Tuesday, May 08, 2012

May 7-13 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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60 comments:

  1. 1:20 must be CD earning a 'consultant' fee from his old chums in the CP C-suite. Nice work if you can get it ...

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  2. Time for another vice presidential appointment !

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  3. Gannett's steady decline and imminent fall out of the Fortune 500 list reflect a sluggish, poorly run company that has been overtaken by aggressive, innovative upstarts. Gannett needed to reinvent itself in the 1990s but instead was looking backward. There's precious little sign of innovation in the company today, and its revenues will continue to decline. It has maybe a year or two left as a Fortune 500 company, then it'll be gone from the list.

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  4. If you want the best example of Gannett's decline, look to USA Today sports. Yesterday was quite active -- NBA Playoffs, Stanley Cup Playoffs, baseball, soccer, not to mention new stuff from the Saints bounty scandal. Peep USAToday.com/sports at this moment and this is what you get:

    Sob story on Tiger Woods (missed the cut last weekend)

    Sob story on Danica Patrick (put another driver into the fence after a race ended)

    Hit job on Blake Griffin (helped his club win last night)

    Suck-up pieces on Cole Hamels (banned 5 games for throwing at a batter)

    Not to mention Mike Lopresti drooling over Hamels admitting that he threw at a batter. The next time this columnist has an original thought will be the first.

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  5. You're the one out of touch, 11:43. USA TODAY Sports has been all over the Cole Hamels story since Sunday night and all day yesterady and a cover story in print this morning.

    Danica Patrick is an exclusive interview.

    If you just want the scores, they are there, too. In fact, everything you mention is covered quite well.

    The key to online is new and fresh and exclusive. In that, Sports does great today.

    Click around next time and you'll find everything.

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  6. USAT Sports rocks and they are getting better. 11:43 has no clue.

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  7. I'm just surprised Lopresti didn't find a way to blame the Yankees for Hamels hitting Harper. It has to be a payroll thing, right Mike?

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  8. "Not to mention Mike Lopresti drooling over Hamels admitting that he threw at a batter. The next time this columnist has an original thought will be the first."

    "I'm just surprised Lopresti didn't find a way to blame the Yankees for Hamels hitting Harper. It has to be a payroll thing, right Mike?"

    Seriously? Going after one of the most respected and talented people in his field? And that's all you got? Jealousy and lack of talent makes for some sad, sad sacks.

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  9. USA Today Sports is about the only reason people actually buy the paper on the street.

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  10. I think Sports, like most of usat's editorial silos, has some very good, capable talent. But there are inferior reporters and editors in all. Lazy, not qualified, don't give a damn, beaten down or living on past reputation. Makes it harder on those who can do or want to do more.

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  11. Personally, I don't know Mike. But I think he is a good columnist.

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  12. Newsgate is down in Louisville again. Any other sites affected?

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  13. From this afternoon's online DM Register. It needs a bit of editing.

    "President Barack Obama has a 10-point over GOP rival Mitt Romney, according to a poll by Public Policy Polling of Iowa voters.

    "Obama leads with 51 percent to Romney’s 51 percent, according to PPP, a Democratic polling company."

    http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2012/05/08/obama-is-ahead-of-romney-by-10-points-in-iowa-new-ppp-poll/

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  14. Newsgate dies again.

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  15. Yeah..Hellsgate has once again gone down...After the nice email this morning stating they have solved the problem from last week.

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  16. Stacey Martin is losing all credibilty. The system was supposedly "fixed" ahead of the planned upgrade.

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  17. The Midwest IT helpdesk phone lines are down today, as well.

    Reboot!

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  18. So, is this a Gannett IT issue, or a Newsgate issue?

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  19. I give Stacey Martin props for at least communicating what's going on, better than last week's issues. Though last name be damned, I'll log on ASAP!

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  20. Staggered logons to engage a problematic computer system. The third problematic day in the past few weeks.

    Yes, this is the way a best in class media company operates. Maybe Bat Boy can pound some sense into one of the twitchy computer servers,

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  21. You've also got to love this rationalization too from Kate Marymont ...
    One of the best takeaways from Stacey’s note is that there was no issue with NewsGate itself. The problem was a server at our backup site that — as explained to me — kept “knocking on the door, trying to get into NewsGate.”
    That doesn’t make last Thursday’s sprint to publish any less nerve-wracking, but is reassurance that there wasn’t a deep flaw in NewsGate.

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  22. They better get the Newsgate problems fixed if it ever hopes to make the "On the Road" e-mail. C'mon people.

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  23. Stacey Martin knows what she's doing. She's a President's Ring winner (2009).

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  24. I love how Newsgate dies again right after a meeting at my site about pretty much all our resources going to digital. Best line: We're going to be advertising our paywall on TV and radio. I wanted to add: On places where people can still get the news for free??

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  25. Yes, Martin's earlier note states the company's explanation of the previous outages of Newsgate: The problem wasn't just the crappy software we have bought, it was the crappy bargain servers we bought to run the crappy software on.

    Transparency rocks, right Maryam?

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  26. still cannot log into to Citrix
    Stacy's last email says it is working..

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  27. Stacey is an immensely competent woman managing a complex computer system. She's the front person for an army of people who work behind the scenes, and fully gets what outages mean and works hard to both mitigate them, and to tell the user community what's happening when they do. Don't shoot the messenger, she is darned if she does and darned if she doesn't communicate the events.

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  28. Maryam here: What's Newsgate?

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  29. No one is shooting at Martin. We appreciate the difficulty of the task.

    The problem is the software. And, apparently, the hardware too.

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

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  31. I don't know Ms. Martin, but she has definitely earned herself a drink and a president's ring if she can get this thing running 4 days out of 5 - considering how we always under-resource new systems.

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  32. I wonder how long we go through Newsgate outages before we: A. Get a new server, move to a new server farm, whatever's needed server wise to resolve the issues; B. Adjust things so that all our Newsgate eggs are not in the same server basket across the company; C. Ditch the whole Newsgate experiment.

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  33. All the trolls and haters got it wrong re USA Today sports. This is a section that's devolved from hard-hitting stuff into celebrity worship. Mail Online does that stuff 1,000 times better.

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  34. Sure wish there was a one-stop repository of data that could be used to support a class action lawsuit for age discrimination. My former Gannett hellhole is little more than a handful of kids, except for the ruthless executive editor, who continues to spew his lies to the local liberal skulls full of mush.

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  35. Another GCI failure. With GCI's $4M investment, Ongo calls it a day.... Brilliant! Just "spent" a few more furloughs....

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  36. Gannett is an accident waiting to unhappen.

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  37. What would Jesus do about Newsgate?

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  38. Gannett's Ongo investment is shared by two partners, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

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  39. 7:05 - yes, they each threw away $.4M. So is that like bragging that you're the tallest midget in the room? Spin it Maryam!

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    1. Hey math genius, its $4 million.

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  40. So Maryam Banikarim makes $5,000 for each speech booking. That should just about cover that week of her furlough.

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    1. 9 rules for making money.

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  41. Pardon me.... That's $4M each. Not Dubow money - but I'd fold after two years - if they threw it down my rat hole! New digital company, my arse...

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  43. 7:54 pm it's two years too late.

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  44. I don't know what to think. Two years, still no pension. Patiently waiting, but my patience is wearing thin. I've contracted a lawyer and they will soon be shaking in their boots.

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    1. BS on average it takes less than 90 days from start to finish. The law gives companies 6 months, two years ,,,, nope

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  45. 9:19 PM, I wonder how widespread this is. I've noticed other pension-related posts and I, too, have not seen a single penny of the pension I earned.

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  46. Could someone post a link to the Ongo information? Who announced its demise? Did it file for bankruptcy?

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  47. Get off Stacey Martin (and no, I don't know her, would not recognize her.) Everyone on this site always complains that Big G never provides information on anything. Here, Stacey offers constant updates on the Newsgate outages and even says when the next update is coming. Yeah, you might not like what she has to say, but this is 1,000 times better than simply being left in the dark. Agree fully with 5:10...don't shoot the messenger and be thankful that someone has the thoughtfulness to let us worker bees know what is going on.

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  48. The "no pension" received yet remarks make me a little nervous...Considering leaving, but will definitely need the pension to do so.

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  49. Jim, I think the pension comments are from trolls.

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  50. Trolls = Pension comments. HARDLY! I brush these things off, but not this time. I HAVE NOT received my pension. It was no small thing to earn it year after year in a fairly cliquish environ up to the freeze in August 2008. Is that some effing JOKE? Jeez, what arrogance. What arrogance. I'm more the type to have a brew between differing interpretations of "reality." But the pension is a benefit I earned. And there is now word, at all, regarding it. Just insulting.

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  51. Gannett Blog has, like it or not, affect. And it's more than any of the gobblygook of the cheerleaders. With all its rumors, it still proves far more true in relative terms than a single edict from Gannett itself, steeped in corpspeak. Everyone's job on the line. As in the next second.

    Shame on you folks who discount the grief, mock the victims as losers. If there's contempt involved in this, it's mine.

    You, too, will find yourself betrayed for this "loyalty" that the company has no use for. Zip.

    Let's see how long you last on unemhinn a certain age group, how far that gets you even changing careers.

    How dare you. More importantly, what the hell is wrong with you? You don't know me. Nor me work.

    But the very lack of that knowledge is your reason to justify.

    Your sniffy arrogance? Your entitled superior stuff by virtue of some birth date?

    I am 58. If I sucked or was "useless," I would have quit. It's called values.

    My home office as a newfound freelancer is current in every thing. I'm fine. Don't slam such, you make yourselves the fool one imagines.

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  53. Another strong vote for Mike Lopresti, one of the hardest-working and talented sportswriters in the country. The above critic is ignorant and doesn't read much.

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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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