Thursday, January 03, 2013

Dec. 31-Jan. 6 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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.)

51 comments:

  1. Shreveport's Bailey has been at Shreveport now for one complete year and still the same things are happening. He is still not known throughout the Shreveport community, he is still a stranger to our advertisers, he is still unaware who his Shreveport employees are, he is still heartless, he is still going through advertising directors, he is still going through advertising employees...and I continue to ask the "L" ladies why does he exist for Shreveport?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am a Shreveport advertiser and refuses to do business with this company ever again. Bailey came to my office with my sales rep and he disrespected her in my office. This employee has followed my advise and found new employment. She told me about this blog and I have been reading since. I am ashamed of Gannett. Jim - I am an outsider looking in but Gannett employees should thank you for this blog.

      Delete
    2. This is Gannett's biggest problem. They treat their employees like shit, we leave and tell our biggest advertising clients about this Blog and soon everyone in town sees the paper's dirty laundry. You are not the only advertiser in Shreveport who is aware of all of the wrongs at The Times in Shreveport. It was a great place to work before the two "L's" came along.

      Delete
    3. It hasn't been a good place to work ever. I worked there for years and it has always been a place of Back Stabbing and Dirty tricks on the employees. Until they treat their people right it will be the same nasty place to work.

      Delete
  2. How would Gannett rank on Wall Street if the reports only included newspaper and print products ?
    Probably much closer to the bottom dwellers.
    People here ignore the fact that the broadcast division is thriving.
    Therefore the corporation posts as a whole post decent numbers. Separate the two and print would have to be sliced and diced again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So? That actually proves Gannett is more than just a newspaper company. That is a good thing.

      Delete
    2. Well as it pertains to people who post here it means a lot.
      The newspaper division is sliding into oblivion and is being held up by broadcasting.
      Sure the broadcast division is safe.
      That does not mean the print division is viable on its' own merits and is in grave jeopardy.

      Delete
    3. On the obsolescence curve, broadcast is only very slightly behind print.

      Delete
    4. I second that notion. Some broadcasters are already finding it more lucrative to shut down and sell their band allocations to data communications companies.

      The internet is slowly but surely putting broadcasters out of business, too.

      Delete
  3. Isn't the ad director one of Laura's buddies? If he is gone already that will not bode well for the Shreveport community. Where I live, the community is very in tune with the comings and goings of the paper's employees and they all know who the publisher and ad director are. If Shreveport has that much turnover, the community has to be scratching its head.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does anyone have any information about Karen Moreno? What happened?

    ReplyDelete
  5. USA TODAY is Mobile Publisher of the Year

    http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/resources/mobilegends-awards/14499.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jim, if you're going to turn on owner approval of comments and then plan to be away for several hours, could you mention it so we don't waste time coming back looking for new viewpoints in the interim?

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good idea. I'll do that next time.

      Delete
    2. Actually, 8:06, your post here conveys the fact that you may be spending too much time here on this blog.

      Delete
    3. Suck it, 942.

      Delete
  7. Des Moines Register calls for repealing second amendment, killing gun owners that do not turn in their guns and killing Republicans by dragging them behind a pickup truck.

    http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012312300033&nclick_check=1

    A+ work again Gannett.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is absolutely shameful. Maybe for a tiny rightwing weekly, but the Register??? Didn't one editor or copy editor raise a red flag when he/she read this and question whether a column advocating (in humor or not) dragging Congressional leaders behind a pickup truck over asphalt was appropriate for a metropolitan daily? Sure, it got a lot of online clicks, but did you learn nothing from the Journal News, Rick? This isn't journalism. It's cheap. It's juvenile. It's embarrassing.

      Delete
    2. and it is how we roll.

      Delete
    3. DUH Moines - the refuge for the clueless.

      Delete
  8. Out of 16 houses in my neighborhood, the last one to subscribe to the local paper just canceled. I think there are 4 New York Times subscribers in the neighborhood; well four papers in blue bags on weekends. 5 years ago, close to half the houses got the local paper and maybe one or two got blue bags.

    I commented on the lack of a paper in his driveway. He is an older man and he was upset that it was all available for free online, his grand kids set up his computer to get the newspaper for free. He said it saved him $250 a year.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We live in.New Jersey where the Courier Post is located. There are 50+ single homes in our community. Walking each early morning before work I see there are no local papers.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 11:05, how nice of his grandkids to set up old grandpappy with a system that allows him to take the online newspaper without paying for it. That is, unless he's reading one of the few remaining that aren't behind a paywall.

    ReplyDelete
  11. On two occasions recently I clicked on stories on the Post-Crescent site that triggered my anti-virus program, warning me that this site contains malware. Curious if others have found this phenom. Most recent was the state politics blog. Perhaps there is something unique to the site that triggers a false alarm? Or someone is making mischief.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting, but with the quality of their content at least it won't affect many people. Does that happen if you click the same story from a Press Gazette or Oshkosh page?

      Delete
    2. Peter in Poughkeepsie1/04/2013 4:49 PM

      another totally unrelated website, organized by a print magazine called "Track and Field News", also had Malware issues, which have now been resolved-

      http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=48658

      Delete
  12. I wonder how the Fiscal Cliff "deal" will effect Gannett Corporate planners.
    I know that there are many corporations who are cutting employee hours back to 30 hours per week.
    Which means they are not considered full time and not eligible for mandatory benefits.
    Sounds like a way for Gannett to further cut expenses in the print division

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're talking about Obamacare, not the fiscal cliff deal, and its effect on small businesses that are now mandated to provide coverage they previously did not — not a large enterprise that already offers coverage and is self-insured.

      Delete
  13. Once the cookies are cleared the paper is still free. I don't pay a dime to read it and neither do a lot of my neighbors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The real question I want to know the answer to is" if you had to pay, would you?"

      Delete
    2. If you don't want to read a paywalled paper because you think it's lousy, fine — don't read it. But if you're reading so much that you have to clear out your cookies, you're obviously getting something out of it, and contributing to making that newsroom even smaller.

      Delete
    3. Tell me 11:33. Before the days of the internets, did you carry home a sackful of papers from the office and hand them out to your neighbors?

      Delete
  14. I used to clear the cookies, but I don't recall clearing the cookies in months. I guess I don't click on enough articles to hit the limit.

    ReplyDelete
  15. @11:05 – Who conditioned those grandkids that they could access all that content online for free for years?

    Gannett.

    And, if you think those same grandkids haven’t shown him how to bypass those walls via easily deleting temporary files, cookies, etc. you’re kidding yourself.

    Like it or not, Gannett foolishly sent the message that its online content had no value long-ago, exactly why it will struggle creating a value for it now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know folks always want to go back to the conditioning argument, but from my standpoint, the local content is pure trash. Paying for it is painful, and reading it is worse.



      Delete
  16. Al Jazeera Hiring.

    http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/al-jazeera-said-to-be-acquiring-current-tv/

    ReplyDelete
  17. 9:38 p.m., that piece was written by a columnist. Do you understand that a columnist's views are not necessarily those of the newspaper?

    I was more upset at the typos in the cutline of the photo they ran with the column online.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 10:58 Gannett Papers have already found away around it by creating GPS and using outside contractors.

    ReplyDelete
  19. 10:58: The fiscal cliff deal has no effect on Gannett's operations. Not sure how you make that connection.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Why anyone would pay to read a Gannett product is mystifying.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I will never give another dime to Gannett; therefore, I will clear my cookies to read the paper. If I didn't have that option would I pay to read it? That is a simple answer. No.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll ditto your no, and so does everyone else I know. Why pay for the crap Gannett is turning out, especially when the papers do little to cover or serve their communities, treat their employees like replaceable parts and do nothing more than laws require for former employees who spent their careers building a product. I pay for NYT and others, not Gannett.

      Delete
    2. I am not trying to start a flame war. I'm jut curious. If posters, such as 6:54 a.m., are so disparaging of the contents of various Gannett publications online, why are they loitering here on this Gannett blog?

      Delete
    3. I assume most of us (thankfully) former Gannett employees still check this because a) we care about our former co-workers and what they are going through and b) because watching this company slide is like watching a train wreck, and it's good to be on the outside looking in.

      Delete
    4. Equating a natural, healthy self-interest in processing the disaster of one's Gannett career with a miscreant and often illegal act ("loitering," as 10:30 does). Stunning. Simply stunning.

      Delete
    5. Because they were fired in 2008, and they haven't worked since?

      Delete
    6. It is possible that they are former readers that end here after wondering how their paper went down the tubes. I think Jim's poll shows a substantial number of readers that have no current or former affiliation with Gannett. Out of hundreds of thousands of former customers, it is not implausible that a few thousand are regular readers and of them, that 1% actually post something here.

      Delete
  22. you get 4 day old news in our FLORIDA TODAY paper-
    makes it so boring what takes so long for it to be current news?

    ReplyDelete
  23. I would pay for it, just not very much. The two Gannett papers I occasionally bump into are not worth paying more than a few dollars per month for online access. The paper is worth about the same, but I would throw in 8 or 9 bucks to give the delivery guy a job.

    The crazy part is that the papers I would be willing to actually pay real money for are free, but they are in larger markets. So I piece together great national/ international news that actully buy. State news is great and free. Local news is the worst and costs 10 times too much.

    ReplyDelete
  24. 10:30 AM - You're not starting a flame war. Truth be told, I read the blog to keep up with what's going on with the friends I have left in Gannett. I'm out and I'm happy. No war. I am one person who will never speak highly of this company and I will never give Gannett another one of my dimes. But honestly, I am in a better job, making more money than I did with Gannett and I'm happy. I just feel sorry for those left behind trying to make ends meet while looking for other employment. I will probably read the blog until all of my friends are out, which probably won't take long.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here, 3:01. I read this blog/forum because, unlike Gannett, I care about some good folks still mired in its muck. I'm out as well.I had the option to stay (incredibly) if only I would deny a much younger, recently married, just-starting-a-family type, that person's livelihood. I was in typically tacky Gannett fashion (wink-wink!... at least at my site) assured of getting the "new" position. To me the option given me wasn't really an option after all. After many years, I had finally had it with being treated like shit. And witnessing others being afforded the same soul-killing disrespect regardless of their dedication.

      Delete

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.