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Monday, January 28, 2013
52 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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Shit will start building in corporarte this week. Earning, divisionalmperformsnce under the microscope. Not all bowls ofmcherrires. Stay frosty!
ReplyDeleteYou herd it hear first, their will be 2 Quarter furloughs to go along with the 100 or so circulation RIFS. It makes sense, the furlough program is still a big part of the plan, so plan another week vacation,
ReplyDeleteHappy P.
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DeleteSomeone should give the Wage and Hour folks a call because there is no way anyone in Cincinnati newsroom is going to be able to keep up with the demands of Twittering, Facebooking, shooting video and editing and - oh yes - writing stories for both online and print.
ReplyDeleteCW needs to try spending a week as a reporter trying to meet the goals she's set for her staff. She could not meet them. Newsroom folks really need to start tracking every minute worked on a daily basis. It will help their cases when the wage and hour folks come to investigate. I agree with earlier poster of what Washburn and Buchanan have done to destroy Cincinnati news gathering and crush morale. There is no longer and sense of teamwork or true concern. Folks are too busy doing what they've been told to do. The new editors brought into the newsroom do little to inspire or motivate.
In a couple of months when overall page views plummet at the expense of the misguided video hysteria (or the inevitable Q2/Q3 furloughs), we'll all get whiplash again when some other person at corp tells us that there isn't enough text on the web site (or photo galleries or Mom's material or events or tweets or local or seo or paywall clicks or topix of passion or newsgate sharing or mobile or databases). But I doubt they'll send a traveling road show around to retrain us how to write and edit. They'll just have the editor make a quota and anyone who doesn't meet it will be liberated. I've actually started feeling bad for our editor who has to respond to the half-@$$ schemes that come down from KM and buddies. Of course, I don't think she has probably gone without a payraise for 5 years like the rest of us.
DeleteVery true, 8:00. Starting putting down all the overtime you accumulate, and tell all your co-workers to do the same. The quotas will miraculously go away within a few weeks once the editor sees the overtime bills.
DeleteApparently Shreveport's advertising department is playing musical chairs. Kevin Hall, who left Des Moines in 2011 for Hearst, is baaaaack as ad director (or whatever the title is now) in Shreveport. Hall appears to be a Gannett lifer, with most of his time in Des Moines.
ReplyDeleteHe used to be a decent guy. Now just another corporate flunky.
DeleteHappens a lot. I knew a decent guy, just regular joe, who was promoted to a managerial position. He had no managerial experience, let alone any knowledge of the department's function as a whole except for his little niche. All of a sudden he was total two-faced, condescending schmuck.
DeleteMust be in the guy in Indy.
DeleteTysons Corner, most definitely.
Deletenope, Westchester for sure out of Hawaii
DeleteSpeaking of Des Moines, any layoffs there?
ReplyDeleteCome on, the readers want to know!
Help Jim update his spreadsheet.
I think Brevard is in self destruct mode. I heard that the last two Sunday's papers were missing some coupon inserts when the competitions' had them all.
ReplyDeleteSince now-a-days, coupons are a big reason why people still buy the over priced Sunday paper, I would think that they would take priority for any quality control....or is that an ancient, forgotten concept.
Talk about self destruct...I saw one of the Ad salespeople at a local watering hole at 2pm last week, dressed for work, and it wasn't ice tea they were drinking...
DeleteHey why not? Sales goals are unattainable. Wake up.
DeleteI'm not surprised! The demands will drive anyone to drink. One gal even showed up in the morning still intoxicated. Funny and tragic all at once. She wasn't a bar-goer when she started. And rather than suspend her for a few days (she was pretty young), they canned her on the spot. And they did so not in some mucky-muck's office (where there were rules-breaking stashes of booze here and there... after all, the suits have stress, too), but right at her desk in front of all her colleagues.
DeleteSo typical of the unprofessional managers
DeleteUsa today is in self destruct mode. All the management geniuses have created a time bomb, from oversight to over reaching, with the existing staff
ReplyDeleteA significant Appleton-area employer, School Specialty, files for bankruptcy. I got the news from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which is why I pay for a subscription to the JS and not the Appleton P-C.
ReplyDeleteAppleton paper is a waste.
DeleteSo true. There was a fatal accident involving a school bus in a nearby town Friday night. There was nothing on the P/C website 12 hours later, but I was able to find the story on a TV stations website.
DeleteStill nothing on the PC website about School Specialty. Probably waiting for video of the building from multiple angles to upload before posting the story.
DeleteI also saw it on J-S and haven't seen it on Appleton yet. Probably waiting for an editor to come in a write it since they cut all their experienced reporters, and want to see what some PR hack will spoon feed them first. What trash that has become in a short time, but at least they are being forced to run more house ads so people are figuring it out.
DeleteI guess dead people on school buses isn't a passion topic.
DeleteYes, but children are. Dead or alive.
DeleteLove when a USA TODAY ad, blue ball and all, rotates its way onto the Gannett Blog ad banner.
ReplyDeleteSort of the height of hypocrisy.
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DeleteUSAT has been spiral downward for several years. This isn't a new phenomena. Through various bad hires, a diluted front-line workforce and a betrayals that eroded all trust, the nation's newspaper isn't what it used to be and I doubt it will ever regain its footing. While it won't likely go out of business anytime soon, talent will steer clear of the place as its reputation slides. With that loss of talent comes all sorts of business-end problems. But hey, USAT has no one to blame but itself. The havoc at USAT was partly due to the recession, sure, but I'd say more than half of what has gone wrong was totally self-inflicted and short-sighted.
ReplyDeleteUSAT will never regain the talent, reputation or income it lost. I think the spiral started in 2007 or so with the group of buyouts that included Jim.Weren't those the first substantial cuts?
DeleteNo round of buyouts that included Jim Hopkins can be called a spiral. I would call it addition by subtraction.
DeleteSeriously, when was the last time Usa Today seriously recruited anyone talented? Mistake after misjudgement after missed opportunity. We screw up 90% of the time.
DeleteI am constantly amazed at the in-depth reporting by the Christian Science Monitor. Hate to sound gushy but I would like to know how the hell they manage to do what they do and maintain a national presence in this environment where papers like USAT have failed. Does anyone know how they are funded? How much they pay their reporters? Do they depend on stringers? They publish once a week for print but maintain a site daily. Today's main is about flood victims coming up against newly-redrawn flood maps prompted by climate change. No one else has covered this that I am aware.
ReplyDeleteto the a-hole who wrote that the Journal News is to shut down, if you are a former emoloyee wuth such a grudge, you need to move on and stop frightening people you used to work with. unless you are the a-hole I think you are who was not missed by anyone when you were let go.
ReplyDeleteName calling aside. You must be very paranoid to think that you might possibly lose your precious Gannett job and could never, ever work anywhere else.
DeleteMaybe if the Journal News' talented remaining staff (wink, wink) spent its time reporting responsibly and fairly instead of being glued to this blog 24/7, it would not be on the brink of closing.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
More condescension! You're good at it.
DeleteI only wish I was as good with condensation with these icy roads in the Low-Hud!
DeleteJust raise the prices of the local papers again. Cut staff and content that is the business model at my local paper the last four years.
ReplyDeleteThe people who say Gannett had no choice but to cut staff since 2008 are the same people who said Print would be dead by now. They also said Gannett would be filing bankruptcy in five years. Even though management has tried everything to expedite the demise of Print it is still here. I wonder if they hadn't laid off so many if the papers would have made even more money?
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? Subscriptions are down due to content not worth paying for and forced pay walls. Really all people have to do is turn on the radio or tv for "breaking news" Who wants to wait to read about it in tomorrow's paper?
ReplyDeleteWhen will the stockholders see that the newspaper division isn't pulling its weight. The temporary surge in circulation revenue is nothing to put on a trend line. It is an 18-month baby bump that isn't going to go to term. The economy also is providing a return of some retail for print that will be short lived. Mr. Negativity here is looking at the BIG picture trends over the last 5-10 years. The current trends are stretching out the ride down so it doesn't look so bad. Run the same graphs of losses over 10 years and compress the graph exponentially against the circulation decline graphs.Revenue is not stabilizing. It's moving into retirement.
ReplyDeleteColumbus Dispatch debuts new format today. Cincinnati Enquirer to be added soon.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dispatch.com/content/topic/dispatch/whole-new-experience.html
Also ...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.columbusmonthly.com/September-2012/Full-Court-Press/
If you can't sell the news of today, there's always YESTERDAY'S news.
ReplyDeletehttp://allthingsd.com/20130125/timehop-hooks-up-with-usa-today-to-deliver-stories-from-the-past/
As Jane Pauley used to say: "We're history".
The Journal News staff are NOT glued to this site 24/7. I can assure you they spend an equal amount of time on the Newsday site.
ReplyDeleteHaha. So true!
DeleteYep. They make up all 27 of Newsday Westchester's readers.
Delete