Friday, June 28, 2013

June 24-30 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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34 comments:

  1. I'll be offline for the next 10 hours, so there may be delays in when comments get approved and posted. Thanks for your patience.

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  2. The Post-Crescent entertainment reporter is doing profiles of bartenders. Picture with bio etc. So far all of those profiled happen to be attractive females. Just the luck of the draw I guess.

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    1. And the videos are getting plenty of views. Who needs to cover news when cleavage gets more web hits?

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    2. Cleavage, or, as we call it around here, the Silicon Valley.

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    3. that is a classic!

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    4. Hey! It's not a beauty pageant. It's a scholarship program!

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  3. I am curious as to whether or not most Gannett properties are giving raises to their employees? Is this happening across the board, only with certain individuals or not at all?

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  4. The publisher at our site said today at a meeting of employees, "Reviews are written. There is a small merit pool of money. There will be a small increase to the top performers in the next two weeks."
    However, later in the meeting, he said the Gannett Foundation and his newspaper made $28,000 in donations to charity. One donation included $8,000 for two convection ovens to Meals on Wheels.
    I guess the employees at his site will get crumbs for raises if they are lucky. The next time you find it hard to put gas in your car or pay for food, think of how you fed the good people at Meals on Wheels, some of whom are already feeding off your dime in the welfare system.
    Is there something wrong with this picture???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Wow, you not only hate the company that pays your salary, you hate hungry neighbors as well. How proud your Mom must be. Her name isn't Paula is it?

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    2. When Gannett cuts your job you’ll be glad Meals on wheels has new ovens to cook your dinner.

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  5. Dist. Ctr. (GPS) at Florida Today was told not to buy any spare parts or replacement parts for the equipment.
    One can only hope they have stocked up on bent wire, twine and super glue.

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    1. Sounds like they will be printing elsewhere soon.

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  7. Can sales or marketing explain why we are still giving away full page color ads to Starbucks in return for selling USA Today? There is no evidence Starbucks has any displays or sales in DC locations or airports other than for the Post and NYT.

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  9. I always see USA Today displayed at Starbuck in the DC metro area.

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    1. ha ha ha i also see one copy displayed and never sold daily in manhattan

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    2. I see USAT displayed in every Starbucks I go into.

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  13. 2:30/2:52 You can't say someone has committed a crime without providing a link to a relevant document, such as a court record.

    That's Journalism 101.

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  14. Have the Madelyn P. Jennings Scholarship winners for 2013 been announced anywhere? Previous years they were announced in late May or early June, if I recall correctly.

    The 2014 program is evidently taking entries (http://www.gannettfoundation.org/scholarship.htm) but I've seen nothing locally and Google isn't giving anything up either.

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  15. Another missive from Dave Callaway's biggest cheerleader -- himself. USA TODAY is doing just dandy, don't you know. Of course, the dirty little secret he isn't mentioning is that the staff who are left are expected to work day and night, and be on call on the weekend to write -- or rather rewrite -- items to fill the web site. And are any of these recent triumphs MAKING ANY MONEY? Instead of doing high-fives over Today show appearances, wouldn't it be better if they found a way to turn the web site into a profit-making enterprise? Here it all is in Callaway's self-back-patting words, as if most of these so-called achievements never existed before at the paper:


    Folks,

    Weekly highlights for the beach…….Loeb Award for Ghost Factories team, business journalism’s highest honor and a first for USA Today……CEO of AllianceBernstein tells a crowd of 200 at an event that he was confused by the gay marriage rulings until he went to USA Today online, which put them in perspective and context and helped him talk smart about them (crowd applauded)……….senior media consultant in NY tells me USA Today front page recently outdoing WSJ and NYTimes on news he wants to read each morning….…CEO of export firm says he demands USA Today in every hotel he stays at in Asia so he can take stay in touch with real news on business trips………legendary Time Inc. editor John Huey veers from his lifetime appreciation awards speech at the Loeb’s to congratulate Larry and USA Today on its award………Rem Rieder joins as media editor……….Jim Michaels and Tom Vandenbrook launch military blog……..Susan Page on Face the Nation, Andrea Mandell on Entertainment Tonight, Arienne Thompson on Today Show……. Brad Heath byline on top spot news story (gay marriage) of the week AND top enterprise story (Entrapment, stash houses)………Rich Wolf owns the news flow on all platforms on SCOTUS week……Donna Freydkin wakes up in middle of night, checks iphone and sees Alec Baldwin has melted down on twitter, files story on the spot, crushing competition from morning shows………Jim Sergent’s Rainbow Rulings front page the best in the country that next day, according to curator for the Newseum……….Alison Maxwell holds all celebrity and entertainment news together WHILE negotiating TV appearances of staff AND editing Josh Gad (150,000 page views and counting last check)……..Twitter creator and Groupon founder each seek out Jon Swartz to tell exclusive tech stories……..Adam Shell, Matt Krantz and Jon Wagoner on markets as world ends, then comes back, then ends, then comes back, then……..

    ……..Ok, a few lowlights too……….we were slow getting started on Snowden at the top of the week……whiffed on the story that Barnes and Noble would stop making Nooks on its own……and, according to a reader letter today with accompanying Nations page from two weeks ago, swapped New Mexico and Arizona in a graphic…….

    ….but even the best batters only get a hit a third of the time……by these statistics, we’re batting .750 or better……….ok, I know I missed a few so send them my way…..the point is this was a stupendous week…….. and despite vacations, new practices and assignments, controversial photos and columns and the shadow of Mandela’s death hanging over the news cycle, we pulled off one of the best news weeks and traffic weeks since mid-April……..something is starting to happen here…….and people are noticing…….have a great weekend and July 4th if I don’t see you before…….cheers……..dave




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    1. Sorry but it seems like a pretty up beat, informative email to me. Seems refreshing, What's your beef?

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    2. NO REVENUE. Our profit is 100% Grade A American Veggie Burger - no beef whatsoever.

      But hey, someone caught an actor having a moment on Twitter, that's awesome news judgment and value.

      Why don't we just give up and put page 3 girls and guys into each market? No more newsworthy than Alec Baldwin going postal, but a hell of a lot more photogenic.

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    3. What planet of the clueless is Callaway on? Gee, our people are on TV! Gosh, people are telli the, Usa Today is a must read! Wow, our tech team is plugged in (not!)

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    4. The . . . man . . . loves . . . his . . . ellipsis.

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    6. There is something seriously off the rails with this guy's perception of the way he sees the world.

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  16. Another hot summer enjoy your deliveries especially you single copy distributors. Hope you all have A/C running in your vehicles.

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  17. @ 6/27 8:14 PM Gannett Foundation allocates money to each Gannett site depending on the site's profit from the previous year. The site then doles out those funds twice a year to whichever local non profits that request funding through grant requests to the ones they feel deserve it the most. At our site there is no local newspaper money given along with the Gannett Foundation money. It is only Gannett Foundation money and the checks come from the Foundation addressed to the non profit. So it's not taking going through any local checking account nor is it taking away any raises from the employees. Because the money is requested from our site to the Foundation on behalf of the non profit, we also get credit for giving it. But it is very clear that it came from the Foundation.

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  18. Yes, the foundation is a good thing.

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  19. Callaway is just Uncle Larry's messenger boy. By the time he is done with his new play toy, everyone Kramer ever befriended will have their very own Usa Today column or worse, a job for which isnt necessary or which they are unqualified for. Havent we had enough of this crap already?

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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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