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Sunday, December 09, 2012
30 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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Now that the 6-day 'Granny Robber' series is finally over, it's safe to open my Enquirer once again for a quick review of the news stories I read online 2 days ago and the few local stories of (sort of) interest. Over 6 days we were subjected to half-page photos of Granny's extended family (boring) and huge photos of Granny, hubby and son who looks like Tony Soprano, and full pages of overwrought text. We now know that Granny has learned communication skills and discovered who she is in prison. Can't wait for similar coverage of all the other bank robbers in the region.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many potential or real illnesses have been found, and how many employees helped through this. I wish I had that oppotuntity. I really do.
ReplyDelete12/08/2012 8:43 AM
The problem 8:43 is that many of us did all these things including the paperwork and still got charged the surcharge. So how is that free?
10:36, before we leave that garbage in the trash and we all get on with our lives except Carolyn and the Pulitzer committee, let's make sure they're called on their big lie.
ReplyDeleteBelow is the email to a couple of editors that's been making the forwarding rounds -
Today's Enquirer states, on p. A-4
"The gray-haired woman nicknamed the Granny Robber mystified Southwest Ohio during her spree of four bank robberies. Caught and sent to prison, she offered no explanation."
Not true. She offered an explanation at her sentencing, in open court.
See this article from 1/1/2009.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11347967
So we missed a key element of the story, were late to the party or got something wrong. Or appeared amateurish. All this happens 80% of the time at Usa Today. Starts with non engaged editors signing off on brilliant ideas, reporters not equipped to do their content gathering jobs and copyeditors asleep at the wheel.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, was a story of dubious value story worth a multi-part feature, poorly conceived, written and edited?
And did y'all see how the Enquirer handled it after they got nailed for claiming Granny Robber had never before explained her actions?
ReplyDeleteDuring the writer's online chat, someone named "Randall" served up a question for her to hit out of the park. You bet the reporter was ready for that one. She acted like they never actually said THAT, so never mind your lyin' eyes, but that this was the first time Granny gave a FULL explanation.
"Randall" also told her what a great series it was. GEE, I WONDER WHY RANDALL DIDN'T USE HIS LAST NAME.
What a bunch of buffoons. GCI is taking a real chance leaving those clowns in charge at Cincinnati.
ReplyDeleteThere is not one comment on the resigning of Iowa city G.M..
ReplyDeleteI have always believed that the Iowa Gannett employees are afraid managemnet will find and discipline those who who post here.
Why else would there not be a comment,good,bad or otherwise.
Way to step up and show some courage.No wonder there are never any posts from Iowa sites.
Sunday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a two-parter on the death of the paper industry--an industry centered in the Appleton-Green Bay-Wausau-Wisconsin Rapids market. An excellent, well-researched piece of work involving multiple staffers. That is why I subscribe to the MJS and not the local Gannett products. Instead, the Appleton P-C is running a multi-parter, multi-media sanctimonious piece about an ex-marine involved in a police standoff who decided to commit suicide-by-cop. Their version of the granny robber I guess.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, a spread like the paper industry piece is probably beyond the capability of the Gannett papers but it begs the question, when you have a paywall is there anything there worth buying?
Part of the reason people aren't buying is that the current consumers, admittedly older, see items like the following, which they KNOW is wrong, and then wonder how much OTHER reportage is erroneous as well. (Now THAT is a sentence!)
ReplyDeletehttp://jimromenesko.com/2012/12/08/im-guessing-the-ledger-enquirer-heard-from-a-few-older-readers-on-friday/
Check out this amateurish crap on the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal website. Never mind the misspellings and first-grade-level punctuation in the captions, but the information in many of the captions is completely inaccurate, glaring errors not even researched. Lights on, no one home. It's not just embarrassing; it's unprofessional, idiotic and sickening.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rgj.com/article/20121205/LIV/121205014/Gallery-Historical-Reno-photos-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|&odyssey=mod|incaseyoumissedit|Historical+Reno+pics
There is a famous scene in Disney's DAVY CROCKETT: INDIAN FIGHTER where Fess Parker's Davy and Buddy Ebsen's Georgie Russell are hopelessly outnumbered.
ReplyDeleteThey fool the enemy by pretending they are a full regiment of soldiers. "I've got them covered over here,'' Georgie yells. "You men, take positions over there!'' Davy shouts.
Georgie then runs to another spot behind a tree and disguises his vgoice. "We've got em surrounded!'' he yells.
The enemy, confused, runs off.
Much the same thing is happening here at the blog, except in this case it's one, MAYBE two, Cincinnati malcontents posting the same things over and over, trying to look like a crowd. But it isn't. It's one guy mainly (and most people know who it is), and maybe someone else.
So don't be fooled by the "crowd noise.'' It's an old frontier trick kids saw growing up on Walt Disney.
And this blog sure ain't Disneyland.
On behalf of those who do t work or live in Cinci: No One Cares!!!!!
ReplyDelete1:23, absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteOn other issues, I think we have the same situation. The main grumblers here are the no-punctuation guy who posts the same thing every day, although today he delved into the Iowa City issue; Wrinkles; one or two people who claim to be pressmen but likely are fired paste-up people from bygone days; and maybe a couple of stray bitters who were purged in 2008.
These people post at least 80 percent of the gripes. Jim also has a couple of plants whom he encourages to post things about why we should send him money. We'll hear from them in the next couple of weeks. I also think Jim manages a couple of anonymous accounts that he uses when necessary.
1:23, you nailed it.... I've been thinking the same thing for months. I think there's maybe a dozen commenters on this site who post a lot to make themselves sound like a larger crowd (that's why the volume of comments drops off all of a sudden sometimes — because one person takes a day off).
ReplyDeleteI believe Jim when I say that he doesn't plant anonymous things himself, but to think this blog represents the whole of the crowd that works for this company is ridiculous. This blog largely is a comment forum for a few people who were 'managed out,' in boss talk, and can't move on.
1:23 is right about the faked "crowd'' that shows up here agreeing with the same posts.
ReplyDeleteAnd whatever you think of the blog, I know Jim has too much integrity to fake posts.
I'm not as certain about his readers though.
Smart money says 1:23 PM now employs the very tactic they alleged without evidence.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, plays like theirs’ are neither new nor unique as Banikarim’s defenders attempted the same to deflect criticism by alleging a few, former “disgruntled” marketing employees were responsible for it. Those attempts were comical when one considers just the sheer size of the potential audience of current Gannett employees and the 20,000 plus no longer with it.
The same applies to the Enquirer as it employed 1,200 plus at its peak a few years ago. Hundreds have been forced out since and more will follow soon with Western’s closure.
Common sense alone suggests more than one or two people from the Enquirer comment on this blog and anyone who’s read it for a while can see it in the range and depth of posts.
C'mon you guys, you're supposed to use the special punctuation when it's black helicopter Sunday.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are people who post more than others. And yes, some of us have 'tells' that our colleagues recognize - or think they recognize.
But you can't clear 150,000 page views in the last month by trying to hoax up posts or relying on twenty regulars. Most of us aren't idiots - if we smelled a rat or felt that there wasn't a value to what Jim or Anonymous shares, we'd have moved on years ago.
Don't overthink it. Most of us don't pay anything, and we treat what we find out here as one of many sources. Getting all worked up over it is just going to give you heartburn, it's not going to concern anyone else.
Common sense would demonstrate that compared to the real concerns in Gannett press rooms, shipping docks, newsrooms and delivery routes, no one in the company knows or cares what "marketing" is or does or who Naikarim is.
ReplyDeleteWho would care? The few disgruntled ex-marketers. And that's who does most of those posts.
Similarly in Cincinnati.
Not saying things are perfect. Far from it. But these hate and disinformation campaigns are the product of a few, as 1:23 says, Davy Crockett wannabes.
Now excuse me as I prove I'm not a robot.
And that should have been Banikarim. Sorry. My bad.
ReplyDeleteWow, don't pay attention to the blog for a while and the corporate sponsored posters (can't use the "T" word) have taken over like roaches taking over a dirty kitchen.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it seems like its the "same old posters" because the rest of us are too busy scrambling to cover our "content evolution" duties, while watching news staffs get gutted as reporters are converted to "web producers" a job an intern could do, instead of taking veteran reporters off the streets.
Of course some might say its a way to get rid of people with years of service on the job by putting them in a different job and assigning some to overnight shifts.
Yeah, we're too busy doing that, but if the silence of the many is being construed that everything is great in Gannett land, then you're on a wonderful special new kind of drug.
The efforts of this company and its henchmen to discredit this blog knows no bounds. Happy holidays and enjoy your "extra pay" T men and women.
6:04, there is plenty of evidence. Just look at the post at 10:29 a.m. This person posts every day with generally the same shtick -- the people still at Gannett are somehow stupid for staying. You should pay more attention.
ReplyDelete10:09, that was a great spin. I like how in just a short time, you somehow believe you have made some sort of point about how silence of the many is being held up as meaning everything is great.
Unfortunately for you (a phrase I am sure you hear a lot), no one is saying that. You might want to shut out some of the voices in your head.
Just to help you out, the point that started with 1:23 is there are just a few people making the some types of posts again and again. If Jim had an archive system that was remotely useful, it would be pretty easy to show this pattern.
I am sure you will try to cling to that last part as some sort of "lack of proof," but you would be wrong. However, I am not going to spend hours reviewing posts in a useless archive to find things to educate you.
It's funny that disgruntled ex-marketers are the ones accused of being behind all the negative comments directed at Banikarim. I can understand the sentiment of anyone fired in her wake.but I can assure posters here, she has a huge swath of non supporters and even enemies throughout the building, Gannett and Usa Today. Purpose Walls and On the Road missives are amateurishlynpathetic.
ReplyDeleteYou want to say all the backlash is because she's a "powerful woman," fine. Because she is an outsider with "new" ideas? Okay. Because she got rid of "non-performers," ? Whatever feeble excuse you want to use to defend
her, go for it.
Fact is she, has done nothing measurable to earn her keep.
Fact is, she is a relentless self-promoter.
Fact is, all her hires and shakeups have
not impacted the bottom line.
Fact is, she was a lousy hire who has had ample time to prove herself and has repeatedly failed by any objective measures.
Fact is, who would have reason or cause to defender her?
Anyone care to weigh in here?
3:16 I always sign my comments.
ReplyDeleteScrew Mr.carpenter az republic we will strike.go ahead shut us down we are done taking it in the shorts
ReplyDeleteSpambot at 5:40 AM!
ReplyDelete11:02,
ReplyDeleteNot a current or ex marketing person and also not a Maryam supporter. I think you nailed it.
11:02 proves the point -- an ex-marketer still upset about what happened to his department. Nothing wrong with being upset, but enough already.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line on marketing and all that is: So what?
It is not the essence of the company, nor the source of its problems.
If she is a relentless self-promoter, again, so what?
Time to deal with real issues.
11:03. Here is a real issue. Lets say you are in a business with declining sales, customer base and lack of revenue growth. Say you hire an expensive management type to turn things around. She comes at great cost, hires several expensive underlings, spends tons of money on outside consultants to who she has personal ties. Then spends oodles of time promoting herself, not her CEO or her company. And lets say there are no tangible results well into Year 2.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you do about it? Grouse that ex-marketers are the ones who need to see tangible results? Seriously? Dont you have better things to do, like start producing and justifying your existence?
Martore wont get rid of anyone too quickly, unless they pull Rudd Davis style shenanigans. She gave Hunke plenty of rope before forcing his "retirement." Same with Johnny Hillkirk. Banikarim gets another year, unless her networking yields a better offer elsewhere.
ReplyDelete11:03 is looking for her Baffle Me Elmo Xmas present. See Banikarim for details.
ReplyDelete