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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
42 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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As of June 12 Gannett Direct Marketing in Louisville Ky. will close. 52 employees will lose their jobs
ReplyDeleteYou are advertising Thai girls on this blog? WTF is up with that?
ReplyDeleteIt's behaviorial marketing. It matches up what YOU search for on YOUR computer. Mine has ads for jobs at Bayard Adv.. just a thought....
ReplyDeleteMy ad on the banner shows an online mba program. What have you been searching for 4:11?
ReplyDeleteSounds like 4:11 has been a tad naughty in his search preferences.
DeleteBusted!
DeleteI certainly don't search for Thai girls on my work computer. I use InPrivate (and non-cookie) for blog-related browsing. Today I am seeing skin care products and I don't search for those either. The other current ad is for Suburu - never done any auto shopping at work!
DeleteSure. And I'm an 82 year old, unwed mother.
DeleteDouble Busted!
I'm a Gannett journalist, on the writing side. My behavorial ad is "Brightcove Video Cloud" -- and no complaints here. I believe they call it keeping up with the times...
DeleteEstee Lauder for me!! :) And very sad to hear about the Louisville job losses...That's my paper.
ReplyDeleteThe first quarter financials should be out soon.
ReplyDeleteIs there speculation how much revenue was down on the print side of the ledger? Can we expect another 8% dive and how will costs be cut to match.
Layoffs?
We can't expect the broadcast side to support print forever.
I don't have a revenue number. But EPS is estimated to be +6%. Look for a world of hurt from the NYT - with EPS down 31.25% - due to slumping print ad demand.
DeleteWhy not 8:18 am? All the daily papers & TV supported USA Today since ever.
DeleteBroadcast had a great year in 2012, but only because there was a national election and olympics. It wont carry gannett in 2013. That is a big problem when print is sucking wind.
ReplyDeleteAnd the only reason for that is because today's heads of newspapers choose it to be so. People still want their newspaper...just not at a buck a day for less and less relevant content. News is worse but today's front page of the sports section was from a USA paper days ago. Really? And you wonder why people are buying the paper less and less?
DeleteUntil the bigwigs get it through their heads digital is just another means to get news out and NOT the end all, we'll all be circling the drain...for no other reason than stupidity.
Very much agree with 3:06 PM.
DeleteThe means should be in tandem. I'm not that "dinosaur" I keep hearing about. I rely on both print and digital together. But even so, if it were of equal status to Gannett (which is not gonna happen), it would still come down to what those means present to the consumer and thus advertiser. And if it's galleries of mugshots of dregs and irrelevant schmooze fests of the upper classes, or pandering Chamber of Commerce-approved articles examing the latest in backyard landscaping of relevance only to the very well-off?
I realize Gannett has re-branded itself as a marketing company and not a news company, but if one goes back to Business Class 101, all this once again limitsGannett's potential market. All we get is sprinkling of hard news -- sometimes it's actually exceptional, but that's literally when mostly it's vanilla canned stuff.
Gannett's bigwigs have their blinkers on and have zero incentive to have it any other way. They are out for theirselves just like most of the other obscenely rich.
I've read both the print version and the digital version of the "product" in my locale for quite a while. Print, daily, ever since high school; digital, the first day it went online (way before it was technologically ready to, and way before Gannett took over with its one-size-fits-all crap). So please grant that I have some perception of knowing the significant difference between then and the sorry state of now.
Today the website has a video of Max Baer, Jr., ("Jethro" from the 60s show "The Beverly Hillbillies") at a richy-rich Republican luncheon, featuring a reporter's awfully grade-school monotone narration (no training, poor guy, don't blame him), dismall sound quality (ditto), and of course Mr. Baer himself (no background to justify his stature as -- get this -- a featured speaker at such a luncheon, and no class even so). Basically an embarrassment all the way around.
Meanwhile there's all kinds of stuff gonig on that is of far more relevancy to the community as a whole. Last I knew, some of the staff is very much aware of this. But they just want to keep their jobs. They've already seen others taking buyouts, targeted solely for their age, their contacts and experience of no concern. They've already seen the layoffs, knowing that they probably got their position due to someone else's livelihood being sent up a chimney.
Yet for all that, Gannett still could create a business model that enhances both mediums reciprocally. I've seen it done for another enterprise I joined once I was kicked to the curb at Gannett with all the ceremony given to a used condom behind a frat house.
Then again that publisher I cite has free reign; it's his own publication, digital and print, meshed tight, supporting the other. With Gannett, it's their buzzwordy clueless way or the highway.
@ 3 p.m.: Is GDMS being rolled into something else, or just discontinued? So sorry about the job loss.
ReplyDeleteMoving as much as possible to Inner Workings
ReplyDeleteFrom "Reflections of a Newsosaur" via Romenesko:
ReplyDelete"The reason to worry about paywalls is that they severely limit the prospects of developing a wider audience for newspapers at a time publishers need – more than ever – to attract readers among the digitally native generations that represent a growing proportion of the adult population."
Very interesting read. And another example of today's news media looking out for today's bottom dollar rather than the long-term health of the business.
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-paywalls-are-scary.html
And in the meantime how exactly do they raise the money to pay your salary and satisfy the shareholders of the public company for whom you work? Please share your business acumen with us.
DeleteThe Newsosaur analysis is spot-on. All the cheering for paywalls/meters/etc misses the point that the concept has -- so far -- succeeded only as a way to implement a print circ price increase. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But until newspapers start putting up big numbers for digital-only customers, or (gasp) actually charging more for print+online than they do for print only, the crowning of paywalls as an industry saviour is very premature.
DeleteContrary to recent speculation here, Project Butterfly is not an early retirement offer for those 55 and older.
ReplyDeleteRather, Butterfly is an editorial content initiative that's been under consideration since last summer. I'll be writing more about this shortly.
I'm posting this brief update now, in response to questions from some of you, and after hearing from a reader who described the project in detail.
Oh and will your readers hate this idea. Can't wait to read the horrifying "end of the world" as we know it posts!!!
DeleteI wonder how much $$$ they paid to consultants to come up with the code name "Project Butterfly."
DeleteWasn't there a Project Firefly awhile back? I just can't keep all this shit and also stuff with acronyms straight anymore.
DeleteFirefly was the name given to the paywall rollout.
DeleteToday's favorite party game, list all the initiatives that have been rolled out and immediately forgotten - local local local, information centers, first five grafs, nut grafs, whatever the flavor of the week is over at USAT for puny stories, real people, real news, passion topics... cmon people, you know the drill. Second verse, same as the first!
DeleteWaiting for Project Blowfly - calliphoridae is such a cute little bugger and would be perfectly suited for the next marketing initiative.
Delete6:49: Moments of Life. Mainstreaming. Target audiences which includes everyone except white males who aren't college educated and make less than $50,000 a year.
DeleteGarcia Martore admitted in October of last year that while revenues were up circulation had dropped by 10 percent and more than that on Sundays. That apparently is acceptable. They raised prices and bundled print and digital to offset the decrease in circulation. Does she have any plan to increase circulation or is that it? They out sourced jobs shouldn't they bring back circulation and distribution workers to try to increase circulation again. In some areas housing is starting to pick up. Realtors like to advertise in Newspapers if Gannett cannot increase circulation they will spend that money elsewhere. Right now distribution is hit and miss for my local paper.
ReplyDeleteCirculation revenue is up because subscription rates were jacked up when the paywalls went in. End of story.
ReplyDeleteThey also increased price of a single copy paper significantly. While the local distributor at the paper in Palm Springs is always looking for new route drivers.
DeleteDon't hold your breath waiting for the proof of this theory.
DeleteHuh? That's not a theory -- it's a fact.
DeleteJim has a different definition of the word fact than normal people do.
DeleteEver since the price of a copy of USA Today went from $0.75 to $1.00 on December 8, 2010 for SC rack as well as dealers, sales have fallen like a lead balloon.
ReplyDeleteRacks that use to sale 3-4 copies a day have dropped to a sale of 1 copy or less per day. Maintaining a rack is not a profitable venture for either the company or carrier.
Racks are being pulled off the streets like wild fire, just look around. Sad to say but Gannett's greed will be the shot to the foot.
No source = no credibility.
DeleteThat makes sense. I was wondering why a USA Today box at my local post office, there for a decade at least, disappeared a few weeks ago.
DeleteMore, if not all, USAT racks are being pulled off the street in Brevard. The carriers stopped putting papers in them a couple of weeks ago. Just stores now and with them hiding the papers more and more because of low profit per...we all know the end of that story.
Deleteto the ahole at 8.18 why the fuck do you gannett has broadcasting its because of print its about time you aholes started picking up some slack
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteEmpty racks for USA Today and Enquirer are so numerous in Cincinnati market. What will it take, a letter or phone call to corporate! I thought that USA Today had a better operation, why did Enquirer take them over. Should have been the other way around. Seems like no one cares anymore about the non-serviced racks. Can frustrated customers start picking them up for Scrap??
ReplyDelete