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Monday, June 04, 2012
54 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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Anyone at The Tennessean know whats up in Tech Serv/IT They got a new VP, a New Manager from a Florida paper , and demoted the Supervisor, YET Hired a NEW Assistant Manager..and only 2 maybe 3 worker Bee's.. If I was The supervisor and was told sorry we are Making your coworker the New Assistant Manager and your going back to real work I would think Im bieng Phased out..OR at least I would think This is a Gannett way of saying Thanks for the 28 years.. BUT BY...
ReplyDeleteSo when we put our dailies behind paywalls because the content is valuable (with which I agree) - but our iconic USAT and broadcast brands are left without paywalls - what does that say about their content?
ReplyDeleteOr can we just be straight with readers and tell them that we're jacking rates 30% because we know they can't get this volume of local news from any other source?
Double your standard, double your fun! This morning in USA Today, Michael Hiestand calls out CBS for overhyping Tiger Woods winning a golf tournament yesterday. At the same time USAToday.com/sports has no less than 4 stories and one gallery about Woods.
ReplyDeleteGannett is too afraid to state the obvious -- it wants USAToday.com to be bottom of the barrel.
Check out the headline on the chart. "Reign" or "rein"? Will the paywall cover the cost to hire a couple of high school English teachers?
ReplyDeletehttp://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120602/NEWS/306020088/Voters-dissatisfied-disconnected
Word on the blog is that Stoney LaDouche has taken exception to his moniker.
ReplyDeleteRon Burgundy was his nick name and fitting moniker while he stood watch over the destruction of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.
Apparently he would prefer to be called by the moniker he used while he and the deceased CEO sat and watched the ruination of the Journal Register Company, - Rocky DuPrix.
Stoney LaDouche is the name he acquired after calling out sick during his first week on the job attempting to replace Curtis Riddle at the News Journal in Delaware.
Turns out he had kidney stones and he went into the pain and the medical treatment proceedings with male and female members of his operating committee in great detail. Hence the name Stoney.
The LaDouche part of his most recent nick name may require some additional investigation.
With increasing frequency, I've been noticing that the alleged "high-dollar" 1A ad space is being filled with unpaid house ads.
ReplyDeleteHere's three examples today from the Newseum's site:
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=NJ_CP&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=6
and
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=NJ_DR&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=6
and
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=FL_TD&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=3
When these papers fail to sell that space, why don't they just fill it with NEWS? Is that too obvious a question?
10:22 here's another, in the top spot on the Web.
ReplyDeleteGetting ready and walking the isle at graduation ceremonies in North Fond du Lac for Horace Mann high school class of 2012.
Groupon at 52-week low of $9.
ReplyDeleteThey're choking their Friggin Chicken.
11:52, in Fond du Lac and its suburb to the north, graduation stories and photo galleries are huge click-getters even if the story may seem mundane to us jaded media vets.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the problem is the story topic but the ISLE reference.
DeleteWondering when the public, and even other media companies, will realize that USA Today no longer speaks with the authoritative voice that it once did. Too many errors, too little urgency and enterprise make USAT considerably less credible than it was just a few short years ago. What I see in USAT (online/print) now doesn't match up with the reputation it built. This was a top 20 news brand in the industry. Even if you hated it, you had to respect what USAT accomplished. Now, well, I don't see it as even being relevant in terms of sound reporting and good journalism.
ReplyDeleteFor local news, people will just go to their local Patch site!
ReplyDeleteSolved! And, no paywalls!
I think 11:52 was referring to the word "isle," not the fact that it was a gallery.
ReplyDeleteah, 12:58, i think you missed the point of that post -- duh, it's the wrong 'isle'
ReplyDeleteI think 11:52 wanted to call attention to the spelling of "isle"
ReplyDeleteI guess we can expect quarter 3 furloughs with such a terrible market and job forecast. They won't touch the 4th quarter, because of added political advertising.Here we go again,will it ever end?
ReplyDeleteAnother assignment for the high school English teacher at the Enquirer: Dissuade the young copy editors from writing naive and sophomoric headlines. There is an art to writing clever heds, and professional editors know when to use a pun. Sunday's top headline on A1 (and repeated online) is astonishingly bad: "Choir Games organizers in race to the singing line." Finish line/singing line. Get it? NO! Because "singing line" makes no sense. Then today: "God sail the queen." Get it?? NO! Because it's stupid. You don't write puns for puns' sake. If it doesn't work on every level, and isn't a truly clever turn of phrase, it doesn't work. Period. Carolyn says headlines are a priority for our new "tabloid" edition. If so, she'd better hire some professional headline writers.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the number of pages in The Journal News today, I wonder if Westchester will be the first of the failing Gannett papers to go to 3 days a week like the New Orleans newspaper.
ReplyDeleteHey Jim,
ReplyDeleteWhat's Gannett policy concerning how to pay hourly employees when called in for a short time on a day off?
They aren't held on isles, though, unless graduation is at Riverside Park, 1258. Aisles, maybe.
ReplyDeleteIt would be cool to bring the grads in on the train, though.
The Home News Tribune is closing its office in East Brunswick next week and moving into the Courier-News office. I guess the CN can handle it since it only has 2 reporters. Sad that Middlesex County, which once had 2 vibrant daily newspapers, will now have none.
ReplyDeleteOops, sorry about that. Then you missed the one a couple weeks ago where the photo cutline said talked about a couple adopting their son's baby which was fine until you read the story where it was about the couple adopting their daughter's baby.
ReplyDelete3:26 That is a very good point.
ReplyDeleteThe Journal News would be better off being just a weekend newspaper. The content is non-existent, and it is sitting on shelves at 7 pm. ( By the way it was printed the previous evening-so you know you're getting old news).
My letter about the new rates had a small quote balloon at the top that said "Give it to me local." Say what? Reminds me of the old 1980s Courier News advertising slogan, "Getting it Saturday morning?"
ReplyDeleteSo besides the inscrutable quote, the front of the letter had the monthly rate as $20 with EZ Pay and the back had an EZ Pay price of $6.96.
Confusing.
@ 12:28 - There's so much negative press about Groupon but there are still some good deals here and there on Deal Chicken that turned Groupon down because of their reputation. If Gannett were smart, it would properly manage Deal Chicken. Unfortunately, that's not happening at the local level. It's a gigantic yellow after thought in many markets.
ReplyDelete3:45pm: You should be compensated for coming in on your day off.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what Jim's reply is going to be about "Gannett policy concerning how to pay hourly employees when called in for a short time on a day off," but at my site they'd have you come in later or leave earlier on the following regular shift. They do the same throughout the regular week. If the employee has to stay past 8 hours to complete a task, they have him or her come in later or leave earlier the next shift, so there's no overtime. I think it's illegal.
ReplyDeleteLEE JONES got WHACKED I HEAR
ReplyDeleteHeard Lee Jones was finally let go today - about time
ReplyDeleteThere are several more of Hunke's kids who need to be shown the door. at least a dozen. Go Larry.
ReplyDeleteIf Jones is really gone as SVP/advertising at USA Today, several questions:
ReplyDelete1. Does Mary Murcko formally take his place?
2. Does he get replaced by a new hire? And if so, who will do that -- Maryam Banikarim or Larry Kramer, USAT's publisher for less than a month?
Kramer was recently talking about wanting to bring in advertisers, and show them what USAT's trying to do.
That sounds like someone who definitely wants to have a role in ad sales.
We will see where The Journal News/LoHud is in a few months after this pay wall fiasco. And higher rates for subscribers who are mostly over 60 years old and who would never see the lame digital product. And for most under 60, they can read web content pretty much for free because Gannett did not think through the pay wall process. Most people have access to three different web browsers; one at home, one at work and one on their smart phone. That is 60 free stories a month but what are the odds that anybody would be clicking on more than 20 a month.
ReplyDeleteHaving someone come in later or leave earlier another day in the same week is routine and legally acceptable in the US of A. Now if someone comes in on the weekend (and there's therefore no way to offset the hours that week) the person gets time and a half for those hours worked above 40.
ReplyDeleteThis comes down to banikarim and murcko deciding. not kramer.
ReplyDeleteAnother indictment against Hunke.
ReplyDelete“In five to eight years they (Facebook) are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared,"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnbc.com/id/47674474
At the slow rate G A N N E T T moves that should give it barely enough time to source and roll-out its newspaper website commenting to another third party provider.
374,601 more GCI shares got shorted today:
ReplyDeletehttp://regsho.finra.org/FNSQshvol20120604.txt
2:46 PM "Here we go again,will it ever end?"
ReplyDeleteI sure hope so, if it means you'll stop posting this every day.
7:00 p.m. -Ooh, Banikarim is feeling upstaged.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the paywall, Gannett. Both sports columnists in Louisville are jumping ship to a local TV station: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120604/SPORTS/306040111/Bozich-Crawford-leaving-Courier-Journal
ReplyDeleteThe Home News Tribune is NOT closing. It's just moving its offices. Duh.
ReplyDeleteThe Courier-Journal in Louisville just announced that it's two sports columnists are leaving for a local TV station. This comes three days after the pay wall went up.
ReplyDeleteYoure absolutely right. The Home News Tribune is not closing down. They just need the space for all of the part time deal chicken account executives!
ReplyDeleteFolks in Louisville respond to paywall. Here is a link to the VilleVoice
ReplyDeletehttp://thevillevoice.com/2012/06/04/nope-you-cant-see-that-story-average-reader/#comments
For the last six years Gannett's MNCO division has printed and distributed The Lantern, the student daily at Ohio State University. As of July 1 MNCO will take over advertising and business operations for The Lantern as well.
ReplyDeleteOne student employee of The Lantern was rather blunt: "I don’t want to come back and then find out I don’t have a job. I’m not going to interview for a job I’ve had for three years."
There seems to be a backlash growing against the move from print to internet. Society may finally be waking up.
ReplyDeleteThose sites do not have NEWS!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
For local news, people will just go to their local Patch site!
Solved! And, no paywalls!
6/04/2012 1:50 PM
If you were hired or promoted by Hunke, you most likely have a target on your back. This should have all been handled months ago. I cant wait until they start doing this in the newsroom. The genius who came up with the coverage circles, the dismantling of sections and the rudderless management structure ought to be the first one out the door. Not far behind: a complete overhaul of digital's management, followed by fast departures in Weekend.
ReplyDelete3:26--
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Westchester will be the first of the failing Gannett papers to go to 3 days a week like the New Orleans newspaper.
They shoot horses, don't they?
Glad to see The Journal News' competition is back at it. Must be feeling the heat again. The Cablevision/Newsday site is an embarrassment. Patch is gasping its last breaths. Time to make specious comments and outlandish assertions about the one place in the market still employing a full newsroom of journalists doing the tough work, not stealing it and rewriting it. But actually doing real, original reporting. What a bunch of hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteBozich and Crawford leaving is HUGE for that paper. Even bigger, though, are Bennie ivory's nuts if he really thinks Gannett will let him replace 2 very well-paid Sports columnists. Ha. He'll be lucky to replace one of them.
ReplyDeleteLike so many others around here, Lee Jones made his share of mistakes for sure. But, unlike so many others around here, he's a good and decent guy who got caught-up in the Banikarim meat grinder. And like so many others who have left this place, Jones will land on his feet and probably quite nicely.
ReplyDelete6:45 re: coming in later or leaving earlier another day in the same week is routine and legally acceptable. 5:04 here, who thought it was illegal. I wasn't sure, and meant "I think" in that sense. Thanks for settling that. It always felt wrong to me, exploitative. In my case, they had me working one shift that spanned 10 hours but with a two-hour lunch so it would come out to eight; other shifts, 10 hours with a half-hour lunch, etc., mix and match, so it would work out to 40. It was fairly galling, but even accepting the weekly jacking around of my hours ("schedule" would be an oxymoron), it still did me no good as far as being recognized for flexibility and commitment to my career and the company. The only recognition I got was a layoff.
ReplyDelete9:14 PM:
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a backlash growing against the move from print to internet. Society may finally be waking up.
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If anyone here really believes that please quit today. Print will always exist in some from, but to imply that print is somehow superior because of the format is as sad and beyond backwards.