sunday, May 20, 2012
55 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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"5:29 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 ..."
ReplyDeleteDo you honestly believe these words that you type? Or are you just a very sad, bitter GCI Veep or Veep wannabe who's pathetically reaching for some way to discredit the blog?
Once again, let us spell it out for you, since you don't seem to understand the various definitions of media communications in the 21st Century:
1. Jim is a former journalist and a current blogger. There are many differences between the two, and what they do. A blogger is not required to establish any balance whatsoever. He is like a modern columnist. Columnists, as you may have noticed in your newspaper, are paid to have opinions, not balance. Besides, the forum, as Jim notes, is akin to letters to the editor pages and simply reflect the sentiments of the reader/user community.
2. A blogger typically aggregates a lot of content. Because of the latter, he is not expected to "break news" or produce original research. This point was made clear to you several times during your attempts last weekend to discredit Jim and his blog because he was allegedly being 'scooped' by Gannett Corporate. None of us here perceive Jim as a full-time beat writer who's paid to serve as a Gannett watchdog and that he really isn't expected to 'break' anything. (Even though he often does.) We all "get this." Why don't you?
3. Even given the modern definitions of blogger and the non-requirement to present a "fair and balanced" view, Jim STILL allows your pathetic postings to remain on the forum, thus establishing the balance you claim he refuses to allow.
So your postings remain an utterly complete, transparent failure as corporate propaganda, er, persuasive argument on every level. They only convey how very little corporate thinks of our intelligence, that we could actually be convinced by such a weak, obvious effort. But, then again, we already knew how little corporate thinks of the typical employee given the way typical employees have been treated since the CD era began.
So, again, today is another lovely weekend day. Turn your computer off. Tell whoever at the CP has assigned you this role that another strategy will be needed. And get outside and enjoy life.
Wow,Yesterday was a whole day of telling Jim how this blog should be formatted.
ReplyDeleteWhat a waste,like telling ABC to be fair and balanced.If you don't like it ,simply don't watch or in this case,find another blog.
It was a distraction that completely veered from real topic.That is, Gannett revenue in a dive mode,and layoffs on the horizon.
Maybe that was the goal.Get way off topic.And people will forget the layoffs that are reportedly happening all around them.
Im begging Warren Buffet to buy any or all GCI daily home town papers. It's are only hope
ReplyDeleteTwo topics: Many times, Jim has given the corporate flack an opportunity to respond. The company chooses not to. That is on them, not on Jim.
ReplyDeleteSecond: An interesting article in the Times as GCI newsroom are being rearranged and walls are being removed between co-workers. We are going through the fourth "moving around" at my site-which I like to call, the days of lost work, with the steps of cleaning packing, moving, unpacking.
Enjoy
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/science/when-buzz-at-your-cubicle-is-too-loud-for-work.html?src=me&ref=general
8:51 Another nonsensical, presumptive rant. I am neither a corporate employee or the same person who posted last weekend. Apparently there are many Gannett employees who feel the way I do: that we'd be better served if Jim acted more like the journalist he purports to be and the ones he so easily allows to be defamed and attacked on his site. Your blah, blah, blah on what a blog is and isn't is absolute tripe. Blogs can have standards too if the blogger chooses to enforce them. Jim just takes the lazy route to shill for as many pennies as he can from raging, nasty malcontents.
ReplyDeleteAs for getting out in the lovely day, I am sitting outside at a beautiful park, typing this on my tablet. Ever heard of one?
Despite 8:51's somewhat intemperate tone, they make an essential point about journalism and blogging -- including, especially, that being a journalist and expressing a particular point of view are not mutually exclusive.
ReplyDeleteAs 8:51 says, newspaper and magazine columnists are paid to express their opinion, and they are no less journalists than traditional beat reporters. Many of those columnists are full-time bloggers.
The debate over whether bloggers are journalists is old and tired and long-settled: Many bloggers are journalists and many journalists are bloggers.
Encyclopedia Britannica's article on the subject says: "blogs offer ordinary individuals the ultimate soapbox and an opportunity to create their own digital identity or personal brand."
Merriam Webster, meanwhile, defines a blog as a website that "contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks provided by the writer."
Yes, Jim. But even columnists don't attack people anonymously or allow their sources to do so. At least not the ones with any ethics to speak of.
ReplyDelete10:59 writes: "many Gannett employees who feel the way I do: that we'd be better served if Jim acted more like the journalist ."
ReplyDeleteGannett has 31,000 employees and many, many thousands of former employees, small shareholders and others with a stake in the company.
Over the past 30 days, I had 24,000 unique visitors, according to Google Analytics. That figure has remained more or less constant for years now.
And I'll preempt your likely response: If you're going to attack the concept of unique visitors, you'll need to take that to Gannett, too, because it is a centerpiece of the company's business strategy.
In its most recent 10-K, GCI told investors without qualification or source: "The USA TODAY Sports Media Group was the 8th most visited online sports media property (as of December 2011) based on total unique visitors. "
If you don't like Jim or the blog, don't read it. It's that simple. Enugh of this @&@. It's boring.
ReplyDeleteUnique visitors is a valid metric for ranking purposes since different sites are inaccurately measured the same way. But unique visitors are not unique individual human beings.
ReplyDelete11:11 You believe your concept for a blog about Gannett is better than mine.
ReplyDeleteThat being the case, why don't you take advantage of the same free blogging software I use, and start one of your own?
If your version is better than mine, I'll lose my audience and you will prove yourself correct.
Over the years, I've made this simple challenge to my critics. And I'm still waiting for one of them to follow through.
Will you?
10:59 - nice try. Same tone, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, message as all the others. Your act is very transparent, and you're not very good at it.
ReplyDeleteTo the guy carping about 3 1/2 years of hostility, has it not occurred to you that these are new complaints from people let go recently? I know for a fact at my site that the company has moved from big layoffs to silent elimination of positions. We are down about 20 since the beginning of this year alone. They are happening one or two at a time like a steady drip of a leaky faucet.
ReplyDeleteFlorida Today sports at it again, although not as bad as a whole day's page being a week old. A picture on page 4 shows the Ranger's Lundqvist getting congratulated by Fedotenko....a team mate...the caption says it's Patrik Elias. It clearly shows a Ranger, NOT a N.J. Devil. That would be some sportsmanship if the opposing team congratulated the goalie for a good game! IT also says the pic is from Getty Images. What happened to AP pics?
ReplyDeleteAlthough not a Gannett employee, I have read this blog for a long time because I do fall into the category of someone with keen interest and connections in your community. I think that it is critical to the health of small and mid-sized cities that a free and effective press continues to flourish and I want Gannett to succeed, although I am not convinced that the company's agenda is the same as mine.
ReplyDeleteThe fact I am not directly living in your corporate culture gives me a different perspective on what I see on this blog, however.
I believe that your moderator has no responsibility to "break news" or do his own investigation of anything. When he does so, it is a value-added feature. His chosen responsibility is to run an online salon, where interested people can discuss issues relevant to their work culture and the field of journalism as a whole. Jim does this admirably. His only real responsibility is to keep spammers and scofflaws out of the mix.
Probably because I am enough removed from the cauldron that so many of you still occupy however, I take a macro view of what I see here. In the last 4 or 5 months, I have found the trends to be interesting. And troubling. At the first of the year the discussions revolved around fear of layoffs and the buyout situation. Lots of people were seeking information from their coworkers on what the future would bring. That talk was understandable. About that same time the Pointroll folks were very active as Congress began its investigation into their privacy incursions. All of that Pointroll conversation stopped suddenly some weeks ago, making me wonder if the IT department in their shop had finally blocked access to this blog. At the same time that the Pointroll concerns dried up I started to see a concerted effort by a person or persons who daily attacked Jim in a scurrilous manner, repeatedly questioning his professionalism, motives, abilities, and character. I assume those efforts are coordinated by persons who find public discussion of the workplace to be threatening to their corporate interests... also understandable, but surely not so admirable.
When the history of Gannett is written, what happens here will figure prominently. Information wants to be free, and journalists want it to be seen. Be wary and skeptical of posters who clearly want to stifle your discussion.
Just my view.
No, but I have a full-time job in journalism. And just to be clear, I'm not challenging your right to do whatever you want with your blog. Just stop calling yourself a journalist and pretending you have standards. This is nothing more than a forum for gossip, innuendo and rant-filled speculation. It takes very little effort on your part to exploit miserable former employees. Just admit it. You're not an editor or reporter in this space. You're a gossip monger.
ReplyDelete12;27, many newspapers have moved away from AP photos. One of the new sources they are shifting to is, in fact, UP Presswire. For example, I know at least some of the Tribune newspapers (Orlando/Ft. Lauderdale) use UPSW sports photos.
ReplyDeleteAs for the mistake, I would say the photographer misloaded the wrong player using his/her Code Replacement shortcuts in Photo Mechanic. That's a program that allows the user to type something like "\f12\" and after the last slash is typed into the caption field the code is replaced by the f12 player in a linked list, such as "Florida Gators quarterback John Brantley". You can see how that saves time, but if you meant to type the other team's #12 and typed in the wrong code team, it's an easy mistake to make.
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ReplyDeleteSince they cannot successfully attack the Gannettblot they attack the man. A sign that they have lost.
ReplyDeleteGood work Jim.
RE the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, New Jersey -- heard that
ReplyDeleteGannett is trying to sell it.
And may actually be in negotiations
with a potential buyer.
From the postings you get the
impression that the C-P is a money
loser, but other long-term employees say it is a big money
earner for its size re profit
margin.
Anybody heard anything other than
lots of rumors?
Rumors of this have been circulating for years including an acquisition by the philly inquirer. The courier post is burdened with several unions keeping operating costs high.
DeleteLarry Kramer was great on CNN Reliable Sources this morning. Every time Howard Kurtz said something negative about USAT Larry struck back like a cobra. Get ready for positive change boys and girls. I'm sure everyone but the "Founders" will be happy.
ReplyDeleteIn another blow to community publishing, Henry Howard, Managing Editor at The Lafayette Journal and Courier was shown the door. This will be his last week. The dimise of the local product is a joke and this guy did a damm good job of keeping it a local interest newspaper. GCI is going down fast every one, you may be next. Most likely will hire a 20 somthing blogger who knows nothing about life..Sad Day. Related news, The Publisher Gary Susimen is stepping down next month to pursue a career in used car dealerships.
ReplyDeleteVery much agree with 1:43 ("...cannot successfully attack the Gannettblot [sic] they attack the man." My professional life has been quite an eye opener: in school, I admired media types as being well versed in logic and rational argument and I strove to join them -- only to see that's not much the case any more. Some of the invective on Jim Hopkins' blog is disappointing in both directions, but it's fairly clear that the corporate types created the situation in the first place, not some guy with a blog -- a venue which wouldn't even exist if Gannett wasn't run essentially by carpetbaggers.
ReplyDelete12:44, if you work for Gannett maybe you should stop calling yourself a journalist. Their product and service to communities has more than slipped -- it has tanked.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like the tone of Jim's blog, consider that happy or content employees, or former employees, have a few thousand reasons for their attitudes.
Why don't you, "Gannett journalist," go check the fax machine. Maybe there is a press release you can retype with your by-line to show what fine work you do.
Why was Howard let go? Don't know the guy, just curious because most of the MEs at Gannett are major tools.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know where I can see Kramer rebuff Kurtz? Jim a link perhaps for others to see?
ReplyDelete2:22. I don't know that Larry "pounced like a cobra." he was well spoken and generally positive about the product. Said we need to think multi-platform and said that some sort of print product would be around for a long time.
ReplyDeleteI got the feeling he is going to shell out some $$ for some stars that can give the paper a voice, as well as reporters and writers who can give a take on the news and break stories that set us apart from the competition. In other words, things that we should have been doing for years and years before a series of publishers and editors careened the operation off it's tracks.
The question is, where is the money going to come from to do this?
1:43, your post is wrong -- every word of it.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me people have successfully attacked the blog as a source of ranting, rumors, and attacks.
What's this good work Jim has done? Cite recent examples.
I wouldn't say Kramer struck back "like a cobra" but he was very good and I was impressed with the way he handled Kurtz' interview. He seemed much better than other Gannett executives I seen in action. He might be the real deal.
ReplyDeleteJim you ask us to prove we are not robots by typing these cryptic words. Robots Jim are not what keeps up at night its clowns like Bob Campell that continue to run this company Into the ground that keep me up at night.
ReplyDelete12:07 pm. You're wrong. Not the same person. Haven't posted anything here in months until yesterday. I just couldn't stand the juvenile attacks and speculation -- or Jim's obfuscation of responsibility -- anymore. Now go ahead and recklessly spew away, since Jim will do nothing to clean up his $16,000-a-year no-show act.
ReplyDeleteOne last thing to add: to be fair myself, I do appreciate that Jim posts comments critical of his work. In that way, he's very fair and does behave ethically.
ReplyDeleteWhen people suggest Buffett buy some Gannett newspapers -- are there enough Gannett papers that are still self-sufficient?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine Buffett buying a newspaper that didn't have its own printing press, that had its pages designed and edited at a remote site, etc.
Although what some posters have said here is probably true -- it's probably true that a lot of smaller Gannett papers are still nicely profitable, thought not at the accustomed levels of the past. But if a new owner had to buy a press and staff up to re-create some centralized functions, that could cut the profits.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteIf you recall, the USAT HQ production department was being phased out. The last portion of the USAT HQ Production department was due for a lay off in the spring. Did that already occur? Has that department been completely phased out? And if not, when is the final day for the last members within the department?
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ReplyDelete6:19 pm, here's a link to a video of the Howard Kurtz interview of Larry Kramer which aired on CNN this morning:
ReplyDeletehttp://reliablesources.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/20/usa-today-eyes-digital-future/
I cancelled my subscription to the Cincinnati Enquirer after almost 20 years. I'm eagerly awaiting the paywall so I can use incognito mode to bypass it and continue to get my one or two news stories and 15 photo galleries for free every day.
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ReplyDeleteThanks 8:39. Kramer did a nice job speaking for the paper and himself. Smart, down to earth guy. If hard times are coming, I have more faith in his decisions than I would have under the Hunkster.
ReplyDelete8:42 - You won't be missing anything by dumping the enquirer. All weekend the web sites have been promoting photo galleries (will they EVER get tired of Ben-Gal photo galleries?) and the print product is trying to make up for the lack of content by running huge photos and headlines. Bypassing the paywalls is child's play.
ReplyDelete@3:15 are your sure Henry was "shown the door?" His column says he already has a new job lined up, and reads like he left voluntarily. http://www.jconline.com/article/20120520/OPINION05/305200010/To-Our-Readers-Farewell-all-from-daily-desk
ReplyDelete3:06- thats, Henry towing the company line until the end. He was rifed end of story, no matter what his column said. Down goes Howard. I kinda like the part about the Publisher getting into the used car Business..fitting
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ReplyDeleteAnon@808P said:
ReplyDelete... I can't imagine Buffett buying a newspaper that didn't have its own printing press, that had its pages designed and edited at a remote site, etc. ...
Media General has consolidated printing and production wherever it can. For example, its Northern Virginia and Charlottesville dailies are printed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch at a plant in suburban Richmond. The Times-Dispatch also will print the (Tribune-owned) Daily Press of Newport News starting this summer.
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