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Thursday, July 12, 2012
35 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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Ken Paulson, the former USA Today editor who now runs Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., is one of 10 people being honored by the Missouri School of Journalism.
ReplyDeleteThey are receiving Missouri Honor Medals for Distinguished Service in Journalism, according to this news release.
Jody Demling is leaving The Courier-Journal after 22 years as a sportswriter.
ReplyDeleteHe's moving to FoxSportsNext with details still to come.
He'll be running their sight on recruiting and cover U of L sports and write about horse racing.
Cox Digital Solutions Partners with Gannett to Provide Political Advertising
ReplyDeletehttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/cox-digital-solutions-partners-gannett-133000240.html
I saw this post from yesterday, read the interview and am appalled that someone in Crotchfelt's position would go out of their way to make the "Future's bright" comment. What around the Gannett papers suggests a bright future?-
ReplyDeleteI came across an interesting interview with Karen Crotchfelt from Nov, 2010 while she was in Phoenix-http://www.phoenixchamber.com/news/newsletter/businesswise/20101130/exec
Here's an interesting quote that's troubling. I haven't worked in the industry for almost 4 years but when was the last time anybody felt their future was bright?
"Q. If you could change one thing about the news business what would it be? A. How we beat up on ourselves. We need to give ourselves a break sometimes and see how bright our future is."
7/11/2012 8:58 PM
No mention of the Newseum in the description of Ken Paulson's contributions to journalism.
ReplyDeleteZanmiller ???
ReplyDeleteWhat is the story behind Zanmiller leaving Gannett? Does anyone know the story?
Paulson has made himself rich by kissing Neuhart's ass and fetching his wine orders, being an editor who played Big G politics and wrecked lives without blinking, and now wraps himself in the first amendment for a half-million a year. Nice work if you can get it. Way to go, Mizzou.
ReplyDeleteZanmiller
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the story why Zanmiller left Gannett?
Ken Paulson's legacy at USAT: He was the first editor in the paper's history who laid off people in the newsroom. Bad timing or bad editor/manager? You decide. All I know is that it never happened before, even during the massive newsprint cost hikes and other economic downturns. Heck, it didn't even happen when the paper was losing millions of dollars each year.
ReplyDeleteUSAT was a place people came to for security, even when other papers were laying off folks in the 1990s. Under Paulson (and Moon), that all changed. They opened up a can of worms that still haunts us long after their departures. They made it "acceptable" to cut employees loose with no advance notice, no safety net. Again, USAT never experienced this level of nastiness until Paulson arrived. He pretended to be a nice guy, but he was totally detached from most people in the newsroom.
Now he's winning awards and racking in even bigger bucks. Where's the justice?
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ReplyDeleteZanmiller is moving to a transportation firm in Shreveport.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone guess what Banikarim and Micek are doing in all those secretive closed-door off-site meetings they keep having?
ReplyDelete12:50 It was more about bad timing on Moon's and Paulson's behalf.
ReplyDeleteCorporate was no longer willing to protect USAT at any cost. And the financial crisis had begun. By late 2007, when the buyouts and layoffs started, USAT and the rest of the newspaper industry were facing a market unlike any other in the industry's history.
You can trace the beginning of the USAT slide to Paulson and Hillkirk. The former set the tone for using second-rate material to fill the paper; the latter never met a decision he couldn't avoid making, which facilitated Paulson's crapping up the report.
ReplyDelete@12:50 . . . are you a member of OCP (Occupy Crystal Palace)? What a quaint notion from the 1950s.
ReplyDeleteSince when does ANY organization outside of security forces OWE YOU JOB SECURITY?
Remember the Reporter's Admonition: Reporters should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
If you want comfort and security, go work for the Post Office. And even the USPS is slashing people and costs. The USPS has CUT a QUARTER MILLION JOBS in the past decade. And they're STILL CUTTING.
The only problem I see with print is: Is PRINT cutting jobs fast enough? Revenue is down 50% since 9/11 caused a last spike in interest and readership.
When you're bleeding to death, you apply a tourniquet. This will cause your arm or leg to be amputated, but YOU'LL LIVE. The time for band-aids is long past. Amputation of non-productive assets and workers is the only thing that will save Gannett and other large print entities.
My God, who wouldn't leave Gannett if they could before being shown the door by the the idiots who run the show these days. I got my walking papers three years ago and I'm thrilled for Pete. After a successful newspaper redesign and new press launch, he got crap thanks and support. Hooray for him that he is getting in the last lifeboat. Don't look back. A second career can be just as rewarding!
ReplyDeleteThe Company is done when print is gone you knuckle head
ReplyDeleteFurlough should be announced some time Monday afternoon
ReplyDeleteHip Hip Horay
BS total lie 4:28
DeleteAre you cool enough to work late nights and weekends for Gannett?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1212678
3:04 PM -- You're right: No company owes an employee job security. Stupid companies, however, treat employees as replacable commodities or, worse yet, mere expenses. That's because stupid companies don't know about the business cycle. You see, sooner or later the economy will pick up. Then stupid companies will find out that it's much more expensive to train and replace the employees who flee. They will also discover that it's much harder to hire good workers when you have a reputation for treating workers badly.
ReplyDeleteI could live with layoffs if they were fair. but when you have a top heavy management team that keeps expanding? No way.
ReplyDelete9:39 yeahhh, the losers pair up with other losers, in the hopes of somehow becoming the winners.
ReplyDeleteAnother flop strategic move by Gannett. Expect more of the same action, ie, low-grade and lame partnerships because NO CREDIBLE ORGANIZATION will consider working with gimpy Gannett.
4:26 Which will not be too far off--knucklehead!
ReplyDelete@5:36 . . . the problem with waiting for a recovery to save you is - there may not be a YOU to save. The end comes quickly to dinosaurs, but the dinosaurs in business certainly have clues to their coming demise.
ReplyDeleteHow long did Polaroid hang on because Realtors loved the product? When digital cameras and camera phones came along a few short years ago, Polaroid was done. Kodak will shortly follow, likely living on as a brand-name only. Those businesses could not transform themselves, even though they had money and enormous recognition.
Agile companies (and more importantly, company LEADERS) take advantage of good planning and good luck. Do you know the story of Pixar? George Lucas developed the technology, but it wasn't worth his time to exploit it. Steve Jobs, recently cast out of Apple, purchased what became Pixar for a few million bucks, and sold it to Disney years later for BILLIONS. If you want to see how a man changed the world, read the Isaacson book on Jobs.
Do you know the story of Foot Locker, the athletic store? Foot Locker was a project started in the 1970s by a well-known company looking to diversify as America shopped less at department stores and more at malls. The company - one of the largest retailers in the US for much of the 1900s - closed its last department store years ago. Ten years ago, it renamed itself Foot Locker, Inc. The original company? FW Woolworth.
One more tale of how being BIG won't save you. In the late 80s to early 90s - three successive years . . . the largest US retailer went from Sears, to Kmart, to Walmart. Sears is dying the death of old age. Kmart went bankrupt and was bought by . . . Sears. Do you shop at Sears? Or Kmart?
Walmart, largely unknown outside small towns in 1990, became a colossus.
Now which of the companies above most resembles Gannett. Any Gannett leaders remind you IN THE LEAST of Steve Jobs? Would innovation and consumer-friendly, the two hallmarks of Apple, come to mind as you think of Gannett?
Bad timing or not Jim, Paulson as an alleged editor and leader could have thought beyond himself. He was perfect for Gannett: Glib with a smooth veneer. Also selfish, petty and meaner than a snake. Played the game well enough the expense of others that he got a golden parachute to The Freedom Forum. His reward is to pull down big bucks in Nashville and dispense hollow bromides about freedom.
ReplyDelete11:22 am made a great point in Karen Crotchfelts' quote about having a bright future. I left Gannett a couples years ago and now have a very bright future. Business is tough and there's no guarantees anyplace, but at least I don't need to deal with the poor management, back-stabbing, dying industry and apologies to customer as when I was at the newspaper.
ReplyDeletePoor choice of words in today's USA Today story about Jessee Jackson Jr. "Wednesday's announcement was the first public 'ADMISSION' that Jackson suffers from a mental health condition." The reporters and editors might consider being more enlightened and more sensitive to the word choice "admission" of mental health condition. Preferred word: "acknowledgement" or "reference to." One would not refer to cancer or diabetes as "ADMISSION' of disease.
ReplyDeletePete is a very smart man and Gannett is losing a pioneer with a lot of knowledge and respect from coworkers. Stupid, stupid Gannett, once again.
ReplyDelete12:34 - Because Gannett sucks.
ReplyDeleteOr course Crotchfelt talked of a bright future in 2010 - hers! She is now a Publisher !
ReplyDeleteThe reduction of 7-day delivery is inevitable, kept alive by expense savings in other areas and digital revenue spikes. These efforts do not produce a trend that will return the kind of profits for sustaining 7 days. It'll come at different times for different companies based on their financial picture. Make no mistake though, the day will come. Decreasing just two days per week helps expenses greatly. Drop four days and you just increased the bottom line 10 percent, if you can survive the backlash from a small group. Just don't say you are doing it for a digital future. Tell it like it is. You are saving the paper from extinction.
ReplyDelete12:09 that's the same thing with me. I waas too good for the company--GONE!!!
ReplyDeleteBut best thing that ever happened--I pitty the fools!!!!
7:53...Truely the thinking that has demolished papers to the level they're at now. Is there nobody who believes that making a better product for the price will help sales make a comeback? Our paper keeps stripping racks off the street. Tell me how that helps sales? You charge a dollar and make the paper have half the pages and expect people to buy as if nothing happens?
ReplyDeleteWhat are you all doing to make the paper better? Complaining and whining about the people in charge...is that helping anything?
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