Saturday, June 08, 2013

June 3-9 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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46 comments:

  1. Gee, what a surprise. Gannett has already messed up the payouts to recent USA TODAY buyout takers by continuing to deduct for 401(K) plans. Who knows how long this will take to fix?

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  2. GPS is in the process of re-alligning routes and cutting back district managers in half. Can someone explain how this is working at other sites so far?, what the new carrier profit stucture will be, and will they lose money per customer on routes?

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    1. Why don't you ask your boss, rather than a bunch of anonymous cranks (who for all you know are inmates or Martians)?

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    2. It"s a BIG secret...

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    3. 2:07 PM…As mention prior concerning USAT and the way it's managing delivery and the dismissal of management and DSM's. They are using other newspapers to deliver both single copy and home delivery. You can look forward to this in most markets when it comes to delivery of USAT. We do more with less!

      As far as the realigning of routes, that's nothing less that a hugh FUBAR! You will have carriers dumping like you never saw in the past.

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  3. There's quite a bit of complaining in the design center. They hired a bunch of new hires over the last few months (at least 50 in our location), constantly increasing the amount of mandatory overtime, saying "oh this will be the last week for over time, just to get us caught up for mother's day/memorial day/etc" but then the next week they're putting more mandatory overtime, increasing it more and more, like they're banking the ads so they eventually cut people. And then the new hires are getting frustrated, because they're not getting help from the training people and then complaining about errors from the TQ people from the other location. It's a rough atmosphere right now..

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    1. This is what is wrong with the folks that complain here. Look closely: HE/She is complaining about overtime. They resent having to work more hours and getting paid to do it. Anyone out there without a job that would complain about getting paid to work more hours?

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    2. Yep, right here. No one minds occasionally having to work extra to get the job done. But in the long run, I'd rather get paid a decent rate for working a normal work week, because I value my time off.
      If you haven't noticed, there is a pattern of paying workers less these days and cutting benefits.
      Wouldn't you rather get paid $15 to $20 an hour to work 40 hours instead of $8 to $10 an hour with less benefits to work 70 to 80 hours a week?
      Maybe you don't have to worry about this dilemma.

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  4. It's a BIG secret.....

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  5. I am shocked at how bad USA Today (the paper) has become. After not seeing it since just after the redesign, I was appalled today to see something that obviously is in serious decline.

    I will admit upfront that I was no fan of the redesign when it first came out. But even I thought that it would be improved as time went on.

    Wrong!

    Not only is the design more of a mess than ever, now the content has gotten even more stupid. "Spying Eyes"....really? Even the USAT online headline was more appropriate and less New York Post-like.

    Who exactly is USAT catering to these days? Who is the target audience -- 13-year-old girls and people with negative IQs living in trailers? What happened to going after travelers, the affluent, sports fans, etc? Too tough to do with current staffing/talent levels in the Crystal Palace? Or are you guys just on a mission to destroy your print product by turning it into a daily rag for Twilight fans and people who enjoy shiny objects?

    Boy, talk about the dumbing down of society. USAT seems to be hitching its wagon to the lowest of the low. I don't know how a credible journalist could work there turning out crap like this.

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    1. Yea, I love the ones that say, "I ahven't been here for awhile and I am shocked......." Come on be honest. You look at the site and the paper everyday. It's like Louie saying, "Gambling!!! I can't believe there is gambling in this establishement!" Come on get real.

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    2. There was a time when USA Today did its best to avoid living up to its reputation of being lame. Now the message seems to be, "embrace it."

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  6. So after two and half months in the second quarter readers have sent you $150? Of course it's only been four eyars. I am sure things will pick up

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    1. Funny comment considering Gannett’s subscription efforts, that is unless you think losing untold millions in profits (and tens of thousands of subscribers) because it waited too long to implement paywalls was smart.

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    2. 5:50, how is that relevant? Gannett is a huge company with a lot of expenses. Jim has no salaries and pretty low overhead. I'd say if he can't garner a little more money, then the verdict is in.

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    3. Relevance?

      The “huge company” you seek to protect 3:43 AM, despite all the resources those expenses cover, has flat out failed in protecting its circulation revenues and market shares. Repeated, poor decisions from people who believe they were/are the best and brightest resulted in a significant loss in its value, its profits and in jobs it what once offered.

      Yet, where does 3:29 focus? On one man who’s done a solid job in building an audience from scratch, keeping them informed of even events Gannett should have shared with employees, but wouldn’t. He did it in large part using one of Gannett’s flavors of the month: crowd sourcing. Something Gannett could never get going…showing success in even crowd funding as well, albeit small amounts at times, which is still admirable.

      Distractions like theirs may provide some with amusement, but Jim found a need and filled it. It’s those efforts that should give Gannett pause, more so given the low barriers and cost to entry and Gannett’s increasingly struggles in delivering even the most basic of news to consumers. It opens the door that much further for people like Jim to take a shot a filling it.

      Get ready.

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    4. Unlike you, I'm not protecting anyone.

      Jim's donations are low. Accept it. Whining about unrelated things for years is what got him into that mess.

      If you consider your whining to be "crowd sourcing," then you're wrong. Very wrong.

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    5. 12:18 -- Jim's donations are low. So what?
      And your pronouncement about crowd sourcing is pompous. Very pompous.

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    6. "So what?" Always a sign of a thought-out, intelligent response.

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    7. "Wrong, 3:43. Very wrong."

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  7. Jim take it for what it's worth. Gannett is in the same boat as you are only on a different scale. Most likely this is a comment made from a Gannett Manager. I'm not sure the term Manager even fits a morons like the one making the comment by 3:29 PM. You know the game they play. It's not a question of "IF" these managers & VP's will lose their jobs, it's only a matter of when. As Sonny & Cher would say, "and the beat goes on." The same with the managers and the VP's. On and on and on and on and on.

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    1. 3:50 take what for what it's worth. Where do you find fault? Not sure what is factually incorrect. I am sure you will send him a couple of thousand to make up the difference.

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    2. 4:45 - fault 1 - spelling of years... LOL....(you asked)

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  8. Gannett has become like the Kmart of the Media world. Instead of Blue light specials they have the Blue balls special.

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    1. Hey Evan Ray, Gannett sucks Ray.

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  9. Obviously corporate hates this blog and would love to see it disappear. It's apparent that someone from the Crystal Cathedral is assigned to rag and name call on every post that is negative to the company in hopes of neutralizing it.

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  10. Listen to everyone bashing USA Today. For years We out-performed the local Gannett papers not in total circulation #'s (of course)..But in In-Store presence and racks on the street. For our size, in proportion; USA Today was run very efficiently!! Actually, it was respected "on the street", and its employees had so much PRIDE!! Now that the "BAFFUNES" of the local Gannett papers have taken over; and intentionally gotten rid of most USAT DM's...racks are empty, sales are down, customer service is pathetic; and No One really cares. just think, a few years from now, management can say "Told you so, newspapers are not what they were used to be"

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    1. Sorry 12:38, USAT never, ever, ever outperformed the local Gannett papers in the ONLY thing that matters: net income before taxes (NIBT). For the first ten or eleven years USAT never made a profit. Gannett sunk over $1 billion in USAT during that time. It made money briefly during the 90s and early 00s and has only been marginally profitable as a whole division in the last decade due to other properties being counted. There is a case to be made that Gannett's focus on USAT in terms of time and treasure, diverted sorely needed attention to the quality of its local products and put Gannett in the strategic bunker it is currently occupying. As it is, the local papers and broadcast properties are what make USAT's existence, to this day, possible.

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    2. What 3:38 said!!!

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  11. Replies
    1. Baffunes = presumably either a creative spelling of "buffoons" or a group of hip hop friends of the president of El Salvador.

      Just a guess. :)

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  12. 3:38 is correct. I toiled for years at gannett properties being told we can't afford this, we can't do that and there's no way we can afford anything like that. Meanwhile, USA TODAY was flying reporters around the country to write 8-inch stories while running up big expense accounts .

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  13. There is a shed of light at the Cincinnati Enquirer. It is a well written story by Krista Ramsey about Casey Hilmer's journey. Thank you Krista... and Casey.

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  14. Lots of closed door meetings at my location on Friday. Just dawned on me that Q2 and 2H begin EOM. These days, furloughs occur when the doors have been closed for just a morning. RIFs occur if the doors have been closed all day. RIFs also are in the wind when the publishers secretary gets all high and mighty acting, and we see he controller walking around with a sick smile painted on her face. Here on Friday, all of the RIF conditions were in full reveal. Happy summer to us at Gannett. Can feel my imminent vacation being very ruined.

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    1. I feel sorry for anybody left at this company because of all of the uncertainty when it comes to job security. I am sure the controller does have a sick smile on her face because the reality of the situation is that nobody enjoys laying anybody off. Gannett is on life support and it takes a strong person to pick up the pieces of their career and move on to something else.

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    2. I knew I was going to have to lay off people for a month before they were told. I wished I could let them know, so that they could have prepared - postponed the Disney vacation, make the old car last another year, not bought the dream house.

      And yet, out of the six times in the last five years I've been asked to give a list of names for layoffs, the hammer has only fallen three times. Should I have told them all every time to put their life on hold? It is no kindness to point out the sword over Damocles' head.

      Ultimately, we're all adults. I know that my number coming up is just as likely as theirs, and no doubt my boss has had to put my name on a RIF list.

      I've got my six months socked away. My family doesn't go on trips, we have cars old enough to get their own licenses, my house is worth less than half the average home price in my state. If my staff made different choices, that's on them.

      At this point in the recession, we've all had plenty of warning that we all have a target on our backs. Rather than trying to read the tea leaves to get a week's advance notice on the inevitable, get your finances in order and then enjoy each day of employment as it comes.

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    3. "Enjoy each day of employment"

      Funny thing is, I really do. The challenges, co-workers, customers and bosses - all of it. I'll be sad when it goes away, but I really have enjoyed being a part of something that so many people in my hometown have a connection with.

      I'll be sad, but not surprised. Until then, I'll get up tomorrow and do it again, with a smile. Not for corporate, not for stockholders - for myself and my neighbors.

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  15. One great reason foreign print continues to thrive. Two real and spectacular reasons, actually.

    http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/showbiz/4953336/joanna-krupa-poses-topless-by-the-pool.html

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  16. Can we start some sort of dead pool as to when Dickey is going to come out with 'due to continuing market conditions and forces, we've had to re-evaluate our thinking on avoiding furloughs this year'?

    I imagine it will be 20 minutes after the full report of all the benefits of his Hong Kong trip is revealed.

    Unless Gannett is taken private and purchased by Ching Chong Chawee to push the Commie party line, the only reason Dickey might have had for going to that conference is to help push BNQT's boobie galleries in emerging markets. Or trying to see if DealChicken can catch bird flu.

    I know if he had stayed home, one less RIF this year.

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  17. What has happened to all those Tony Awards tickets for USAT clients? Suspicious.

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  18. Well why is journalism dead?
    The Guardian,a UK news organization broke the NSA story.
    Has Gannett even considered doing investigative journalism? I think not.
    How many current administration scandals are out there now,4 or 5 at least.
    How many more could there be? This could be just the beginning with this out of control administration.
    Is this possibility even on the Gannett radar?
    I think not.

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    1. 11:36 really sounds like one of those overlooked, under appreciated "journalists" that can't u d'état and while no one pays attention to them. They have accomplished little in their "illustrious" careers but for some unknown reason can always do it better than the folks in charge. There are lots of newspapers for sale but I haven't seen one purchased by a group of " journalists", The Guild, or Jim!

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    2. U d'état and = understand.

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    3. 11:55, there are a ton of those people here. In their minds, they were somehow overlooked. My favorite recent claim was the people who were laid off were all better than the people who stayed.

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  19. I suspect there will be another round of layoffs coming soon across Gannett. From corporate and the still overstaffed Usa Today to the community papers already sucking wind.

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    1. Based on what? Your belief?

      Go away.

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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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