Wednesday, June 20, 2012

June 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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38 comments:

  1. Salisbury reporter quits after witnessing phone prank to mayor and not coming clean.

    Can't post the link from my phone, but it's at delmarvanow.com.

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  2. This entire company is a mess and I see no way out.

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  3. 6:37 - How can you see no way out? Start talking to friends and/or associates about available openings at their companies. If you're truly doing an aggressive search, something will open up for you.

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  4. 6:37, no way out? Come on this is Gannett. It's all within reach.

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  5. Where's Kramer?

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  7. 9:55 Please post something new; we've read that one countless times already.

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  8. The past 2 Sundays there were only 5 newspapers at my local Phoenix Starbucks at 6:30am. On both days I purchased one leaving 4. Employees said that's all the papers they've been getting. Is there a plan to eliminate these papers as I can't understand how it makes sense to only deliver 5 papers to one of the busiest Starbucks in metro Phoenix.

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  9. Here at the beach:

    Can't help but notice that local papers selling out, but PLENTY of USATs for anyone who'd want to buy 'em ... Anyone? ... Anyone?

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  10. Just like when Gannett switched all the community papers to Facebook-only commenting, the switch to paywall restrictions to content was decided at Gannett Corporate, right? But once again, the publisher of the Asheville Gannett paper, the Citizen-Times, has printed an article pretending that this was a local decision. Has anyone else noticed this elsewhere?

    http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120620/COLUMNISTS30/306200010/Hammer-AC-T-changing-way-we-deliver-our-content?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFrontpage

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  11. Dailies are on a 15% return ratio, USAT is 30%.

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  12. The Journal News in Westchester has reached an new low. A story and interview with a 14 year old girl on how her and a 12 year old friend were gang raped by young boys. The reporter and his editor should be fired

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  13. We have always been required to have a newspaper delivered to our home each day and the cost (it was very cheap) was deducted from our paychecks. Is anyone else receiving letters they now need to provide a credit card number and subscribe with a discount of 50 percent?

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  14. 6/20/2012 2:07 PM Correction: USAT is at a 54% return (not including those that are discarded by contract at many hotels, fast food, Starbucks and colleges)

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  15. 2:28 Why is that fire-able? The interview was done with parents' permission and the paper didn't reveal the girls' names. Sounds like a national story to me. You must work for Cablevision.

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  16. Jim, not a word on the recent GM movement in the East group? You are slipping. Do some reporting.

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  17. 6/20/2012 3:42 PM USAT has been requiring that for years.

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  18. 4:31 what you just printed is untrue.

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  19. Good news for a change. I actually saw someone in Reno buy a copy of USA Today.

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  20. I wonder what time the USA Today is printed for Wisconsin distribution. Today's edition had only two baseball box scores from Tuesday's games and a bunch of late games from Monday.

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  21. Does anyone know what the last Gannett/GPS offering was on the severance package?

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  22. Usat wont improve until it overhauls most of its editorial and web ops. maybe that happens under Kramer. But he needs to start at the top and getting rid of the cancer that has sapped creativity and production. the entire op has the atmosphere of a funeral home.

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  23. It's a funeral home because USAT is DOA

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  24. Zombies for editors.

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  25. We need a Vice President of Ethics. Or maybe Marymont doing her job and informing local reporters not to sign petitions, not to get too chummy with local politicians, etc.etc. etc.

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  28. After years of management through execution and personal vendettas, not to mention bad hires and promotions of outright con artists, USAT finally died three or four years ago, it just doesn't know it yet. It keeps trying to revive itself by bringing in the same types of selfish, greedy and incompetent liars who killed it.

    Heck, it's like The Shining! Big empty building filled with tragic acts against innocent employees, now occupied by ghosts. Half expect Jack Nicholson to take an ax to the publisher's door.

    The public is beginning to see what a joke USAT has become. The product sucks, plain and simple. It's terrible in print and almost laughable online.

    Let's give this brand a proper burial and move on to something the readers might actually be interested in buying. The best of what USAT was is long gone. There was a massacre in Tysons Corner and it's time to admit that what happened can not be reversed or swept under the Italian marble floors.

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  30. Taco time in Asbury. All you old heads know what that means.

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  31. 12:27 said: "...the publisher of the Asheville Gannett paper, the Citizen-Times, has printed an article pretending that this was a local decision..."

    Randy Hammer has been The Great Pretender for decades. I worked for/with him twice when he was a newsroom guy. First impression is that he is a soft-spoken nice guy. Soon, however, it becomes apparent that beneath that placid exterior lurks an egomaniac. Beware!

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  32. Regarding Rudd Davis, I've said it before and here it is again: Quitting a job isn't the same as being fired.

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  33. Yes, Rudd Davis decided to "quit" the same way Dave Hunke decided to "retire" and John Hillkirk "stepped aside" in their jobs. All without permanent replacements lined up.

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  34. 8:17, the sad thing is seeing so many beaten down people still here, or worse, the incompetent people who remain in the power positions throughout the building.

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  35. 5:45, it is a rather long list, isnt it? You have to wonder why all those high priced Verticals Staffers are still around drawing fat paychecks and their leader, Heather Frank, is flitting about the country doing puff pieces on rollercoasters and reality TV stars. The rest of the editors are unfamiliar with basic production skills such as Newsgate.

    i wish i could be a complete fuckup in my job and get rewarded with another, even cushier one.

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  36. Some day, someone will write the backstory of what Usa Today has become. Thing is, it could be done in so many ways and still be accurate: comedy, drama, horror story, fantasy. Even a musical. One thing it wouldnt be: inspirational for anyone looking for true journalism or the right way to run a business.

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  37. 8:17 is correct. I still think the place has good "bones," a handful - well maybe more than a handful - of core people that you could rely on, promote and build around to restore the operation to some respectability. I do not know how that will happen, or if it can. i do hope Kramer starts rolling up his sleeves and immerses himself in the operation.

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  38. I recently heard from a higher-up that our readers still like our paper, but want to see more news, not feature-y stuff. I'm thinking, 'how?' after our newsroom was slashed 65% three years ago. We have enough problems covering the basics: cops, courts, city council meetings...

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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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