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Friday, June 21, 2013
30 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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Gannett price target raised to $30 from $25
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/GCIid1848999/GCI-Gannett-price-target-raised-to--from---at-Argus
Regarding an earlier post about Shreveport having one of the steepest declines in the company and the smaller format and new press hasn't produced the gains that were expected ... It is not at all surprising the paper has lost so much. I let my 30-plus year subscription go quite a while ago and I do not read the paper anymore nor do I look at it online ... I get my news elsewhere. It's not the format or new press problems at all. It is the fact that there is no credibility because of the sloppiness - riddled with typos and holes in stories. It is because we don't care about a fender bender in Lafayette or a trial in Monroe. It is because we get videos of two reporters showing us how to make a Mardi Gras mask at the most elementary level. It is because we no longer get journalism that holds our politicians accountable - occasional watchdog stories, yes - occasional coverage of city council meetings, etc. - but no consistent holding feet to the fire. Might someone ask our mayor why he still hasn't spent money ordered for the dog park? Financial dictatorship? It is because photo galleries and video hits are what corporate wants now. Compelling journalism isn't in The Times. Credible journalism isn't in The Times. Screw the passion topics or portrait of our community or whatever the latest "buzz words" are. But you can't. Crystal Palace tells you what to do and how to do it and as we all know - someone clear across the country knows exactly what this wonderful community called Shreveport wants. Thank god most of the veteran staffers have been terminated. Too heartbreaking for them to be reduced to producing the crap they are expected to produce today. It is said by those in the military that during the draft, young men (18) were drafted because at that age they didn't yet have the mindset to question and did what exactly as they were told. Maybe that is why the face of our newsrooms are younger and younger.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeleteConsidering who runs their newsroom, no surprise to many.
I believe 9:36 is onto something. Too bad the airheads running the show in S'port fail to get it.
DeleteShreveport Times front page June 20, 2013: One third of the page is masthead, one third of the page is an advertisement for a mattress store, one third of the page is content with three of the four columns being photos and story about an under construction local "modern church" and one column six inches deep (two inches being headline) concerning a suspect in the death of a local child...jump to page 10. Ask me if I read any of this.
Amateur hour every morning with typos as a bonus. I remember when the Times had professional journalists on staff. I remember when it had respect.
10:23, I don't agree. Corporate has made it difficult for individual sites to have any say in how to run their paper much less what to report on. I don't think you can blame the departments or the publishers for how badly the papers in the communities are doing. Gannett is no longer about good journalism.
DeleteHas Gannett ever been about good journalism? At one time the papers Gannett own were. But Gannett has stopped all that.
Delete11:50 AM – Please explain how corporate has made it difficult for papers to run error-free content. And exactly when was Gannett ever about good journalism. I knew decades ago in j-skrewel to avoid getting a job at a Gannett paper.
DeleteBy letting go of everyone who was knowledgeable and crippling the individual sites by their top-down one size fits all management approach.
DeleteI can't imagine "corporate" caring much about a local unit and its day to day issues. These are division issues, like the question of master control rooms in TV units. Most of these kinds of decisions are pushed down to the business. When I was at Cincy the only corporate person I heard from was on benefits. Never did I hear a word from Corporate on story direction or staffing.
DeleteThe Fauquier Times-Democrat isn't the only paper going through a name change. I hear that Gannett is also planning to remove "Enquirer" from the Cincinnati Enquirer because its reporters have ceased to "enquire" about anything other than the details of anticipated press releases, announcements and press conferences. Replacement names under consideration are the "Follower," the "Stumble-Oner," the "Lo and Beholder" and the "What the Reader Doesn't Know Won't Hurt Themer."
ReplyDeleteMy vote's for the "Stinky Enky"!
Delete10:45: Sounds suspiciously just like what the owner of this blog does these days.
Delete9:36: This is the way of most Gannett papers that I've seen. That's one reason they are failing so quickly. Print papers were bound to decline, but Gannett has definitely sped up the process.
ReplyDeleteHow are the folks in Cannes doing?
ReplyDeleteThe long post by 4:19 on 6/18 was indeed eloquent and thoughtful. A worthwhile read. Please continue to contribute.
ReplyDeleteGet over it, haters. USA Today is no longer part of Cannes and Craig A. Moon's expensive debacle on the French Riviera.
ReplyDelete9:40,
DeleteAh, wrong! We have several USAT/Gannett execs in Cannes at the event right now. Cost has to be in the $500,000 or more range when all totaled up.
10:06 is exactly right. And the Cannes partnership/boondoggle was in place well before Moon arrived. Then again, he also didn't eliminated it either. A free trip to the South of France once a year is hard to resist.
DeleteCould this be in Gannett Broadcasting's future? Hmm...in about 5 years or so after they've redesigned the websites and have created a few mobile apps for the Blackberry.
ReplyDeleteWLS-Channel 7 creating digital-only newscast
Chicago Business
ABC's WLS Channel 7 in Chicago plans to introduce a live, digital-only newscast called "ABC 7 To Go." The newscast is believed to be the first of its kind to be offered by any local U.S. TV station. "We've seen an increased demand for local news on our digital platforms."
http://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2013/06/20/wls-channel-7-adds-digital-news-and.html
Is anyone else as sick of the amateurish videos they are making us do? I can talk about how excited I am for the new media and how video wasn't even on the horizon for newspapers when I was in college, but I cringe whenever I look at our home page and see videos with worse quality than high schoolers put out. Between the quality and the crap subjects they make us shoot, like kids' graduations, fender benders and garage fires, I am embarrassed.
ReplyDelete4:44 p.m.: I am. At 1:30 this morning, I was rousted out of bad by a manager to cover a fire in my town _ and I'm not even in the news department.
DeleteHe asked me if I had an I-phone and I told him, "No. It's in my drawer at work." I sensed his slow burn (pardon the pun) as I told him I did not have the phone, using my land line to speak to him.
Hey, if we are to have our I-phones with us all the time, how about being paid time and a half overtime and double time _ it's called being on call.
One manager told a worker on the phone the other day, "Why are we using all of these resources to shoot video? Nobody watches them."
I can see where the campaign will go the way of other campaigns in the Gannett Graveyard of Failed Initiatives. It will take some time, however, as The Big G has invested big bucks in the phones, their covers and training.
Once Gannett sees the campaign has failed, it will go the way of the Edsel. Does anyone else have I-phone horror stories? Let's ee them here.
That will kill the rack sales. Pull those racks from the streets boys!
DeleteIf the Star Trek parody video didn't embarrass the IRS (before the cost of it was divulged), there is nothing that will embarrass the people at the top in any job, anywhere.
DeleteJust heard another rumor about a price increase for USAT. Any one hearing the same?
ReplyDelete6:03 pm.: Which means USAT will provide a better product, of course. Yeah. Sure. Right. Somehow, I would not count on it.
ReplyDeleteShot in the dark here, but does anyone know if Belo has a broadcasting/master control hub?
ReplyDeleteIf it does not, I am sure Gannett will implement one as part of the bloodbath it will stage. Look at what the design centers did!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBelo does not have a Master Control hub. They attempted to implement one in Seattle but were unsuccessful. Any word from Gannett Master Control Centralcast employees as to plans to integrate Belo Master Control operations into Gannett Centralcasting (ie: new, unexplained racks/monitors etc in Florida)? There's a lot of anxiety on the Belo end as to whether there will be Master Control layoffs after the acquisition.
ReplyDeleteWho's the new publisher in Des Moines? What's going on here?
ReplyDeleteYou will not find out here.
ReplyDeleteThose loyal Gannetteers are too afraid of L.H.
to post here.