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Friday, May 03, 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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I wonder how much longer it'll be before the publishers realize what an embarrassment the design centers are for their papers. I've never seen such a frequency in spelling errors and other mistakes as I have since they took over. Hardly an edition gets out without some egregious spelling mistake in a photo caption. Maybe they just don't care? Like how Optimum Quality is a distant memory. It's all about the dollar saved now.
ReplyDeleteI am not sticking up for the design centers - whether they are good or not is up for debate - but spelling errors are on the newspaper's staff. The way system works at my paper is that copy - stories, heads, captions, etc. - are written by the staff, not at the design center. They design; they don't copyedit.
DeleteI wish my design center would get off their kick of making all the 1A enterprise stories "Important!" by reversing out the entire block. Don't the youngsters know that even as GPS cheaps out on paper and ink laydown, that much dark on the page rubs off on readers hands?
DeleteDon't get me started on cutouts that run over the flag. God forbid they discover drop shadows and every element starts getting 'depth'.
They confuse design with good design, and then get cramps patting themselves on the back on how awesome they are for making a headline a different color.
Our page designers were the third line of defense in typo avoidance, after the writer and editor. Now the cutpasters at the design centers wouldn't know - or care - if an entire story of greeked text ran on page 1.
DeleteTheir mantra of 'it's not my job' is tiresome, but is the company expectation. Our pressroom would call editorial, or editorial would call advertising if either found a typo on a page in the old days. Now press is in a different division and ads are built in another state.
If you have ink in your blood, you still fight for a good product - but damn, it's hard to provide the best for your community when you're fighting alone.
6:54 AM - Simple solution: Just do it right the first time.
DeleteIf you need a "third line of defense," you've got at least two people too many.
Thanks for stopping by, bean counter
DeleteIf it makes any of you feel better, apparently the designers don't care for the design centers, either.
Deletehttp://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Gannett-Reviews-E272.htm
One even said "this is a place where hope goes to die."
Dear 9:16, the so-called designers don't design. They cut and paste copy, photos and captions into a template. They don't correct even the most basic or obvious problems. I agree that staff at each paper must provide clean, ready copy and photos, BUT here's what staff at the papers must do each day in addition to their other responsibilites: cut overset (even one word!); tweak headlines so that they fill the column correctly; make sure captions don't have identifying information (such as dates) that the "designers" cut and pasted in their hurry to move on; fill in refers; fill in the jump keywords; fill in additional elements like deck heads if the "designers" decide to add them; make sure photos come back from the RTC with captions (sometimes the captions disappear)....and the list goes on. These are tasks that real page designers and/or copy editors once performed. Anyone with basic computer skills can do what design center employees do for routine news, sports and feature pages.
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ReplyDeleteAnother USA Today walk-out: travel editor Barbara DeLollis resigns and hits the road
ReplyDeleteI'm just dying to know what valuable insights Sandy Micek had to say at the Mid Atlantic Network Summit last week? Anyone attend the event at the Crystal Palace?
ReplyDeleteThe Dynamic Media Landscape
Peter Cherukuri, SVP of Advertising and Business Development, Politico
Sandra Cordova Micek, SVP of Marketing, USA TODAY
Thanks for stopping by MarianEd ex marketeers!!
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DeleteEver since cancelling my 35 year subscription to our community's Gannett paper (due to new circulation policies that make it no longer possible to simply suspend my subscription while traveling for several months each winter and truly offensive threats to report me to a credit bureau when I questioned my final bill before cancellation), I have been receiving constant "we want you back" email offers attempting to get me to re-subscribe at deeply discounted rates. Since I don't want to upset my local editor who I like a lot and for whom I feel deeply sorry by calling and discussing this matter, I would like to suggest here on this forum that Gannett seriously examine the recent circulation changes which do not allow print-only subscription rates and which no longer allow suspension of subscriptions for those of us who may spend some months each year away from our home communities and who do not choose to receive the newspaper in digital form during that time.
ReplyDeleteI have served on my local paper's advisory board. I have also spent many thousands of dollars on ads in the paper over the years and want to support the business, but I simply will not tolerate being abused by non-local call center employees when I state that I don't want to pay for a product I am not receiving until I return home after a long absence. At least the call center mentioned that I had the option to cancel my subscription. And I did.
If anyone in corporate marketing/circulation is reading this post, you may also wish to run a spell checker on those sycophantic emails that keep appearing in your customers' in-boxes. "Opps" is not a word, folks. If you really meant to say "Oops," I would agree that you are making a big one.
Why didnt you cancel your subscription instead of a vacation stop and then start it when you returned from your two month sojourn? Or would that have been too easy. I go on vacation for a month and don't cancel my cable. I watch on my iPad. A vacation stop is so last century. Welcome to the 21st century Dino
DeleteMy delivery service is already crappy enough without multiple starts & stops. I can't imagine how bad it would be if I put the delivery staff through that.
DeleteTo answer 2:49 after every stop there was a risk of the service going down. Many Carriers just didn't check for start stops everyday.
DeleteHere it isn't the carrier, as is often the blame gets pushed. A stop here usually takes 2 weeks, sometimes longer...sometimes not at all. Even startups take days most times. Single copy is better except for USA Today which still has no papers for new starts even after 3 months!
Delete9:09, in answer to your question: because I simply don't want to. I have the money and "eyeballs" that presumably Gannett would like to attract to its product. It is your job to serve my needs if you want that money and attention to your ads, not my role to jump through the company's new hoops because it's more convenient for you. There are too many other media sources happy to have my dollars. Welcome to the 21st century, indeed.
ReplyDeleteWell said 9:28.
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Delete9:28 I worked for Gannett for 30 years in Louisiana, although I didn't work for circulation I took a majority of the calls after they outsourced the call center for circulation . We begged the publisher and circ. director to listen to the customers requests, it was their way or nothing. It's all about the .$$$ and not the customer anymore.
ReplyDelete10:36 The Publisher and circulation manager have no control anymore in how the paper is run, it is all dictated to them from non local control. I am not 9:28 but I did work in circulation. So it is the Gannett way or nothing.
ReplyDeleteHey 9:09, you are obviously part of the "new" Gannett workforce that doesn't give a damn about our customers!
ReplyDeleteDo you cancel your cable when you go on vacation? No! Do you not pay your power bill when you go on vacation? No! Do you refuse to pay your monthly car lease when you go on vacation? No! Do you? No! Why should you be able to stop your access to your content subscription? Nuf said.
DeleteBecause, 9:38, actual products show up. Duh. Do you also take home delivery of groceries when you are visiting Aunt Tilly in Omaha? No?
DeleteMy name is Nuf, and I said it.
6:54 - you are exactly right. If you have ink in your blood, you still fight for a good product. And if you are no longer there - thanks Gannett for showing me the door - you still wish for the quality paper you once were proud of. At my former paper, page designers were the third line of defense, but we also had staff in composing, prepress - whatever you want to call them - who took pride as well and would alert us to typos etc. That pride continued down to the pressmen who would phone the newsroom if they saw an error. Sadly no more. It would go along way to removing the paper from being the punchline that it is today if the REPORTER would spellcheck or read over their story before sending it on. Knowing they no longer have anyone to really edit their copy or proof their pages, they must accept the blame for so many errors in papers today. At one time, reporters would have been embarrassed to turn in such sloppy copy.
ReplyDeleteIt seems Gannett stock is higher today based on the good news for the NY times circulation numbers. Strange since USA Today saw a decrease in circulation.
ReplyDeleteAnnounced Friday afternoon is that Scott Johnson, the publisher in St. Cloud, has been named the publisher in Green Bay. He's the former advertising director in Green Bay and for Gannett's Wisconsin papers.
ReplyDeleteThe folks in Louisiana just got the best damn publisher in the company. Judi will be sorely missed in Fort Collins.
ReplyDeleteGPS is stand alone and very arrogant ! no commumication with news, design or advertising to coordinate what prints well and what doesn't. send crap and they'll print crap, no one cares ! it's all about saving a buck !
ReplyDeleteJudi Terzotis best publisher?
ReplyDeleteHa!
Not hardly
She will clean house in Shreveport. She takes no prisoners. If you are one of her chosen people you will have fun. If not, may the source be with you.
DeleteHa, the out-source....
DeleteTerzotis rocks... classy, energetic and full of good ideas. Those of us in Fort Collins are going to miss her, and we know she'll bring that same style to Louisiana.
ReplyDeleteWho and how many of you will she take to Shreveport? Wink wink
Deleteno one talking about Detroit taking over Lansing?
ReplyDeleteAbout time. What else is there to say?
DeleteIs Detroit taking over Lansing? Good.
ReplyDeleteLast week there were some posts about an employee that committed a crime against other employees (at the Crystal Palace). The outcry brought about awareness and action against workplace crimes.
ReplyDeleteIf you have ever witnessed or suffered from workplace harrassment or assault, just report it to the police. And remember to never tell anyone that you had made a police report, for your own safety. Please contribute towards making Gannett a safer workplace. Even if years have gone by, you can still report the crimes and they are still punishable by law. Don't let any workplace crime go unpunished, because these crimes are usually not isolated events. When reporting crime in the workplace please also try to remember additional information about the criminal, which maybe helpful: unusual stories told by the criminal and any unusual events occuring during the presence of the now convicted criminal (accidents, assaults, threatening behavior, illnesses, bullying, extreme emotions and violent harrassement toward others). These things are never forgotten and with your knowledge we can bring justice to light.
Also given the seriousness of workplace crimes, it is necessary that companies take the appropriate action to warn others of potential danger. Just as people are warned of sexual predators and given advance warning of their presence in a community, it is necessary to have the same warning in the workplace. When people have been convicted of such crimes there is a greater potential that it will not only occur again, and highly likely that it already occured multiple times with out it being reported.
We are asking Gannett to release the names of all workplace criminals employed by Gannett. We should all be safe at work, and part of being safe is being informed of potential danger.
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ReplyDeleteIt's weird that gannett would employ a workplace criminal. We really should be told if another employee has a history of committing such crimes. I wouldn't want to work with them.
ReplyDelete