Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Shreveport Confidential | Issue 5.29.13
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
58 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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You will see that I have removed many comments posted earlier this week on other threads. That is because the discussion got much too personal. Among other things, I remove comments that make fun of someone's appearance or physical limitations.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Bossier City!
ReplyDeleteWow, this thread is really getting some action today. I can see it was worth creating! And why didn't you just include the salted first post in the main blog (not to get personal or anything?
ReplyDeletePersonal, impersonal, what does it really matter? It is all anonymous so how can it become personal?
Sticks and stones.
"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."
Yes I would agree about the great action. Total entertainment almost like a daytime soap opera. Let's stay tuned to see what's next.
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ReplyDeleteSince all the comments concerning the issues in Shreveport and the new publisher, Judi Terzotis, were moved here, and now deleted..what's the point? What's going on there?
ReplyDeleteShreveport is a total mess so what does Gannett do? They bring in a totally ineffective, green publisher with no corporate clout to "fix" it. Drinking and working out with the executive team isn't going to work here.
ReplyDeleteThe community is so disenfranchised with The Times I'm not sure if anyone could save it. It's such a mess. Everything is broken. Circulation can't deliver a paper, operations can't print a paper, advertising can't sell ads, the newsroom is a total joke.
12:19 aren't you just a joy to be around. Do us all a favor and quit. The new pub turned a failing Fort Collins around. So your "Green" comment is BS.
DeleteHellhole for years
DeleteThe editors and managers that have run The Times into the ground are still in charge so there cannot be any expectation that the new publisher will fix anything. Until she removes those problems things will not get better.
DeleteThis is a hoot! Shreveport is totally messed up so it gets its own thread! Let the house cleaning begin, because not much worth saving there.
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ReplyDeleteI've removed your comment because it includes personal attacks on individuals that aren't supported by evidence. (As the expression goes: You are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.)
DeleteAlso, referring to individuals by only the letter of their first or last names, as you did here, doesn't make it any better.
I know this is frustrating, but I've got to enforce some limits.
Regarding the green publisher with no corporate clout, you are soooo wrong!!! She has more corporate clout than you think! Why do you think she is back with Gannett after leaving for 2 years? There are publishers who fear her, especially when she was an ad director under them! Don't let her drinking with her staff fool you! She will work them to death. But she does know how to have fun! I miss that fun at my property. And we are going down the tubes fast. She will clean house too?..bring in her own and get rid of the dead weight. Not a huge fan of hers, but I do miss the fun she brought to the property to motivate! No more motivation here.
ReplyDeleteOh, how she despised any mention of her previous "property" on the blog, and let everyone know it in no uncertain terms. Two feet in or two feet out. Go, GI Judy!!!
DeleteMorale is low and management in certain departments is awful. Hoping Judi can turn things around quickly before they run the good folks away.
DeleteShe is assembling her army right now! You may be drinking with her but if you aren't one of her soldiers you will be forced out! She will get you out with a blink of an eye!
DeleteShe might want to start her cleaning in the circ dept.
DeleteMost of the good people are already gone.
DeleteI have both feet in and I always have
DeleteIsn't Circulation under GPS?
DeleteYes circ and production
DeleteJudi Terzotis has no corporate clout? Ha.
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself how the publisher of a 20,000-circ daily could be finalist for companywide manager of the year barely two years after taking the Fort Collins job. Ask yourself how the site she ran was finalist for best client solution. And ask yourself how the newsroom leader she hired, Josh Awtry, was named Gannett's most innovative thinker after slightly more than a year on the job.
Coming out of Fort Collins, Judi has a well-earned reputation for success. Ask your publisher to share Fort Collins' numbers with you- readership, finances and community engagement.
And that would be one of her foot soldiers speaking! Didn't she turn FOCO around? What about Jackson, MS? As an ad director, did she do anything for that paper or was the publisher holding her back?
DeleteFort Collins? Really? That's were she earned her stripes. Holy cripes!
DeleteI hope she can do it. However the place is a mess. Totally broken. Shreveport needs someone more than dresses really pretty, takes her team out to drink and relies on others to get it all done.
I guess if she got the same results and was a tea totaler who dressed in a gunny sack then you might have more respect. Judging her ability by her clothes seems kind of petty but I guess that's why you read the blog, right Anonymous 10:06?
DeleteTo the last annon commenter ... seriously, I don't know what's going on there,I've never been to Shreveport and I barely know Judi.
ReplyDeleteBut, I do know that your comments about anyone who 'dresses really pretty' were SO sexist that really I think you rendered your own opinion to be obsolete.
Watch your words - there's a whole lot of employees out there who dress "really pretty" and still do a hell of a job. I hope you consider whether male publishers dress "really pretty," too.
That's funny. I beleive it's in reference to someone that spends a lot of time and money on their outfits when they should be spending more time on running the business. I'd say the same about a guy as well I guess.
DeleteBTW I'm a women!
She has her work cut out for her. Every department is dysfunctional. The staff is disconnected from the community. They cannot get a paper out on time.
ReplyDeleteThe Bossier Times should just take over. Put The Times out of business and shutter that hell hole.
ReplyDeleteI don't care if the new publisher has super hero powers, she is just the next in line in attempts to fix something that just doesn't want fixin.
It also going to take more than one person to do this. Corporate could care less about this nasty little property somewhere down south.
Good luck Judi! You're going to need it!!
9:14, can't wait for Judi to do what they did in Fort Collins and have everbody "re-apply" for jobs! Maybe she will be able to get rid of some of the people who don't want to be part of the solution. They have had such turnover at the top that people know they just have to lay low and they can ride out the storm.
ReplyDeleteA lot of turnover at the top? You have no idea what you are talking about. "The top" are still there. The top are the trouble but we aren't allowed to name names on here.
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Deletehttp://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/fort-collins-report-editors-must.html
ReplyDeleteIf she did that with the current newsroom editors it would be the best start to fix the problems with the paper.
DeleteI heard this but I cannot believe it because it is so laughable. Is it true that the paper has one "passion topic" and it is "our special little corner of the world"?
ReplyDelete9:54 its the Bossier Press Tribune and it has more Bossier readers than The Times.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the employees do to show they care and believe in the future? If you did an honest measure on the productivity and work ethic of each one, what would you find? Is there accountability in the departments? Does anyone get disciplined? If they are all tops where are the accolades, awards and community support?
ReplyDeleteGood old Shreveport. Where your talents take a back seat to your popularity.
DeleteOh SNAP. Quick survey, how many of you publishing on this thread are even still working for Gannett? In Shreveport or anywhere in Louisiana? If you do, don't you want this place to improve? Rally behind SOMETHING. If it's not Judi, then make it your current manager. Push them to tell you how THEY are going to make it a better news product, get it printed or delivered better. Complaining fixes nothing and "the next in line to fix something that just doesn't want fixin" can't do it alone. If you are one of us then get off your butts and make it better! To steal a line from the movie ELF, "Let's make being positive your new favorite thing".
ReplyDeleteYou're fixin' to get fired if you're about to tell your boss how to improve. It's best to stay low and just do your job.
DeleteCan I have an Amen.!!!!!
DeleteCan't get fired if you 'ask' how we are going to make improvements. I actually think that IS 'just doing your job'.
DeleteBetter print product? In case you haven't noticed, it's no longer about the print product. It's digital...digital...digital!!!
ReplyDeletePrint still pays most of the bills and strategies are built for both.
DeleteThese comments are very typical of Shreveport. They do not acccept or take well to anyone from the outside. Shreveport is the most racist, judgemental place I have lived and worked. Just read these posts, they are judging the new publisher based on the way she dresses? The town has been through a lot but has so much potential. It does appear that there needs to be some major housecleaning and getting some of the poison out. Good luck to Judi and the employees that really do care and will work at making chnage instead of bitching about it and everyone.
ReplyDeleteShe can start with the Circumstances department. A bunch of sorry ass managers. They manage by email and sticky notes. What a joke!
DeleteCirculation department
DeleteWhoa....!
Delete"These comments are very typical of Shreveport. They do not acccept or take well to anyone from the outside."
Also, as soon as someone calls someone "racist" these days, I stop listening to the rest of what they have to say.
I haven't worked for the S'port paper since 1991 but I clearly remember the place starting to really go to hell on a fast track when Gannett started the regular rotation of editors and upper management from outside the area. Wake up one morning and a new guy was in the editor's office with no warning of a change. Literally, editors changed on a stealth basis. None of these itinerate editors knew jackschmidt about the area or community, cared even less about it, formed no bonds to the community and only wanted to rise in the corporate Gannett structure.
Admittedly, The Times was never an ideal place to work with most of the employees praying for a change in management with Gannett taking over. What we got was worse than anyone ever imagined. Overnight the place went from a place with a unified staff, working well together and respecting each other to a hellhole of paranoia, internal competition and the crushing of incentive to do a good job. Staffers went from trying to excel at their jobs to simply keeping their heads down.
I still live in the area and still get the paper daily although I'm embarrassed by what it has become and how it has devolved into complete incompetence. It's not just the constant errors, misspellings, total lack of editing, etc., it's the lack of any useful or pertinent information throughout the paper. I read the comics, the editorials and the gardening section and that's about all. I get my news from the Internet because there is zero news affecting me in the daily Times. This is what you get when there is a disconnect between the readership and those providing the information.
My best wishes to anyone who comes into Shreveport from the outside, hoping to fix the Times. Unfortunately, I'm betting It ain't gonna happen because the attitude that caused all of the problems is the same attitude present in trying to fixing it.
With Judi at the helm you can bet there will be change coming. She does not have it in her to fail. Gannett obviously sees the potential in turning Shreveport around - if she can't do it, Good Bye Shreveport, so if you want a job, ya better put both feet in or start walking! Believe me, one way or the other she WILL get results.
DeleteMy Sunday Times is missing two sections today ... Local and Business. So tired of this happening.
ReplyDeletePlease do something quick with the circulation dept it's just depressing to be here
ReplyDeleteEmployee meeting was today. Nothing is going to change. If you haven't already been rewarded for your loyalty it isn't going to happen. We are proper fucked. Prove us wrong but we can't afford to hold our breath.
ReplyDeleteI was in this meeting... were you anonymous 11:39pm? We got more information that we've ever received. You might not like the news but you can't say you don't know where the newspaper stands and where we need to go. Try helping instead of whining and that might create a better situation. Or just hold your breath for 10-15 minutes and we might all be better off! :-)
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DeleteHellhole for years
ReplyDelete