Monday, October 01, 2012

Oct. 1-7 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

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38 comments:

  1. Buesse rolls out Sports Pulse:
    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/usa-today-sports-introduces-syndicated-140000423.html

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  2. Pageviews for Sept. '12 vs. Sept. '11:
    Down over 18% at my paywalled USCP site.
    (Note: the local TV station's website got a major upgrade a few months ago.)
    But Wall Street thinks this is good?
    I'm gonna start selling smoke machines and mirrors!

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  3. oops scooped again Jimbo!

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  4. 11:03 You can only get scooped when there's actual news.

    Pulse? A "module"? WTF is that? I challenge you to explain the significance of that in layman's language.

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  5. I would like some kind of explanation from Margaret Buchanan how her serving as chairwoman of UC Health is not a conflict of interest. Also, how can she say in her recent press release that she is stepping down from the UC board because her newspaper will be covering the search for a new president? That did not stop her from remaining on the board during the last two searches.

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  6. I heard that 4 newspapers with another newspaper chain, including paper in New Orleans, quit daily publication and will only publish 3/4 days a week. Is the next thing for more newspapers in Gannett?

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  7. "I challenge you to explain the significance of that in layman's language."

    Explain the relevance of "layman's language" in a press release aimed at a professional audience.

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  8. Because it's a professional audience that is highly more receptive to marketing materials written in English as opposed to phony IT/New Media gobblyspeak.

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  9. Just checked the website of the Gannett paper where I used to work. I found a gallery of 90 photographs from a high school homecoming dance. How in this world is this considered news? Even if I had a kid in high school, I would not pay for this kind of useless content. These pictures belong on the Facebook page for the high school -- NOT in the daily newspaper.

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  10. Where are the ads on the new USA Today website?

    It's very disturbing to go through every tab and only see one paid ad (for a hotel on Travel).

    This cannot be good.

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  11. This entire USA Today reboot is a last ditch effort, all in, to see if the news brand can be saved.

    If advertisers don't come back, we're doomed, given the amount of money shelled out to do the redesign.

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  12. Ahhh, now Gracia wants me to join her and the leadership team on Make A Difference Day Oct. 27. We're getting the trickle down of that corporate push at my site, with the managers encouraging us to become known as volunteers at one or two big community events every year. It seems like a thin attempt to reassure the locals that Gannett really is interested in the community, not just the cash cow of USCP.

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  13. “White House aims to suppress contractor layoff notices”

    How is it that Gannett’s Federal Times and Defense News brings this to story to light, including follow ups alleging it’s against the law to do, yet Gannett’s other papers, including USA Today do not?

    Federal and state laws demand employees be given 60 days’ notice of layoffs and now our govt is agreeing to pay costs to those companies who violate it! Not sure what’s worse, attempts to suppress the notices or Gannett apparently “suppressing” these stories publication in its other papers despite claims that it had new balls.

    Frankly, this is why readers have increasingly lost faith.


    http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20121001/AGENCY04/310010003/White-House-aims-suppress-contractor-layoff-notices

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    Replies
    1. I think you are mis-reading. Administration is asking to delay sending out notices until after election, not ignoring Warn.

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  14. 3:50pm, that gallery sounds like a desperate attempt to generate clicks. Which is what happens when you have failed newsroom leadership.

    WWNYTD?

    What Would New York Times Do?

    Would they post a time-wasting gallery like that? No. They have more respect for their readers.
    The things I've seen posted as faux-news includec United Way campaigns, specific local charity events to drum up money (lost causes), and any event the executive editor or publisher is involved in.

    Which explains why there's been a steady drop in online viewership (as well as print), regardless of the total bullshit the PR drones pump out to The Street.

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  15. SILLY

    "I would like some kind of explanation from Margaret Buchanan how her serving as chairwoman of UC Health is not a conflict of interest."

    If newspaper people have to drop off boards, etc. -- what is next? Disclosing if a reporter's spouse is a member of a union that can benefit from her/his reporting? Lot of folks would like to know that.

    Silly, absurd and dumb.

    The paranoid are never alone, are they?

    I could give a fucking rip about that hick town Cinci and its hick-Gannettoids. Who were/are so stupid, they didn't see the Banana-Gate problem, even with months of warning.

    http://bit.ly/SX3tZ3

    I do care about reality and facts. Like why the paper is as dull as dog poop. Maggie The Homer is a lesser issue.

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  16. THINK

    @6:25 PM - Buchanan said she resigned from UC’s board to avoid any “perceptions of conflicts (of interest)” that may arise, yet not her newly expand role as chairwoman of UC Healthcare System and UC Health, one of the area’s largest healthcare providers.

    Why?

    Surely, an intelligent person like you can discern the difference between serving on say a chamber board, even 3CDC, versus a board that will likely make key decisions directly impacting the quality and costs of health care for a large number of Greater Cincinnatians due to the Affordable Care Act, decisions that should make headlines many times in the coming months and years ahead.

    And that is likely exactly what 11:40 AM rightly asks, yet not you as you less than eloquently explained.

    Interesting.

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  17. Does Bob Campbell still work for GANNETT and if so WHY?

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  18. Hat tip to the Arizona Republic for its investigation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his department's handling of sex crimes and crimes against children.

    About four years after the East Valley Tribune won a Pulitzer for reporting on the same topic and a year after AP reported it, the Republic is stepping up.

    Way to set the agenda.

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  19. Sooooo ... Not sure if this was brought up, but with the "new" USAT logo, why does the USAT logo still appear on the USAT Weekend pub?

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  20. 8:34 - Suspect that, because the weekend publication is prepared well in advance, the new logo will be coming in the next couple of issues.

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  21. BULL CRAP THINKING

    " .. Surely, an intelligent person like you can discern the difference between serving on say a chamber board, even 3CDC, versus a board that will likely make key decisions directly impacting the quality and costs of health care .."

    Excellent, run-on 75-word diatribe that shows you are not a professional journalist.

    Those who are professional journalists with working brains know there are two sides of a newspaper -- the "business side" and "news side." Read the 8,000-wood obit in NYT on Punch to try to understand. You probably won't understand, you're biased with a closed mind, but hope springs eternal.

    Maggie is NOT on the news side.

    She has NEVER been on the news side.

    She is NOT going to be on the news side.

    So the hospital union nags and their welfare-loving buddies here who think there is a bottomless pit of money for them have NO basis to ask her to leave that board.

    Jim, you got a lot of political hacks here. They are very stupid. And they don't give you any money, do they?

    Bozos. Yahoos.

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  22. 5:12 - The act is known as the WARN act and applies to any company over a certain size, not just government contractors (Can't remember the specific size offhand and what the percentage is). That's the major reason Gannett trickles the layoffs - they keep under the WARN act requirements. It makes sense to me that the government publications would pick up on it first since the defense contractors have a large stake in that.

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  23. I could say something about WARN in context .. but Jim doesn't like politics here.

    Res ipsa.

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  25. Gannett Blog really does create a significant impact within the Gannett company. Many things that have been brought to light, via the Gannett blog, have been addressed accordingly. One of those items was Jody Gersh's previous abomination of Gannett Digital's Pinterst account. When the story broke on Gannett Blog, a group had been asked to completely cleaned up the account, which had shown abuse of company time. The excessive amount of followings and person interest photos have been removed/cleaned up. (Thank god!) Maybe Gersh will invest the company's time towards something called WORK!!!

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  26. The homecoming gallery, and others like it, aren't just about page clicks. Even more, it's about getting mom and dad and maybe the grandparents, too, to buy photo reprints at $30-35 a pop. Think graduation galleries are just about clicks and smiles? Or Little League games?

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  27. Yeah, they completely cleaned up the Gannett Digital Pinterest account. It no longer looks like gersh's personal bulletin board.

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  28. I'm sure another employee cleaned up Jodi's mess, while she was jet-setting in Hawaii or god knows where. It looks a million times better than what it was when the story first broke on Gannett Blog.

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  29. Hey has the "puffer coat" made an appearance yet? There's nothing more symbolic than the puffer coat. Funny!

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  30. 10:20 --- LOL. That's some funny sh;t.

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  31. Actually, you should rent the movie Legally Blonde. Look at the frames where a newspaper article is referenced. "You mean practically deformed!" I guess I would run to Hawaii and bury my head in the sand, too.

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  34. 11:54,
    This is 11:48 and I still work for Gannett. Try not to flatter yourself, by suggesting that others are at a loss. However, there is a whole company full of people who have removed your knives from their backs. I am sure that you'll use these postings as fuel for manipulation during work today, and ask for a pity~party. Please do us all a favor, and stop taking credit for other people's work and take a minute to sit on your (behind) and start working. It amazes me that you try to skirt the real issue that you abused company time, by pinning thousands of LIKES on a corporate site. You never once recognized the approach that other corporate sites had taken. Yet, even after others corrected the problem, you still want a pat yourself on the back. The only "ideas" that you speak of were generated by other folks in the company. I wonder if you have actually convinced yourself of your efforts of deception. The postings haven't even didn't even mention those broken the surface on the ridiculous "business" trips that you schedule for yourself. But we should talk about those trips and what purpose they serve. The purpose seems to be to continually serve you drinks on corporate cards, at resort locations. Yes. Great idea, master manipulation and abuse of corporate funds is such a new concept. You would only impress Bernie Madoff.

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  35. DOES NOT MAKE SENSE

    "I think you are mis-reading. Administration is asking to delay sending out notices until after election, not ignoring Warn."

    Last year, my nephew, an engineer, left a U.S. Navy contractor because he knew DoD cuts were inevitable.

    School districts always send out "too many" layoff notices in spring. It is called C.Y.A. And many are rescinded.

    Why is there a "wait?" Of course, there has to be head-count cuts, with the huge taxpayer debt.

    Just ridiculous bull crap.

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  36. So the Enquirer's paywall is now live, and their website is even slower than it was before (never thought that was possible). Don't they do ANY QA on their products before they release them? When a web page takes over 30 seconds to load because of all the background scripts, that is a clear sign that you are doing something wrong.

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  37. Thanks HR Pro. I understand the ACT, as would any Gannett entity who’s had to issue local WARN statements of their own over the past few years. The issue here is that the current administration has been trying to stop warnings being sent to Defense employees prior to the election for a few months and little, if any attention has been paid to it by entities like this one.


    Govt’s latest offer to pay for fines and other costs is it’s latest attempt, one that should be front and center for all to see as in the end, taxpayers will be on the hook for millions, if not billions, in unnecessary costs for violating a law that shouldn’t be violated.

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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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