Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July 23-29 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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35 comments:

  1. Shreveport production continue to DIE! Gannett has over $15 million invested in the Shreveport press and we continue to get a late and crappy paper. I have been a loyal customer for almost 30 years and I am going to call it quits. I cannot continue to pay for something that looks like my grandchild put out. Griffin I do not know what you are doing but please examine your product before putting it out the door!!!!!!!!!!! Bailey do not make me any more promises that you cannot keep regarding your product. You are both hurting your product in a BIG way!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. I always chuckle when someone says that people would still buy newspapers if content was better, grammar was better, etc. The reality is that no, for the most part, they wouldn't. People have simply chosen the way they want to get their information, and newspapers are generally not it. Content started to deteriorate after newspapers had already started losing advertisers and readers- not the other way around.

    Times change. For the first time ever, more than half of all people (51%) check their emails on their phones as opposed to a desktop or laptop. For those of you out there in your 20's and 30's, when your grandkids come over and see your old HP desktop you will probably need to explain to them what it is.

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  3. 9:00 AM - It is difficult to put a good product out when Gannett refuses to invest the money needed to make the press run like it should. You can complain all you want to on this blog, Gannett does not care. They don't care about their product, their employees, their communities, or their reputation. As long as the papers keep making enough money for the stockholders and the corporate employees, that's enough. By the time the doors close, the bigwigs will be fat and happy and they will walk away without looking back.

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  4. Lol at 9:00 a.m. Griffin is a botard. I think he missed his calling to be a used car salesman. Not only does he backstab his employee's but he will take any credit for anything good that has happened regardless if he had a hand or not. Stay tuned there is alot more stuff that will be posted. If he wants to treat people like idiots then the truth needs to be said about him. Here's looking at you Griffin.;)

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  5. More useless "reporting" by Poynter, which says that Patch doubled revenue in the second quarter. More percentages without real numbers. Patch is so far in the hole that doubling revenue is meaningless. I rarely bother with Poynter and always visit Romenesko.
    BTW, I think you're on to something good with that Freedom Forum/Libor story. Hope more shakes loose soon.

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  6. 9:00 I do not know Griffin but Bailey cannot help you. Bailey is the publisher and he does not know his advertisers are leaving him in big numbers because he does not get to know them. I cannot say this enough "ADVERTISERS DO BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE THEY KNOW AND TRUST". Until Bailey stop pointing the finger at others for the revenue lost and look at himself The Times will continue to DIE.

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  7. I do not agree with a previous commenter that DealChicken sales people are not qualified. It takes people with very thick skins to constantly cold call every single day and make sure there's a deal. The problem is with the marketing and the unqualified subscriber lists for the most part. Its a top down issue.

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  8. RE: Cincy Enquirer Chiquita series.

    The original series is still out there, though not, of course, at any Gannett site.

    Try: http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/chiquita/chiquita02.htm

    Poorly written, like a friggin' corporate memo, but tremendously researched. Nobody has been able to pin so much as a single inaccuracy in facts, to this day. Remember, the legal settlement was over CRIMINAL charges (a federal wiretapping beef), not CIVIL charges (no libel suit has ever been filed or even suggested, because everything in series is apparently the truth). The problem was never WHAT was reported, but HOW the reporting/news gathering process occurred. Did the means justify the end? Probably not. But who in any newsroom has ever considered bending a rule in pursuit of a story? Peeking at a memo laying on some politician's desk? Stopping to overhear a bathroom conversation between two corporate executive types? Let he who is without sin, throw the first typewriter ...

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  9. i must say, i have noticed our building going to shit ever since Gannett outsourced our cleaning crew. disgusting bathrooms, i won't even attempt to go into the lunchroom anymore, the microwaves have stuff growing in them (literally) and dead bugs all over the place. BLEH! the ONLY two upsides: softer toilet paper (this week) and a new cinnamon smell.

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  10. 9:37, content deteriorated when newspapers stopped focusing on it.

    Many, many people in Gannett -- including some who post here -- backed that approach because they wanted their jobs to be easier. Now the approach has failed, so they pretend they disagreed with that plan. But they were all for it for a long time.

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  11. Reading between the lines of the Enquirer’s on-line chat with Buchanan and Washburn the take away appears to be this:

    Readers won’t love that new look if they go to today’s newshole ratios. Most advertisers likely won’t like getting far less space for the same price. It’s doubtful newsprint consumption will remain the same and/or increase. Charging for online access, as compared to free as is now, will contrary to what they believe, result in fewer readers especially those like CrazyCatLady who will be asked to pay more on top of what she already pays now.

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  12. Barry Diller is one of the true pioneers and visionaries in both TV and the internet. I've shortened the original article to the parts relevant to readers of this blog. No sentences or paragraphs have been altered. Consider the last paragraph a parable.

    From the Atlantic Wire via Yahoo!

    Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp which recently acquired sole control of Newsweek, said that a plan to end its print edition is coming as soon as this fall. His comments came in IAC's quarterly earnings call and were first reported in a two-sentence story by Bloomberg News's Sarah Frier ("Newsweek, the 79-year-old magazine, will eventually transition to an online-only publication") and then in a tweet from her colleague Edmund Lee ("Barry Diller says by September-October, plan for digital only Newsweek will be announced"). The first actual quote from Diller came later in a post by Politico's Dylan Byers: "The transition will happen. The transition to online from hard print will take place. We’re examining all of our options.

    Ever since Diller acquired half of Newsweek in 2011, despite its tradition and with star editor Tina Brown's attention-grabbing covers, the magazine has been a financial sore spot for Diller. The recent decision by the family of Sidney Harman, who bought Newsweek from The Washington Post in 2010, to give up its stake and stop contributing to its losses would only exacerbate the financial hit. Ultimately, Diller cares about the profitability of IAC, which owns a portfolio of businesses like Match.com, Ask.com and Excite. Reuters reports, "IAC's profit was impacted by an after-tax non-cash charge of $16.2 million, or 18 cents a share, from a write-down in the value of its stake in the money-losing Newsweek Daily Beast after it bought a controlling interest in the business." Overall the company reported net income was up 2.1 percent to $43.3 million and revenue climbed 40 percent to $680.6 million. "Newsweek is not necessarily a distraction for IAC management, though investors may get perturbed about it not being profitable and weighing on the company's bottom line," a financial analyst told Reuters.

    Most magazine publishers these days concede that their publications will ultimately have to transition to digital-only at some point. But with major revenues still generated by print advertising and circulation, the question of when is usually unsettled. And a plan for a digital Newsweek could mean scaling back from its weekly schedule without abandoning print entirely. But in any case, the death of print, as Matt Drudge headlined the news, is not far off.

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  13. Ragbrai: idiotic bike ride across Iowa,Sponsored by ,yes the Des Moines Register is going on this week.
    Most drivers and towns in Iowa hope they are not on the chosen path.Except those towns that are overnite stops,they cash in big time on the controlled chaos of thousands of riders stirsty for beer and food.Well,2 already have been hit by cars and taken to hospitals and that means two more counties will be sued.Another great Gannett farce.

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  14. Here, too, 1:40...I'll head to the courthouse, city hall or nearby coffee shop before I'll use the germ-infested facilities in our building. And the sales area and newsroom floors and desks aren't much better.

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  15. 1:40 I think they terminated the bug guy at our plant. If you sit on the toilet in the ladies room, there are little white bugs crawling around on the black tile. Then if you go to pick something left on a desk there are ants, I've seen dead roaches and mouse droppings! The WHOLE place has gone down the pooper. Some things I can clean myself, but a cleaning crew did work. Help with the white little speck crawley bugs would be nice, that way I wouldn't mind having my pants down to my ankles while I'm in the ladies room!

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  16. I have to admit that I chuckled at the "disgusting bathrooms, i won't even attempt to go into the lunchroom anymore, the microwaves have stuff growing in them (literally) and dead bugs all over the place." Before I retired in April, the employees on my floor cleaned the counter tops, microwaves and sinks when other people thought their momma's worked there. Services took care of stopped up sinks, floors and refrigerators. Point is, clean up after yourselves and put pressure on those who don't. I now work in retail part time and the employees are responsible for keeping the facilities clean. Take some pride in the area you work in and don't expect the Janitor to do it.

    Your momma don't work there.

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  17. Q:”Will advertisers pay less for a full-page in the new format compared to what they pay now?”

    A:“We are delivering the same audience…greater recall of ads in the new format… more impact for the same big audience is a good deal “ writes Buchanan.


    How can a full-page ad in a smaller format have more impact and greater recall, 20 points more is what they alluded too, than a much larger full-page in the Enquirer’s current format.

    It can’t. Three Pinocchio's for that answer and others.



    http://cincinnati.com/blogs/enquirermedia/2012/07/24/chat/

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    Replies
    1. It's about share of page and more impactful color...

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  18. 1:40, 4:11: I have to agree as well. Even before my former site outsourced its cleaning, I noticed that they started cutting expenses by not watering (or not watering enough) its grounds. The grass turned a crispy brown over the summer, and I figured that brown grass was a metaphor for the state of the newspaper's future. Turned out to be true, I guess. I now work for a company that spends money to make money. Their bathrooms smell nice, they have nice office equipment and the building and grounds are clean. I can't say I don't miss the newsroom, because I really do, but I don't miss Gannett.

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  19. @ 10:51 post - not sure what a botard is, or why you would call the venerable Anchorman one. However your allegations are in tune with most assessments.

    This glorified national sales rep who has already destroyed two newspapers and has almost completed the destruction of his third {{{hold on tight Ledford, he's taking you down with him}}} will have to be discharged by his martini Hawaiian homeboy once he realizes his friend wasn't up to the job of Publisher.

    Shame what he's done to the crown jewel of the east.

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    1. Seems we have to distinquish between the Shreveport Griffin & Wilmington Publisher Griffin. Botard (beyond retarded) certainly fits both.

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  20. @5:46 I don't know where YOU work that you have all that extra time to clean up the cafeteria, but at my office we do our job + 2 other people's. Perhaps if you actually did your job properly, you might understand why a cleaning crew is necessary for large office buildings.

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  21. Why do people insist that Gannett had to change. The Stock was much higher before the housing market collapsed in 2008. Sure it was in decline before that due to new technologies but they can and should do both as long as print is making profits. No they didn't need to make all the changes to the Newspaper. No they didn't need to lay off all the people and buy them out. Former CEO Craig Dubow got over thirty million. They weren't struggling to much to pay him. New CEO said she would try to avoid future layoffs. She didn't try very hard. Most people who didn't receive buyouts only got a supplemental severance pay which is reduced by unemployment. You can see what they care about.

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  22. Stop! Howard Griffin is God!

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  23. The management at Gannett reminds me of the Mega rich that take advantage of the opportunities they've been given in America then put all their money in tax sheltered off shore bank accounts instead of reinvesting in America.

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  24. Dont feel bad, our site hasnt had working hot water in any bathrooms in over 5 years, we complained about the bugs and were told to throw out the garbage, we have a larger pile of broken equipment than we have working equipment, I feel like im working in a glorified sanford and son junkyard... I hope my headhunter comes thru asap

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  25. The unfortunate reality is newspapers are dying, there's not enough digital revenue or other streams to support Gannett as it is or was. Corners must be cut and will continue being cut. Anybody within any newspaper should be looking for a job and anybody within any newspaper should know nobody's expecting business to rebound, this is simply a clearly, continuing downward slide. Less circ, less ad revenue... Fewer jobs in the very near future and one could suggest the industry is very close to failing as it's only a matter of time until print simply can't be sustained. Look at the total revenue Gannett receives from digital and imagine that being the total size of the company in a few short years.

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  26. Lol...botard is just a nickname that we use for BONA FIDE RETARD

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    1. I grew up w a sister who has mental retardation. I find "retard" a horrible slur. At least the other word is not as offensive. Nor does it seem as mean spirited.

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  27. What's up with single issue sales in Phoenix? I went to to three state buildings near the capitol today where there used to be papers for sale. Bin was empty and open at one building and had disappeared at the other two. Asked the security guard who suggested I go several blocks to a Circle K.

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  28. Newspaper websites will succeed if they do JOURNALISM, not the crap that you can get on any website. Focus ALL content on where our tax dollars go; pursue waste and corruption; do reporting that puts corrupt politicians in jail. Is it any wonder that the Great Recession occurred when newspapers were pursuing HITS on the web and not NEWS!!!

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  29. Wilmington has been so completely decimated and destroyed over the last two years, that you'd have to almost believe that it's intentional. It was once the cash cow of the east. Now it's dead last. Dead last Ron!

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  30. I find the whole posting with that horrible slur to be juvenile. Man up and work out your differences instead of hiding behind this blog. If I had to guess, I'd say the poster is probably incompetent. I have no idea who you all are, but seriously, grow up!

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    1. Said the pot calling the kettle black.

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  31. @7:17 I didn't say we cleaned the entire break room (Not Cafeteria)which is located on each floor. It takes a few extra seconds to clean up your own spill. If you make a mess in the microwave, clean it up. People need to take responsibility for their own mess. When I go into a break room, I don't expect to find that the person before me left mess.

    Do you clean up after yourself?

    Yes, large buildings need a cleaning crew but they are not personal janitors. SOme of the recent Gannett hires seem to think that if it is in the Fridge, it is open season and if they spill, someone else will clean it up.

    I feel sorry for the Services people who are now outsourced.

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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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