Saturday, October 20, 2012

Oct. 15-21 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

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46 comments:

  1. Wow - last week's hotel circ is droppin' like a rock . Down 20% YOY. Go Jill Heymer!

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  3. Heymer can't hear you. She's too busy commuting back and forth from Minneapolis on company time and money.

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  6. The last three comments illustrate the increasing coarseness and decreasing usefulness of this blog's comments. These folks haven't grown intellectually since they were scrawling naughty words on the bathroom walls in junior high. Sad.

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  7. Yes, and I bet they snicker like pre-pubescent kids, too

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  8. Take note of the treatment of the BSA "perversion files" story in the Wisconsin papers (at least in Appleton, Green Bay and Oshkosh). Sanitized story includes apologia from local council, no mention or names of the local perverts other than they were from certain cities in the area. Couldn't find any mention in Oshkosh, although they hosted one of the offenders. No links to the documents like in other papers. Is this Gannett-wide?

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  9. It goes deeper than that. Jim's allowance of the ugliness and inane comments on this blog have inadvertently burned all his bridges with prospective sources and tipsters.

    The only people left are disgruntled former (and some current) Gannett people. It's not a place to come for information on the company — it's a place to come for validation if you think the company is sinking.

    The people who might actually have tips — like an employee who believes in this company, but is frustrated with a decision — wouldn't post anywhere near here, because they know the message will get twisted and colored (only slightly by Jim, but a lot more by the community).

    It also explains why he only made 25 percent of his revenue goal last year. By catering to the lowest common denominator, he alienated the potential audience — Gannett employees who don't come to work hating everything about their job or this company, which is actually doing better than most others out there.

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  10. 11:12, where's your proof? Where's the other GBs?

    Answer: there aren't any. Duh.

    As for revenue goals, two words -- News Week. Lost $40,000,000. Lot of folks hurting. Duh.

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  11. That made no sense, 11:17. You must be one of the disgruntled people with nothing to offer.

    Keep ranting, Wrinkles! Maybe someday the company will notice.

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  12. Jim lost all credibility by allowing unchecked and unvetted information and by not following even the most basic tenets of good journalism in overseeing this blog. It's been obvious for a long tome that he really doesn't care. He's just keeping his hand out in hopes that some of the creepy cowards who post here will toss cash his way in exchange for a place to bitch.

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  14. To 12:08, your argument suffers from oversimplification. You don't seem to understand the difference between fact and opinion. Jim has shown that he has tried to clear away factual errors and inappropriate comments. Of course, people who post here are entitled to their opinions, even if they are not well-received.

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  16. Budgets submitted and now returned for further cuts. RIF's coming to the publishing division. Cuts will be precise and low key and it targets higher salary staff and directors. More to come.

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  17. 10:55 -- Florida Today didn't link to the documents either. There were no names, and the story was a staff and wire report.

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  18. Ample high salaries at Usa Today to cut. No lossin quality or production, either. Seriousle, the numberof overlapping managers ismind boggling.

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  19. Gee 12:08 you really nailed it with your neocon harshness and rapier wit. Apparently a corporate goon such as yourself must be expecting that this blog be some sort of... uh.... NEWSPAPER for Gannett types?

    Nope, its just a meeting place. Which is all Hopkins has ever tried to host here... with some basic civility and "when it matters" fact checking.

    Wonder how your blog is doing, it must be quite a read.

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  20. "some basic civility" here?

    hahahahahahahahahaha...

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  21. "Ample high salaries at Usa Today to cut. No lossin quality or production, either. Seriousle, the numberof overlapping managers ismind boggling."

    4:20, you're looking like future star-quality copy editor material to me!

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  22. STUPID

    Bill Engvall said it, a long time ago: sometimes, stupid is just stupid.

    "That made no sense, 11:17. You must be one of the disgruntled people with nothing to offer.

    "Keep ranting, Wrinkles! Maybe someday the company will notice."

    Didn't read GCI page on Yahoo! Finance. Can't do math (probably covers economics at Cinci).

    Can't understand the pension fund problems, but rips on others about it.

    Complains about the CFO getting caught moonlighting.

    Bitches that Banana-Gate hasn't been re-printed (stupid begets more stupid).

    J-grads today are useless. Until you've been in a shouting match with the really-stupid and lazy, you never develop street-smarts. You just suck your thumb and put out "Top 10" lists. Even Doug McCork would be appalled by the low quality of late at GCI, IMHO.

    And gad, there are some just plain stupid people here. No wonder GCI had to fire them. Somehow they got hired and the old owners didn't have the heart to fire them.

    Well, blip on, stupids. No one gives a rip about your 12-word sentences of useless stupidity.

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  23. PENSION NEWS: WILL GCI FOLLOW AT&T's LEAD?

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443684104578067003304505618.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

    "AT&T Inc. plans to contribute $9.5 billion in preferred equity to its underfunded pension plan, making it the latest company forced to address massive obligations accentuated by low interest rates.

    "Companies have tried to shore up their pension obligations, which tend to increase in a low interest-rate environment because the present value of those future payments rises. Earlier this week, Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to settle $7.5 billion in pension obligations, about a quarter of its total, through an asset transfer to a unit of Prudential Financial Inc. .."

    Hmm .. half a loaf is better than none .. needs more research.

    OK, haters, start bitching. That's all you are good for. The working class think Banana-Gate is more comedy than anything else.

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  24. This blog is dominated by ex marketing staff who just post lies and inflamatory remarks. Why don't you people move on. We don't want or need you back.

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  25. Hey, Gramps, you left off the question mark from your question. Way to go -- vodka is improving your grammar.

    And, hey -- after AT&T used its stock to bolster its pension fund -- how long until GCI does?

    ?????????

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  26. I'm a recent ex-marketing person and am truly happy I left, no lie. Curious if anyone knows when my pension info should arrive?

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  27. The CAPITAL LETTER poster's contributions baffle me.

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  28. Now I've seen it all. Florida Today's Sunday has a front page over the fold cartoon. Guess that says it all.

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  29. I bet your pension information will arrive once you submit a request for it. I believe that is how it works.

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  30. Today on CNN's Reliable Sources they had a great discussion about the death of print. Bottom line it had nothing to do with content. It had everything to do with habit. To paraphrase a great song, "The Tablet killed the radio star!"

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  31. 8:49 you keep coming here with that claim and you're getting old. Move on.

    Perplexed why you even care about this blog if that's all you have to post day in and day out.

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  32. Sentences of less than 11 words that just bitch -- well, gee, did Gramps run out of vodka?

    With AT&T leading the way, GCI can now use treasury stock to shore up the GCI pension fund. And avoid federal reviews.

    (As long as GCI stock holds its value. Good freakin' luck.)

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  33. "No one gives a rip about your 12-word sentences of useless stupidity. "

    The one thing I've ever agreed on with the Cinci-based banana-fixated upper-case-lovin' cut and paster.

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  34. 7:23, you would not believe the silly mistakes and wrong heds that the copydesk misses or screws up. I'd say they could cut the desk by 50% and see no difference in quality. They try to justify their existence by being revelant. But most just phone it in and always have.

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  35. Here in Cincinnati, we're wondering if the powers-that-be in McLean ever look at this blog. And if they do, and they've seen, read and heard all of the frustration in the ranks with this MB-CW regime that they've put into place, why is it allowed to continue? I've worked in other newsrooms (some at GCI properties, others non-Gannett) and I've never seen such a listless, uninspired and frustrating situation. It has nothing to do with Chiquita or the recession or the readership challenges. We can overcome those. It's far deeper than that. There is a lack of leadership. There is no sense of mission. There's no push for excellence outside of coverage of the Reds, TV and photo galleries that drive up traffic. Oh, and videos that few see. Readers call and complain. I will be leaving (one way or the other) in 2013, right after the holidays. I'm not growing and not being challenged. And with so much at stake in this business and this company, you'd think someone would want to know that. And maybe even do something about this. So sad. So sad.

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  36. The copy desk is too busy figuring out which ONE story will be the only story to appear on 1A to be bothered with grammar accuracy.

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  37. 9 p.m., so are you saying that no writer turns in a story with accurate grammar? That's what it sounds like.

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  38. 8:33, the same crappy management has been at usa today for more than a decade, making shitty decision after decision and one silly hire after another. Now they are moving deck chairs and fucking up the website.

    If this is allowed to fester right under the corporate noses in McLean, why wouldnt you think schoolmarms would enjoy robust careers in Gannettland?

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  39. 9 p.m. So true it's sad.

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  40. 8:33: I can cry the same tune in Shreveport. I've come to realize that they really just do not care. It's an interesting business model.

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  41. Cinci stupidity in the round. Repeated every day, across GCI.

    Dim-witted cud-chewers whose jobs were defended by a huge printing press.

    Holding "meetings" instead of thinking. While the staff only reads what they wrote, and nothing else, because the product is so dull.

    Well, not anymore. When the local TV stations have as much (or more) experience as the local newspaper, guess who wins?

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  42. Cincinnati's website sucks, and I'm not talking about the content. It's terrible - slow to load and a memory hog and constant pop up ads. It's almost impossible to browse on a tablet. Even if the content was worth paying for I wouldn't give them money because the delivery mechanism sucks.

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  43. Any cuts at Usa Today that don't involve culling underworked reporters are in my opinion, worthless. The sandbox and diaper days are over. No longer should reputation or an out of sight, out of mind attitude prevail.

    I'd also like to see many editors provide a justifcation for their jobs as well. (I am a copy editor and see everything).

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  44. Is anyone else tired of hearing about Cinci?

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  45. Cinci or Detroit? What a choice.

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  46. Gee, 11:12, you really don't get it. This is a blog, not a newspaper, and the comments are from readers, not Jim, and it's a meeting place, like a bar or coffee shop, where people can blow off steam and make comments, even if they are stupid sometimes. If it gets you that upset quit reading it. The rest of us enjoy it, value the information our bosses don't give us, and thank Jim for the source.

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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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