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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
29 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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Well since no one else has said it.
ReplyDeleteWhen do the layoffs get announced?
Nobody can be happy with financial report.The 8% drop in print advertising is huge,again.
Certainly not a sign of an upward revenue trend or that there is recovery in sight.
That has to mean cost reduction.Does anyone know where cost can be cut ,except employees?
Three corrections in the Appleton P-C today. It used to be weeks without any. Guess the young ones don't worry about cq-ing or checking easily verified info.
ReplyDeleteBut at least they work cheap.
What cuts? Let's go hire more VPs with the same useless job descriptions and same lack of any contributions or results as Murcko, Bamikarim, Micek and the rest of the ship of fools.
ReplyDeleteNo one else has said anything because no one else cares any longer. Lay offs and furloughs are inevitable again and again.
ReplyDelete8:33, if I give you a date will you finally shut up about it?
ReplyDeleteLet's say .... August 1. Does that work for you?
There will be no more Company-wide Days of Reduction. Layoffs and restructurings are happening all the time, as we speak, and are not tied to a particular quarter.
ReplyDeleteDark time, which is the practice of using monies from unfilled positions, will achieve much of what we need in the third quarter. Watch for openings to be slow-walked through the process, not frozen but held open a few extra weeks or months.
Your Monday and Tuesday editions are going to be scaled WAY back (new and small page configurations, eliminations of features sections) to save on newsprint. Metro sites will see six-page A sections; community sites will see four-page A sections.
If there are to be big reductions-in-force, they will come in September, before the start of the fourth quarter. But those will be executed at the group level and be dependent upon group performance.
A piece of good news: No third-quarter furloughs at most sites! All USCP sites were directed to feather furloughs into their budgets for the 1st and 3rd quarters. The downside is that publishers and GMs will be expected to look for ways to recover some or all of the expense savings that were budgeted for furloughs through other belt-tightening.
Did anyone read the money section of todays USA Today. The digital and Broadcasting % were correct but it ststed advertising was down 6%. Reading sec filings it was down 8%. Cannot even get there own news correct. Got to love this place!!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have information on the fate of Atlanta Offset? With an all but absent GM, and the PM running the plant into the ground and no Corp intervention shows signs of whats to come... One can only assume that Atlanta is on the chopping block.
ReplyDeleteAny information?
Gannett sacrificed major Sunday single copy sales to make cuts at GPS. This should have been a great year for Single Copy with the Olympics, and the Presidential election. Who ever made that decision has cost Gannett a major source for revenue. Shame on them.
ReplyDeleteKudos to hard working and talented Journal News news editor Joe McDonald for getting out of Dodge and leaving the business to get into Business Administration after receiving his MBA from Fordham. You have to wonder what sane person would stay at that place at this point?
ReplyDeleteCan't believe no one has posted this yet from today's Romensko: http://jimromenesko.com/2012/07/17/todays-unfortunate-post-it-ad-placement/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150905718521503_22022744_10150905970311503#f21f0e903b4958c
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete@2:04
ReplyDeleteI'm going to save that link, and when I need a laugh I'll read a few more. Thanks!
PS - Who (or Whom) do you suppose was responsible for the message in the girl's glasses? A classic!
They scale back Mondays and Tuesdays any further they might as well put it on 2 pages and have the carriers put them in windshields at parking lots!
ReplyDeleteYou people amaze me. You're an educated group of people, yet your surprised that print is dying. Your company is doing what it can to go into the future but you blame them for trying to keep the ship floating.
ReplyDeleteHere is your idea. Lets make no changes, keep losing money and expect everything to get better.
The rest of the industry is dying, and you seem to blame Gannett and quality. It's not a quality issue.
What a bunch of whiners.
2:04 re: unfortunate ad placement. Reminds me of the Virginia Tech shootings a few years back. Front-page story and our paper had a gun store "Post-It," plus a gun store ad on the Web page that had the story. Sweet.
ReplyDelete2:49 Seriously, Jim. You'll let that attack stand? What happened to your no-name standard?
ReplyDelete4:01: The fact that print is dying is also affecting digital. Where I worked, when newshole was scaled back, the content to fill that old newshole often just went away, rather than be continued for digital only. Nobody in charge really paid attention to the fact that story count went down when newshole went away, when it should have at least stayed the same (assuming staffing levels stayed the same). That meant less content no matter what platform. Don't ask me what the reporters did with the time that was freed up from having less content to write.
ReplyDeleteLet's give credit where credit is due . . . here's something useful. Simple, but useful. Let's see more.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/life/tv-on-the-web
Their needs to be something in the ad contract that allows the paper to move a "guaranteed" position in the special event that the news on the given day of publication would create an embarrassment for both the paper and the advertiser. Maybe there is now; there wasn't at the time I cite (Virginia Tech shootings). I remember discussing this at the time; I was told to mind my own business. Especially liked the condescending "Guaranteed means guaranteed" reply to my suggestion. Everyone else in the room was silent. So much for "ownership" of one's job and that whole "team" bullshit.
ReplyDeleteAny mention of Deal Chicken's revenue? Traffic is up but whats the story? Is that making money?
ReplyDelete@5:16 . . . I worked in TV and radio for over 30 years. ANY time there was a plane crash, those spots vanished IMMEDIATELY. If the news director didn't get you in the first five minutes, the sales manager did. Day or night. Didn't matter when.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it's a lot easier to delete an item from a playlist than it is to remove it from a planned space. Something that might be easily solved with a little communication, as in "Here's the Post-It schedule for the month of July." That way the ME can at least wake up the sales manager and publisher and give a warning.
How hard would it be to have a (non-printed, but visible) pop-up for the front page showing the day's Post-It or wrap-around (what is that thing called?).
4:01
ReplyDeleteFor some of us its not the fact that the publishing is as you say dying. It is the fact that many people have spent 15-20 years with a company in the trench's (and yes we know time is limited) only to have upper managment idiots who think they are sneaky per say pull the rug out from under them.
I have seen the webcasts, I have listened to what is nothing more than wordplay in their efforts to hide what we all know is happening.
Would it be such a terrible thing for a company who claims to report the news in an honest and fair manner to treat some of their greatest assets (employees) in the same manner?
6:13, sorry I missed with working with you. 5:16.
ReplyDeleteAnother 8% loss in the print column. Not sure that will help the guy who ran all five of his properties to "DEAD STINKING LAST."
ReplyDeleteHe's out of OC members to chase away, where will his savings come from now?
Can anyone stop the the Anchorman from destroying his third newspaper?
http://paidcontent.org/2012/07/17/usa-today-launches-internet-video-guide/
ReplyDelete1:58 so true. He's a great guy. But, more true is the fact those that stay are nuts. It's a crap hole!
ReplyDelete12:27, I heard Martore say no furloughs corporate-wide or in any division wide way for both 3rd and 4th quarters. Nothing about layoffs.
ReplyDeleteJoe McDonald was both super competent AND a good guy. One of the best bosses I ever had.
ReplyDelete