Monday, April 01, 2013

April 1-7 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

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45 comments:

  1. Happy Easter to everyone. I was going to make exceptions for the selfish people in management, but that just wouldn't be very Christian of me.

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  2. Cant wait to see what Callaway has up his sleeve this week.

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  3. Can you imagine what the repercussions will be for the poor hapless soul that is found sitting in the new APP advertising lounge during working hours.

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  4. Anyone commenting about the bonehead move from Des Moines.... Posting a Journal news Like map showing schools without security guards??

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    1. Editor Rick Green continues to impress with great decision making.

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  5. My guess is that USA Today isn't getting enough volunteers for its "we hate old people" buyout program, but I don't have any hard data to prove it. Just seems ridiculous that a company would expect someone in their mid to late 50s to walk away from a job in this economic climate, with years left before retirement.

    So, wondering what Plan B is if the 55-and-older employees don't accept the offer? Will USAT just begin firing people based on age, salary, who uses the most medical benefits, etc?

    Anyone have a sense of how many "volunteers" are going to accept the offer and what the target number is from USAT higher ups?

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  6. I have gone online and checked out The Des Moines mess from last week. Wow! Another interactive map just like the Gannett paper in New York.

    Except this time, the interactive map showed which area schools (looks like about 350 total) HAVE "resource officers" - also know as security guards, and which one do not!!!

    Wow, the crap has hit the fan! It appears Editor Green has revised the original story and taken down the map.... based on the many angry comments on their own site. But I am not sure.

    All I know is that the editor was interviewed on Fox News. That can never be good.

    And by the way... another very embarrassing Gannett newspaper screw up JUST BEFORE a major holiday? How odd! Just saying.....

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    1. I just knew when I heard in the national news that a paper in Iowa had done this, that it would be the Des Moines newspaper (or should I say a GANNETT newspaper).

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    2. On The Register's website, one woman wrote that she called circulation to cancel her subscription. She said The Register staffer who took her call "defended the newspaper." The woman then asked The Register staffer is "she had any children in the Iowa schools."
      The answer from The Register "employee"? She said, "No, I live in North Carolina."

      Unbelievable! So when you call The Register in Iowa, you get a call center in North Carolina? Such great local knowledgeable customer service!

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    3. Still on-site call "centers" weren't much better. Ever the loyal Boy Scout, instead of picking up a free copy of the newspaper at work, I subscribed. Fellow workers smirked, but I figured that was the ethical thing before I realized that Gannett has no ethics, just buzzwords.

      Thing is, the thing kept getting not delivered.

      I called my on-site call center. The similarity here is that they had just as much training as the now outsourced call centers. Nothing changed.

      So one day, I walked down the hall and talked to a call center employee. This was highly discouraged, directly speaking to anyone in another department.

      The lady referred me to her manager. So I went to the manager. He seemed really uncomfortable that I had knocked on his closed door and introduced myself.

      However, the delivery issue was solved. Just like that, the very next day.

      Naturally he was among the first to go, since results aren't valued at Gannett; just schmoozing.

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    4. "This was highly discouraged, directly speaking to anyone in another department."

      This statement nukes your credibility. Who discouraged it? Why? Did you hear this directly, or did you just buy into what someone else told you?

      My guess is you are stretching the truth, or you are paranoid.

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  7. Next, Gannett will outsource customer service to India or the Philippines to save even more money. Who cares about the customers?

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    1. lets see, security, housekeeping, gannett benifits, drivers all outsourced, next on the list is GPS ! they're trying to kill print and GSP is an expense, with circulation revenue falling, and the cost of labor, newsprint, ink, supplies, they'll dump it soon !

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  8. They already do, where have you been??

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  9. Want to see how to do press relationships like a professional:
    http://jaffecom.com/morning-briefing.html

    A PR company takes aim at Gannett.
    Too bad they miss - they don't know how many properties Gannett has in NJ.
    Everyone would like to forget Vineland.

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    1. IN THE MEDIA

      Gannett, which buys print newspapers and systematically destroys them, today announced all its print operations in New Jersey should become one. Beginning tomorrow, Gannett will roll out its newest production: The Daily Record Home News Tribune Courier Post & Press. While, yes, the name is a bit bulky, newspaper executives are promising the merged publication will be chock full of New Jersey news – offering a whole eight pages of articles each day, some of which will actually be written in New Jersey.

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  10. LOL, LOL, LOL

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  11. I hear Westchester lost ad revenue exceeded $2.5M because of the interactive map. Any truth to that?

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    1. What a joke. More propaganda from the gun people.

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    2. @5:34 PM – Do you have any proof? Did sales go up or did they go down as 1:40 pm alleges? And, if they did go down by a material amount, what did Westchester use for the excuse….six more weeks of winter?

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    3. Do you have any proof, 6:39? The "sky is falling" crap here has worn thin.

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    4. I have proof, I have it from an inside source that as of the end of February the figure in ad sales alone was over $2,000,000....In ad sales alone....You can expect a few more layoffs as a result, which is ludicrous since you would have to get rid of 1/2 of the staff to cover that kind of loss. But heck the sacrificial lambs need to be slaughtered for the appeasement of corporate!

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    5. 2:34 You have no proof because that information is baloney. Not sure who your inside source is, but they're ill-informed.

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    6. I know you're there and there's no need to kid yourself and try to make it look like the impact was not what it really was. I'm married to someone in the management team and know the facts.

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  12. Another resignation in USA Today marketing. They just keep walking out (or they just keep getting pushed out).

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    1. I like your qualification there, 4:00 PM. That's exactly it: either way, it's the door. It's still sad... and counterproductive... the tact Gannett has taken, all of it consistently blind. There were other options than the policy the board has championed. But that would imply a board that had a journalistic background.

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    2. They won't be missed.

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  13. What is the buzz on here about Wisconsin and the new Green Bay Publisher.

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    1. Do they have a new publisher already?

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  14. How awful, I am doing a research project for class and recently received an AZcentral.com daily email business news blast. It pertained to my research and it interested me. Clicking on the story where did it lead me? to the AZ central website owned by Gannett. that in itself was not surprising, what I was surprised at was, this "breaking news story" I received two weeks ago, (it's March 2013) was actually a Washington Post story written IN 2011.
    Gannett It's All Withing Reach!
    Why because we just recycle the same stuff from other people, and we keep a small inventory.

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  15. There is no call center in North Carolina for GANNETT

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  16. It's South Carolina, Credit center - (CCC) in Springfield MO and DESC in INDIA ---anapolis....

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  17. http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=48&articleid=20110402_48_E1_Mediag785683

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  18. Who is next to walk out of the APP? Any takers?

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    1. Wish I could. What a rat hole that place has become.

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    2. TOM DONOVAN should volunteer

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    3. Gotta love the sign in the bathroom warning employees to not trash it.

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    4. Tom Donovan is still around ???

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    5. You see him time to time in his jeans and baseball cap. Looks like he should be working for Wrangler.

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    6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    7. must be good to be the king

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    8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  19. Now THIS is how an April 1st front page should look.

    http://timesdaily.com/stories/UFOs-Nessie-seen-near-Shoals,204509

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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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