Wednesday, June 06, 2012

June 4-10 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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37 comments:

  1. BUFFETT/BERKSHIRE ANNOUNCES LEE ENTER. DEAL

    http://buswk.co/L7gRsM

    "Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) (A) disclosed a stake in Lee Enterprises Inc. (LEE) (LEE) as the billionaire investor bets on community newspapers.

    "Buffett’s firm had 1.66 million shares as of March 31, valued at about $2.1 million, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said in a regulatory filing today. Berkshire withheld information about the stake on May 15 when the company disclosed other holdings in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm said today that its request to keep the Lee information confidential was denied .."

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  2. Probably cost Buffett more to fill out regulatory paperwork than to write the check. He should just go to 49% to avoid any possible anti-trust issues and be done with it.

    First Omaha (OK, first Buffalo) then MG's papers in the southeast, and now St. Louis. He's creating a nice portfolio. Reminds me of CAP Cities before they bought ABC in the 1980s.

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  3. Many problems reported with pension payout amounts that are substantially less than earlier calculations and estimates provided by the company. Do not sign off on anything without first receiving documentation from the plan administrator, Northern Trust Co., regarding how the calculation was made and why it doesn't jibe with earlier numbers.

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

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  5. Has anyone gotten a pay and benefit package from ABM and what does it look like? How many papers / TV stations are included in phase 1 and does anyone know what phase 2 is?

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  6. gannett labor attorney Feldman is leaving !!

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  7. phx ABM is eliminating many jobs, and pay is lower. takes effect July 14th another BIG mistake !

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  8. When are Wisconsin sites going to announce the paywalls? I thought it was going down last Sunday, but maybe they wanted to wait until after the recall election.

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  9. The Indian Point Nuclear Power facility is located about 10 miles from the HQ of the Journal News in Westchester County, NY. The nuke plant experienced an automatic shutdown overnight which is not cataclysmic by any measure but is a big story in Westchester. The plant is going through a contentious and controversial re-licensing process. At noon, the Journal News website, LOHUD still has an AP story under a big "breaking news" banner. The new startup, from Newsday has original, local reporting with updates. Is it a coincidence that the JN environmental reporter who knew every relevant contact, every bit of history of this plant and the re-licensing process took the buyout a couple months ago? With that one bit of downsizing, the JN left themselves at exactly the same level of institutional knowledge on this major, ongoing, regional story. Now it looks like Newsday is already one up on the JN on the Indian Point beat.

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  10. A sad example of copy editing gone bad in the Business section of the Arizona Republic on June 6: "D-Day looms in Cuba-U.S. rum trademark war." A trademark war over rum cannot be compared in any way with D-Day. It trivializes history and is an amateurish attempt to jazz up a headline and tie the issue into the day of publication. It does not work on any level.

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  11. Love Mr. Buffett, but when he is gone, his company will dump the newspaper portfolio.

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  12. Buffett's got his money. Now he's working on his legacy. Maybe he doesn't want to give it ALL to Bill Gates.

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  13. Wis. full access subscription hits in July.

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  14. Left Gannett in mid March and still have yet to receive my pension packet. Is anybody else experiencing the same problem? I've called numerous times and was told it is being processed. Also told that the company Gannett was using to administer the pension plan was doing a poor job and their contract with Gannett was terminated. Apparently, a new company is now administering the plan due to many complaints and calculation errors.

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  15. 2:05, I had heard this, too -- that Gannett recently dumped Northern Trust Company. But the last time I spoke with the Gannett Pension Center (and this was just last month) to ask again like so many others, "Where is the pension," the rep still said when I cited Northern Trust's name that Northern Trust was doing it. Whether that's accurate or not, no idea. And "no idea" is typical when dealing with Gannett.

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  16. when i left at the end 0f 2011 the calculation was wrong, they said Oh we made a mistake, when i did finally get my pension it was the wrong amont again. called and they fially sent another check for the difference. watch them, they'll try to cheat you out of every penny. Gracia needs the money for her bonus.

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  17. Huge cuts in some pension accumulation amounts posted on company web site compared with amounts carried in previous reports to employees since freeze. No good explanations. Totally inconsistent.

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  18. JIM, THE FUTURE, FROM "M.I.T. REVIEW?"

    http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428072/technology-review-goes-digital-first/?ref=rss

    "Beginning today, and reaching a kind of climax in October, you will see an increasing number of changes at Technology Review. The changes are part of a new commitment on our part to becoming a more digital-first media company.

    "To be clear: digital first doesn’t mean that we won’t publish our print magazine in the United States or internationally. We know some people find print the preeminently pleasurable medium; we’ll publish print magazines so long as I am the publisher of Technology Review. But henceforth people will be able to read everything we publish free of charge on the Web, and we’ll publish nothing first in print. Some stories we’ll post online first, and then in our magazines. Other stories we’ll publish simultaneously in various media. The website will be the complete repository of everything we publish. For us, print will be just another platform (to use the jargon of software development), and by no means the most important."

    Dang.

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  19. these company awards are very inspiring. Jim, not sure you can watch but they are very encouraging.

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  20. This Employee Awards ceremony is just like the Oscars: I don't know who any of these people are, I've never seen any of their work, I don't know what they're talking about in their speeches and the whole thong has gone on about an hour too long.

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    1. So true. it sure isnt about journalism. is the Purpose Wall up for an award?

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    2. Wow you are a sad person. It was a great event. I feel bad for you.

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  21. The decline of The Journal News continues, if they get scooped on big stories, they just play them down as minor stories. A perfect example is the hazing incident involving Rye High School students, they had lame coverage so they played it down as if it wasn't a big story. But anything involving kids being bullied is a big story these days. The NYC TV stations and newspapers came into The Journal News coverage area and basically kicked their butts again

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  22. Does anybody know if Gannett is required by law to disburse a pension lump sum payment within a certain number of days after employment ends with the company?

    If so, does a penalty kick in if they miss the deadline?

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    1. They have 6 months under federal law.

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  23. 4:46 Your critique would be more convincing with some specific examples.

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  25. 4:46 Just not true. The Journal News didn't get beaten on the hazing story. Once again, the competition is out in force spreading misinformation. You must be one of those Cablevision editors who puts "Exclusive" on every story you publish, even when you've been beaten by hours -- or days. It's become a running joke.

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  26. 12:04 And as far as Indian Point goes, that's what qualifies as original reporting over at Cablevision? Explains a lot. While you're at it, maybe you can explain why you're posting AP stories out of Buffalo, Syracuse, Binghamton, Long Island ... and all over the place, that have no relevance in Westchester, Rockland or Putnam. Every single day. I guess you don't have any "original reporting" to put up?

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  27. Pension payout figures Gannett insists on are demonstrably false for at least one property, and there has been a group in contact with the Department of Labor about it. To compare notes with that group, email gannettpensions@gmail.com, please.

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  29. Yes, 5:16 it is absolutely require to pay it after you complete all your paperwork. The lawyers tell me it's a Hal year after that.

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  30. Az Republic Reversing a trend! azcentral runs an article today on suburban vegetable gardens that ran in the paper last weekend. I can see the marketing campaign now.

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  31. Rtrs story says digital ad revenue growth stalls. Dickey says advertisers want strong brands.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/07/us-newspaper-digital-ads-idUSBRE85605E20120607

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  32. 12:04 and 4:46
    What about all the articles lohud had that Newsday didn't: the package on Lauren Spierer or the pipeline issue Champlain, the Novack trial. There are many other articles.
    So the editors chose to go with AP originally on Indian Point. The info got out there. All Newsday did was talk to Indian Point spokesman and add in background. Lohud later followed with local update. The hazing issue: well news judgment is different. Newsday focused on that so lohud is terrible? Again, you don't mention the articles lohud worked on and posted that Newsday didn't.. Sometimes it's about choices. Ah, you know that lol

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  33. 12:04 pm and 4:46 pm
    What about all the articles lohud had that Newsday didn't: the package on Lauren Spierer or the pipeline issue Champlain, the Novack trial. There are many other articles.
    So the editors chose to go with AP originally on Indian Point. The info got out there. All Newsday did was talk to Indian Point spokesman and add in background. Lohud later followed with local update. The hazing issue: well news judgment is different. Newsday focused on that so lohud is terrible? Again, you don't mention the articles lohud worked on and posted that Newsday didn't.. Sometimes it's about choices. Ah, you know that lol

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  34. 12:04 and 4:46
    What about all the articles lohud had that Newsday didn't: the package on Lauren Spierer or the pipeline issue Champlain, the Novack trial. There are many other articles.
    So the editors chose to go with AP originally on Indian Point. The info got out there. All Newsday did was talk to Indian Point spokesman and add in background. Lohud later followed with local update. The hazing issue: well news judgment is different. Newsday focused on that so lohud is terrible? Again, you don't mention the articles lohud worked on and posted that Newsday didn't.. Sometimes it's about choices. Ah, you know that lol
    Lets not also forget that Newsday cited reports by other newspapers; mnot original reporting

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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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