Sunday, September 02, 2012

Aug. 27-Sept. 2 | Your News & Comments: Part 5

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35 comments:

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

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  2. I dont understand why delivery problems are glossed over by the people visiting this blog. In cny missed deliveries are in the thousands so far this year, almost 10,000. People just keep poking at the published mistakes, who cares about mistakes if the product is not even being delivered.

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  3. What's going on with GPS at the Florida Today

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  4. Charles Everett9/01/2012 11:04 AM

    USA Today front page for its weekend edition is an instant classic: "We deserve better" below a photo of Romney and Ryan.

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  5. 11:04 A classic mistake, I'd say.

    That's the problem with using quotes as headlines -- something USAT does a lot, when a story isn't focused enough to guide the headline writer.

    In examples like this one, readers may overlook the quote marks and think the headline is a statement by the newspaper itself. That wasn't the case here.

    A better solution? The New York Times used a six-column banner headline that said: "Romney vows to deliver country from economic travails."

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  6. 10:12 is right delivery misses are in the thousands.With the lay offs in circulation, we have less DMs covering more of a circulation area and most of the time they are delivering a down route.

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  7. Formatting and advertising and silly promos dictate much of what is on 1a. But two stories on the front page is jist plain dumb. Story selection and news judgement is, too.

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  8. Copy editors (and designers) are trained to look for double entendres, double meanings and/or other confusing (or potentially biased) misreadings of headlines. There's no way the weekend USAT front page photo/headline juxtaposition didn't elicit snickers from someone on the copy or design desk. And if one person snickers, it needs to be changed.
    Also, don't top editors look at the front page of their paper?
    This is unconscionable, whatever your political persuasion. This isn't a game. And this isn't a college newspaper. It's supposed to be a serious (professional) national newspaper.
    Today, it's a joke.

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    1. There are at least three night editors on the page 1 desk. WAKE UP!!!!

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  9. That USAT headline **might** have worked if the photo depicted Romney speaking, and the design clearly indicated that it was Romney speaking those words.
    But this execution was just bush league.

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  10. MITT: 'WE DESERVE'

    .. thinking Gannettoids. Yes, 99% chance that is an oxymoron, but try, we must ..

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  11. Has anyone heard anything about the creation of a content hub? Just wondering if Gannett has considered creating a centralized solution for features content?

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  12. Paywall for Shreveport goes up this month. I don't blame anyone for not paying for what is online. I've decided not to pay for it in print anymore either. All the criticism about piss pore editing - it goes tenfold here at The Times. We can put blame on incompetent copy editors (or on those who glance at the copy) but why would a reporter turn in anything without spellchecking or doublechecking his/her own work? I would never have thought not to do that as a reporter, and even when I email, I make sure it is clean. Just an example of what folks in print get and what those of you who will have to pay online will get: A story on a gala fundraiser - throughout story reporter wrote Grambling University. It is Grambling State University! Grambling is a thing, not a person so to say "their history" is wrong. Grambling Universities Beacon Award should be Grambling University's ...comma missing and improper capitalization in "Dr. Kenoye Eke Sr. the Interim Vice President ... comma missing in Lawrence Brandon of Praise Temple, was one ..."exceptional students that who are prepared" Huh? Just to name a few errors. This isn't even laughable anymore.

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  13. CNY (Elmira) farmed out home delivery in Steuben County and part of Tioga (PA) County to a non Gannett paper.

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  14. Has anyone asked and been told what the increase in the employee contribution to the health care premium is if we choose not to complete the "Healthy Actions" -- biometric testing, etc.?

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  15. Well....if the cny circ director treats the delivery contractors like he treats others, that explains why they probably just dont give a damn.

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  16. Am I missing something here? Randy Lovely, editor of the Arizona Republic, tells readers today about the paper's important role as a community leader. But he doesn't explain how that's going to continue as its print circulation and online readership shrink because of the upcoming paywall. And he doesn't explain how the Republic is making the community better by putting its content, including the kinds of public service campaigns he praises, behind a paywall and charges readers to see them. Huh?

    http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/09/01/20120901arizona-republic-randy-lovely-community.html

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    1. Randy Lovely, and other Gannett big wigs are completely out of touch with reality. I have yet to see any responses from readers commenting on his columns.

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  17. As for the headline flub, technology has made the process of layout and editing so piecemeal that it is hard to get the full impact on a computer screen.I blame the lack of a composing room. Someone obviously fell in love with that headline, esp given the tight count. And no one had the insight or nerve to say no, not with that photo. Compositors on the other hand had no problem pointing out such laughable boneheaded moves. The best editors not only have a dirty mind but can see the paper as others would.

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  18. Take me now, Lord, I have (regretably) seen it all.

    About 90 percent of the cover of today's Courier-Post in Cherry Hill apparently is a PAID AD for a hospital.

    http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg2/lg/NJ_CP.jpg

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  19. I arranged for a vacation hold for my 2 daily newspapers (the local along with the WSJ, because the local product doesn't last thru half a cup of coffee). Delivery stopped 5 days before I left, altho I did get one or the other paper on a couple of days. I called to clarify my vacation hold dates; computer had it right, apparently the carrier can't read. At 6 a.m. the day I left for vacation, both papers were in the driveway. I called again. Two days later, both papers were delivered, even though delivery wasn't to resume for another week. I realize it does no good to complain, but this year, when I get the Christmas time insert from the carrier giving his name and address so I can send him a tip, I'm going to save it so I can contact him directly.

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  20. Piss-pore?

    Irony is under 'I' in Webster's.

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  21. @4:22 a.m.: It's $480 a year (or $40 a month) per individual at our site; not sure if that's standard for the entire company or set by site/region.

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  22. More about Cherry Hill's cover.

    Page 2 is also all about the hospital, but it does not say advertisement.

    Page 3A is the "real" 1A

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  23. Does anyone know status of design studios? Apparently Louisiana papers going to Des Moines has been delayed. Till when? If this was such a great idea, why are they not fully operational two years after they were supposed to be. To leave folks hanging who thought they were going to move clear across country to keep a job is pathetic. Hurry please. Louisiana papers need help - badly. CPC is killing us with poor editing (Oops, sorry. They don't do that!)And design ... well looks speak for itself.

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  24. 2:34 They switchover to Des Moines has been delayed until early 2013.

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  25. I hear $480 is the standard surcharge for not completing health requirements.

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  26. It's been a year now, gone from GANNETT- I LOVE IT !!! Thank you!!!

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  27. Re. Cherry Hill: Could anybody provide a link to pages 2 and 3? What does the "real" page 1 look like? I'd love to see that. Like the earlier poster, never thought I'd see things come to this.

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  28. In Phoenix, it's another weekly column from Randy Lovely and another chance for readers to sound off on a newspaper they apparently hate.

    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20120901arizona-republic-randy-lovely-community.html

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  29. So ... When will the Paywall Apocalypse hit The Detroit Free Press a.k.a. the Freep? Under the JOA, will The Detroit News have to follow suit? It will be a sad and devastating day for D-town. It is a beautiful example of how a newspaper can and should look ... A newszine. Bye to all the full-page pics we love and the HUGE Sunday page counts.

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  30. The delivery issues always amazed me. Upper management in Cincy could care less about the well being of the carriers. With spiraling fuel prices, and subsidizes being cut carrier turnover will always be high. DMs are over worked and underpaid, they deliver down routes routinely and have even been reduced to cleaing the toilets at the Centers because house keeping expense has long been cut from the budget. They work with hand me down PCs that should be trashed. That is of course true unless you have the MB suite on the 20th floor where bananas and fruit have to be perfectly arranged and the latest iPhones and iPads are the first to be rolled out. The carrier is truly the last person the subscriber comes in contact with after the process of putting a daily paper together. They can make or break all the work that preceeds it. Let's all consider giving them a generous tip at Christmas time, that's about the only thing they have to look forward. Already at the mercy of on time trucks it will be interesting to see how the 100 mile trip from Columbus down I-71 affects delivery times. I haven't noticed in the many Washburn columns siting glowing reviews of the new product if she addressed this very important fact. I would say probably not.

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  31. Does anyone have an update on what is going on in Phoenix? With owning a tv station and newspaper in the same market. I thought that was illegal.

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  32. It's only illegal if you have a majority of the market share. We very carefully and shrewdly gave away the majority of our market share in Phoenix so that the Justice department has no reason to investigate.

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