Sunday, January 13, 2013

Jan. 7-13 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

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43 comments:

  1. Is it just me, or are these USA Today tweets feeling like product ads?

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    1. The nitcompoops doing the tweets are not, um, the most sophisticated types. Think of the same people who are anchoring the amateurish usa today live snippets.

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  2. I would love to know what Gannett executive is most responsible for the Newsgate/news hub fiasco. Did somebody get a kickback for buying this thing? All the designers and copy editors Gannett fired must be laughing their asses off.

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    1. Horrible system. I've worked on many and hoped that we had progressed. It is harder to write hedlines that fit well. It is harder to make unusual characters like fractions. It is harder to edit to fit. It just devalues copy editing.

      Thanks. Feel better saying so.

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    2. I'm a copy editor who lost my job in June, and I was SO delighted never to have to work with NewsGate again. I thought nothing could be worse than our 10-year-old beta version of Indesign, but God, was I ever wrong.

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  3. It was probably on the clearance rack.

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  4. Just got word over cocktails that the Journal News' ad revenue for the last month since gun debacle compared to same month last year is down 80%. WOWSER!

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  5. 8:21 Absolute baloney. Must have been some good cocktails.

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    1. Still have yet to see anything but a house ad on Lohud.com since the gun map debacle started. It's probably a lot worse than an 80% drop by now.

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    2. I've seen local ads since the map was published. If most of their ads were sold on a CPM, it's also possible the surge in traffic from the map depleted the inventory.

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    3. LOL 9:05. You're delusional - or a flat-out fabricator. No ads means no ads!

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    4. I've seen 2 different college's open house banner ads, a Westin banner, and maybe a hospital? Some medical thing... no house ads at all, actually.

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  6. With revenue down, how can the Journal News afford multiple armed guards ?

    It would be cheaper to buy guns for some of their employees ?

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  7. Good thing Gannett has age limits on board members. We got rid of Shalala just in time:
    http://t.co/xZJHGIiW

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  8. With Donna's background, she has been a major disappointment on the Gannett board.

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    1. Thank God and Greyhound she's gone!

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  9. More bad news for the newspaper industry...

    http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/200203/guild-owners-say-they-may-liquidate-or-sell-philly-papers-this-month/#more-200203

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  10. Chief Nulty Says Journal News Endangers Undercover Officers, Orangetown Council Blasts Journal-News Gun Map [ The strongly worded resolution, which was approved on a 4-0 vote ].

    Orangetown Police Chief Kevin Nulty joined a growing chorus in blasting The Journal News. The Journal-News went overboard on this... the listing of names and addresses of gun permit holders jeopardizes their health and safety, and clearly jeopardizes the safety of all local undercover officers regardless of the department for which they work.

    http://www.rocklandtimes.com/2013/01/10/chief-nulty-says-journal-news-endangers-undercover-officers-orangetown-council-blasts-journal-news-gun-map/

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  11. So....how would you know a permit holder is an undercover officer? Furthermore, I thought baddies were supposed to be "ascared" of approaching any residences where there is a gun present. And, if I am not mistaken, law enforcement personnel are exempted from most, if not all, conceal carry permit laws.

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    1. New York gun permits are not concealed carry permits. You have to have one to own a gun even if you never take it out of the house. Police typically get what's called "one on the badge" - allowed to have one gun without a permit because they are a cop. For any other handguns they have to jump through the same hoops as any citizen. Also, if they leave the force they cannot have a gun unless they have a permit, so most cops get them in any event.

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    2. Furthermore, I thought baddies were supposed to be "ascared" of approaching any residences where there is a gun present.

      Seriously? Give it some thought. I'm a cop and my gun and I are at work. My wife, 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son are at home. I arrest a guy, he makes bail and is back on the street before I even go to lunch. He knows where I am. He knows where my family is.
      Much of the problem with this "debate" is that too many people who have no life experience or knowledge of guns, gun law or even life ouside their own bubble think they have all the answers. That includes a lot of people who work in newsrooms.

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    3. 2:44: You're making clear, focused and strong points. Thanks for lending 'real' perspective. I'm a journalist. Also, thanks for your public service. The 'enterprise' project that this newspaper attempted here was lazy and cheap. A quick-hit, knee-jerk reaction to recent events without any real forethought. But, then again, that would have required an act of thought. Which Gannett doesn't have much of these days.

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    4. Shouldn't the outcry be over the fact that New York state allows this info to be public information to begin with? A quick Google search shows me other sites with this same info - albeit statewide and not as tidy as being in map form.

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  12. Free Pizza!
    No kidding. Full page ad in this morning's AZ Republic (A section, pg 23.) All you have to do is sign up for Deal Chicken. Use to be they'd give us pizza in lieu of raises, bonus, benefits, etc... Now we don't even get this.

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    1. Further, it's not even a LARGE pizza, the cheap bastards. AND it's limited to the first 6400 NEW sign-ups. If you're already a DC subscriber, you're hosed.

      You think they'd try to reward people already signed up. For example, I get Amazon Local deals e-mailed every day. Nothing any better or worse than the Chicken. BUT . . . once in a while, Amazon will send me a free code. Got five free mp3 downloads, some free Kindle books and other tchotchkes that way. Probably didn't cost Amazon much, but I'm a loyal Amazon user because of it.

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  13. Here we go.

    Below is a Facebook post by News 12 Westchester:

    "HOME INVASION: A White Plains home that is listed on a publicized handgun permit database was burglarized last night.
    Police are trying to determine if the break-in was a result of the homeowner's name and address being published by the Journal News last month, along with thousands of other registered gun owners. Officials say two burglars used a ladder to break into the home to try and steal legally-owned guns out of the homeowner's safe."

    Link to video: http://bit.ly/VV0RR6

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    1. Here we go is right. Let's guess what the headline will be in the Post or Daily News tomorrow:

      LOW-HUD!

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  14. Just saw that too. I am curious to see how the JN is going to report this. http://westchester.news12.com/news/white-plains-home-on-handgun-permit-database-burglarized-1.4442333

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  15. The interview with the resident on the block who said he's lived on that street since 1997 and this is the first robbery he's seen was very telling.

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  16. Hey, to whomever the jackass is running the USA Today "breaking news" phone notifications -- you've been pestering me all day long with notifications about football. Stop it.

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  17. my understanding is NY law enforcement officers carry guns under peace officer status - they cannot get permits; that is why departments can take their guns away when they are suspended. - they are automatically given permits when they retire. can anyone comment on this??

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    1. Gun laws in NYC and Westchester County are different than the rest of the state, so it is hard to generalize. You may also be mixing NYPD policy with state law.
      When I went though the permit process Upstate, the instructors were police officers who had permits and explained the system as described above. I recall one was particularly chapped because he had to get a permit for the flintlock pistol he used in Revolutionary War reinactments and shooting competitions. Both owned multiple modern handguns and brought them into the class for display. In New York each gun owner has to have a permit, and each person's permit has to have the specific gun or guns they own listed on it. If a specific gun is not on your permit, it's a felony to have it in your possession.
      It's also hard to be precise about some aspects of state law. Judges can waive some requirements and permits can be issued by the state police, which apparently overrides NYC's stricter laws where permits issued by Upstate county sheriffs do do not. There's a lot of "it depends" in New York gun laws.

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  18. Here's Newsday's story on the gun burglary "triggered" by the LoHud gun map:

    http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/journal-news-gun-permit-map-used-by-burglars-to-target-white-plains-home-1.4441678

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  19. http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/breaking-news-attempted-gun-burglary-tied-journal-news-gun-maps

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  20. What's the over/under on the number of lawsuits the Journal News will be hit with?? 50??? That's a conservative estimate. Even if each one goes its way (VERY unlikely obviously), it should be bankrupt by Groundhog Day!

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  21. If running the gun map wasn't the height of incompetence, then getting scooped so badly on the first burglary the map led to surely is. It's now almost three hours past the first reports on Newsday.com/Westchester and News12 and not a word about the gun burglary caused by the Journal News map on LoHud.com!

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  22. That 70-year-old homeowner should sue the paper for wreckless endangerment.
    His settlement should include confirmation that the paper terminated the editor(s) who came up with this half-baked idea.

    The PR is getting worse every day on this; as a stockholder, I want to know why Gannett doesn't have a crisis team tamping this down.

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    1. I too have been wondering why corporate has been so silent on this. If they support it, say so. If it was a screw-up that won't be repeated, say that. But at least say something.

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    2. And the 2013 Costa Concordia Asleep-at-the-Wheel Award goes to:
      "Gannett Public Relations!"

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  23. Sean Hannity, on his day off, ripped the Journal News tonight on both Fox 5 New York and Fox News.

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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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