Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)
Thursday, December 13, 2012
42 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTake one part stupidity, combine it with one part back-stabbing, add some cliche and a management book and you have Ron Burgandy in Wilmington....stay classy. How long before Dickey admits that his whipping boy is just an blow hard in a suit? Ask around town, they are all laughing at him....He never met a room that he could not bore to death with his self-importance. And why is he important again.....?
ReplyDeleteHere's an edited version of 1:22 a.m.'s comment, to remove the word "moron."
ReplyDeleteGracia is kinda brilliant....she runs a giant media company, so cut her some slack. Dickey has a vision and he is pursuing it. Krans is wonderful...smart and dedicated. Kane is brilliant...motivated, smart, focused, strategic. Griffin is the Peter Principle come to life. Are you kidding me? There have been countless people who have quit JUST BECAUSE HE IS IN CHARGE. He pits execs against one another and he is viewed by his sales team as a used car salesman. Are the numbers down? I wonder why....
NewsGate vs Presto: In 2010, Gannett spent millions on a new Content Management System, intended to support the entire company in collecting, sharing and disseminating news content in print and digital venues. This was called NewsGate.
ReplyDeleteIn 2011, Gannett spent millions on a new Content Management System intended to support the entire company in collecting, sharing and disseminating news content in digital venues. This is called Presto.
Digital Execs: Please defend.
Digital execs are too busy shopping or at the gym to defend.
ReplyDeleteCallaway seemed checked out when he recycled a phalanx of mediocre editors up the management chain. The Hub idea is so silly that mostly only technical types with no journo want to sit there. But what is really strange is his no show, Hillkirk style lack of newsroom presence. Managing by email is so uninspiring, Dave. We had that for years.
ReplyDeleteIs this why you don't know anyone outside of editors, digital dweebettes and a handful of stars such as Susan Page?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...Wilmington....Matt Sullivan, Sean Anderer, multiple sales reps, someone named Courtney in marketing, who replaced Tracy Brey, and then Eric Mayberry....they all left this year...but the numbers are not improving...the headline here will read: Talent-rich Wilmington Papers at Gannett shuddered because publisher could not stop looking in the mirror
ReplyDelete@928 Well, not really. Even with all the layoffs and the severe deficit in copy editors, Wilmington would not write that as a headline. We have done our share of shuddering, true enough. But if the paper goes down in flames, it will be 'shuttered.' And that would be a damn shame. We miss you, Curtis.
ReplyDeleteActually, Dave Callaway is quite engaged and works directly on stories and with editors and reporters.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't see or realize that, then you are more out of it than you realize.
Really? That is news to many of us.
DeleteWay to go Gracia ! Keep on furloughing us. Sell that stock while it's hot. This company is like no other! Bottom line, take what you can and don't ever think this company cares about you. Your as expendable as everyone else is.It would be hard to believe if this company will be around much longer.
ReplyDeleteYawn. Get new material.
DeleteImagine for a second that you had one chance to fix all of the ills of your career. All of the previous demotions, all of the laughter that followed you around the hallways...imagine that you had landed the job of a lifetime for you...but you screwed it up because of your enormous ego and overall lack of vision and strategy...Imagine that you screwed it up because you were so insecure that you were impossible to work with..imagine that your team had meetings behind your back to discuss methods for saving the company in spite of you...would you bow our gracefully, or would you take the ship down with you....Men and women to the lifeboats...the captain is sinking Wilmington....
ReplyDeleteI agree with 11:01pm from yesterday (part 2), that referring to posters by the time they posted, is both confusing and irritating, so I'll identify myself with the moniker "Happy". I am not a mega poster here, more of a lurker.
ReplyDeleteMy geographic is South Group, and most of the posts here relate very little to us.
Relate little to the South group? Furloughs and bad management is at all sites. Decreased circulation is at all sites. Advertising revenue down at all sites. You aren't special.
ReplyDeleteNever said or implied that I was special in any way, or that South Group needed special coverage, but if you read everything below your comment, you will see that Kansas, Cincy, Atlanta (OK, that is the South, but the post refers to a specific person), USAT (twice) are mentioned and above we have Wilmington (several times).
DeleteSlow couple of news days for South Group.
Happy
Not to give Gannett any ideas, but the Kansas City Star is forcing two reporters to decide which one of them gets fired. The correct person(s) to fire would anyone involved with this idea. What's next, throwing people in a pit with short swords?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nbcnews.com/business/two-kansas-city-star-reporters-told-choose-who-gets-sacked-1C7573609
Interesting ... Cincy did that a few years back with a couple of local news editors. The one that got to keep his job was laid off a year later - while he was on vacation!
DeleteI could see Maryam as Aunty Entity, "Two men enter, one man leaves!"
ReplyDelete(whippersnappers, that's from a 1985 movie, when Mel Gibson was hot and not crazy)
As brilliant and well educated Sandy Andrews is (haha) in Atlanta, I am surprised he has not resorted to having employees draw straws to determine who gets the axe.
ReplyDelete7:47 a.m. is misinformed, or isn't paying attention, or both. In moving from a Sunday-through-Thursday mentality that ruled the print version of USAT, Callaway has established the core of a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week news operation. This hub, or whatever you want to call it, puts staffers together from online, print and Gannett newspapers who actually talk directly with each other. It's not a new thing. News agencies, broadcast companies, big city dailies have had similar setups since the beginning of time. And it isn't just populated by young whiz kids from online. Print people are being cross-trained in online operations and vice versa. While changing the habits of a newsroom can be as ponderous as steering an oil tanker, the 24-hour news operation is upon us. The smart people are already angling to spend time in this hub. It's only going to get bigger and busier.
ReplyDeleteWho are the vice versa people learning how to write and report? WHO???
DeleteAnd while we bring some part of the news room together, we completely separate another portion and create Sports Media Group.
DeleteJust brilliant.
Am I assuming incorrectly that a 24-hour news operation would require more reporters? Or do we just burn out the few that currently make up the newsrooms and discard them like so much flotsam?
ReplyDeleteAnd does that mean the digital people will work hours other than Monday through Friday 8-5 like they do in our office?
We burn out the ones who do the thankless work and still have pride to work extra hours. Seldom rewarded by the power brokers and lame-ohs who have no clue as to what the actual workerbees put up with.
DeleteIf you dont like it, leave. We can hire your replacement at a 70% discount.
DeleteREAD THIS BOOK:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Chain-Gang-Newspaper-versus-Gannett/dp/0826213758
Gannett...worst media company for the last four decades and counting.
All this stuff that is happening now shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. This company has been ruthless and without morales for years. I now include USA Today in that appraisal, as the nation's newspaper has been more fully absorbed into the Gannett way over the last few years. Don't let the fancy building fool you.
If you work at Gannett, you should leave or face a very bad ending to your career. If you are considering working at Gannett, don't. the karma in this company is at a all-time low, and that's saying a lot when you consider this chain has been one of the worse places to work, not just in the news biz, but in any industry.
What the heck are "morales"?
DeleteThe book was written years ago when times were good
DeleteNatalie Morales
DeletePretty much sums up Gannett. The problem with this model is that people don't want to pay for the junk that is left behind. Just blame that on the internet though; you certainly would not want to acknowledge it. When there is only one game in town, Gannett could milk it, now the internet gives you the Gannett content for free. The old product that you could actually charge people for is long gone. What was that stuff called, I seem to have forgotten now, it has been so long....
ReplyDeleteThe blue ball is the "death star" Gannett is the "empire" Guess who is Skywalker :)
ReplyDeleteThat would be me.
DeleteSo what can anyone tells us about the new HR guru?
ReplyDeleteIf Steve Hyatt is still employed, I'd say not too bright.
DeleteResponse to early post about talent-rich Wilmington: Ron Burgandy pushed out two other execs with more than 20 years experience at Gannett - Newton and Mika. Rumor has it that it killed morale. No real reason why apparently, just didn't like them. If old Ronny's career was to be decided by the people that liked him, I guess he would have been unemployed decades ago....How does this guy continue to get hired? Because he looks good on paper, wears a good suit, and is, well, a darned good national sales rep...not much more...he sells his way into jobs and then destroys his surroundings. Hopefully, his next demotion will be to the sales floor. Stay classy Ron
ReplyDeleteAgree with 12:07. Burgandy is killing our paper. He calls himself helping us, but when he says "look, I am just coaching you" it makes me want to vomit. Do coaches announce that they are coaching or do they just coach? He is a joke. My manager does his best to make apologies for him but as soon as I can find another sales job, I am outta there. I can only imagine how good we could have been with Curtis, Mayberry, Amy, and Mika.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMika is a big loss on the digital side of business, Bad move.
ReplyDeleteAs brilliant and well educated Sandy Andrews is (haha) in Atlanta, I am surprised he has not resorted to having employees draw straws to determine who gets the axe.
ReplyDeletePresswire