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Sunday, June 17, 2012
32 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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Pressman hurt bad in Montgomery last night. In a hurry to meet deadline.
ReplyDeleteHope he's okay.
ReplyDeleteWhere's Kramer?
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ReplyDeleteWhen you (hopefully) have some time to read, consider this. 8:09 got it in a simple post last night. Who are the REAL customers of newspapers? The people who make up 20% of revenue . . . or the people paying the other 80?
ReplyDeletehttp://gigaom.com/2012/06/15/the-hard-truth-newspaper-monopolies-are-gone-forever/
The Nieman piece on the Detroit papers is interesting. People are willing to buy the paper three days a week. But they do it sighing, knowing that they are keeping the patient alive even though they know full well that the smaller product minus broader coverage, staff etc. pales to the good old days. Talented writers flee and are not replaced to save more money. Some subscribers even pay extra to get it daily, although people in my world cannot afford to do so. They are counted in the e-edition numbers although few folks I talk to use it. Sunday Free Press circulation is propped up by 128,000 freebies that ABC says is OK. Is that a success? Short term, maybe. But long-term I'm afraid we are becoming more irrelevant and people are already mourning our death and moving on. That is the scary part.
ReplyDelete2:44 makes a great point with the gigacom link and Ingram's article is a superb read — unlike some of the stuff now expected in Gannett products.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in this industry virtually all my life. And I'm not a technological dinosaur, either; I'm an ethusiast.
But one thing I should say if anyone wants to listen... is that the relationship between advertisement and news content is either symbiotic or it's an eventual epitath.
The main complaint I hear now are the ads versus the "news hole." And that hole if filled with vanilla.
The company has for some time been in the hands of opportunists, professional in most things not journalistic, imbued with no real sense other than a cynically better marketing mouse trap.
But when people stop buying (or reading) the paper or going to a paywall Web site, because one has more ads than actual news and the other has some version of a Disney film except replete with lurid mug shots, well...
People don't like this. And the culture in this company is exclusive, not inclusive. God forbid, then, it include the reader.
Any company that has to focus on branding, bull shit, consultants and marketing should consider itself DOA and ready for the autopsy.
And this one is gettin' ripe.
@511 Totally agree. I don't think readers want to say goodbye. I think many hope we'll survive or figure out something. But once they're gone, they don't come back. Once the connection is broken, it's over and out. And GCI has squandered almost all of its goodwill capital in the local communities. Sad, unnecessary, but true.
ReplyDeletePressman have a dangerous job. I have been hurt several times over my 20+ year stint. It happens, most times due to (were in a hurry to get the press up and running) Seen similar injuries, he or she will be fine. Some think all we do is push buttons, NA, it can bite you bad if your not careful all the time
ReplyDeleteLocal communities consider any Gannett-branded product with the same response an auto buyer would have had 50 years ago to the Edsel brand.
ReplyDeleteAt least Ford figured that out.
Gannett? Not so much.
Ugliest 1A design I've ever seen:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=FL_TD&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=3
And it's a ONE story front.
Is that the latest schtick?
So is the Joverman fiasco resolved, and what is fallout? I know Jay and not so much positive presence.
ReplyDeleteWell said 5:11 and 9:28.
ReplyDeleteReaders don't want to cut their ties with their community papers, but are already feeling the lack of coverage they've come to expect over the years.
All the Gannett initiatives over the past years have proven we will not get the younger readers, and we are losing the older ones.
10:12 Who/what is Joverman?
ReplyDelete8:36 - Without pressmen there would be no newspaper and I appreciate all you do every single day. I hope your colleague is on the mend and feels better soon.
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ReplyDeleteWhat's going on with the ABM offers.We heard they are offering same pay, less vacation, less holidays,Gannett is picking up dential and vision. United Health Care medical.
ReplyDeleteIs Gannett in any way shape or form
subsidizing the pay part?
1:04 No
DeleteWhat's the story with GPS. Why were they created? I know they have reduced work force.
ReplyDeleteIn September 2011 I read on this blog that GPS lead by Evan Ray would be in charge of around 10,000 employees. Recently I read that GPS have around 7000 employees. That is a thirty percent reduction in work force in 6 months. They have out sourced most of those jobs. So yes there have been lay offs and cuts recently that they have been silent about.
ReplyDelete4:58 Corporate estimated that GPS would have 10,000 employees when it first announced the new division's formation in September 2011.
ReplyDeleteThat figure proved too high; when a more official figure was given this past winter, it was closer to 7,700.
That 2,300 difference in employees is not a result of layoffs, although there have been some in GPS over the past year.
Interesting cross promotion between USAT and NBC on U.S. Open coverage. NBC promoed USAT coverage this afternoon as the broadcast started, then lo and behold, look at this:
ReplyDeletehttp://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2012/06/tiger-effect-and-primetime-slots-boost-us-open-ratings/1
Wonder if this is part of the PGA Tour-USAT Sports Media Group partnership?
Thanks Jim that's still around a 10 percent difference. Plus they originally estimated 10000 then three months later it was only 7700 employees. That original estimate was a little off. Could they have reduced work force between September and December?
ReplyDeleteJim, never mind about my last question about GPS and the difference in the estimate. Thanks
ReplyDeleteYou'd think a paywall site that had been up for two years that was down in pageviews 20-25% from just last year would see a management shakeup.
ReplyDeleteBut not in Gannett-World.
Give that tyrannical little Napoleon another ring!
Must be great when corporate's asleep at the wheel.
More industry bad news, this time from down under. (Cue usual crybabies with their heads up their anatomy, who blame Gannett management.)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/australia-fairfax-idUSL3E8HI00A20120618
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete10:12 I know what happened to Davis. And, no, I don't think his departure was the sole reason Hunke is leaving the USA Today.
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ReplyDeleteDavis may have been the last straw, but there were plenty other's in Hunke's jar: Hillkirk, Heather Frank, Susan Motiff, Jeff Dionese, umpteen management hires on the business side. A disasterous editorial reorg as circulation and ads slide.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet good old Hunkster still has a "job" until Sept.
Hunke should have been given the boot a long time ago. I guess Martore had other fish to fry.
ReplyDeleteDavid Hunke takes into retirement the fact that he was USAT's worst publisher ever. A complete disaster from the day his shoes hit the Palace.
ReplyDelete