Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)
Saturday, August 17, 2013
21 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tennessean is in no danger of shutting down, just being less than it was for a while. It's still a great place to work, and a hell of a front page byline to get.
ReplyDeleteYes, its influence and impact have diminished by the changing world, but that is happening everywhere. You still get paid to do journalism there, tho the expectations can be a bit crazy. It's all who your editor is, not who the leadership is.
If your editor cares and can navigate the odd political waters, you'll enjoy being a journalist. The politics are heady at the metro papers because the people in the jobs are in financial handcuffs (no job pays what they are making as a top editor or department head and they've built a lifestyle that can't easily downgrade).
They are faced with a tough choice when asked to make severe cuts: accept the reality and deal with it or quit.
If your direct boss grumbles to you about top management, she isn't doing her job. Go out and get the story and stop focusing on the workings of the business, unless you can do something about it.
To: Anonymous8/15/2013 2:27 PM
ReplyDeleteFlorida Today getting slammed by readers for lack of investigative journalism of a public corruption story: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20130815/NEWS01/130815006/Mitch-Needelman-arrested-bribery-tampering-charges?nclick_check=1
Check today's front page. FT's been waiting for the chance to jump on this guy.
The reason FT is now thought of as a light-weight in Brevard County is because they DO NOT do ANY investigative journalism and hasn't since massive downsizing and layoffs in 2008. All editorial writers gone and no 'watchdog" presence at all. It's not that FT wouldn't like to do that -- there's not enough staff or time to undertake such ventures. And after-the-fact reporting of an arrest is not "investigative" journalism.
DeleteUnder-staffing would be a valid argument if so much time was not devoted to fluff articles and ridiculous videos of static scenes.
Delete9:24 pm but the mothership says videos will save us!
DeleteFriday is a great day to do layoffs. Our paper - which will soon be revealed - has some scheduled for mid to late afternoon.
ReplyDeleteMy position was eliminated on a Friday, and it was right before a scheduled vacation. Just like Gannett to take away your job and ruin your weekend with one signature.
DeleteThis has to be one of the worst companies to work for, it is all about who you are and who you know at the local paper.
If Gannett really created these design hubs to save TONS of money, then why on earth are they paying more than one features designer to design features covers for all of the company's daily papers? It not like any reader would notice that Oshkosh and Fort Meyers have the same features front? At the very least, the savings alone could be used to better allocate resources and avoid further layoffs in newsrooms. Five design hubs seem excessive, especially if technology is being used to its fullest.
ReplyDeleteSo, in 3:44's world, it's OK for the Oshkosh Features page centerpiece to be a story on the Oshkosh Garden Club's big fund-raiser and for the Fort Meyers Features section to have a centerpiece on the Oshkosh Garden Club's big fund-raiser? Boy, that would go over well in Fort Meyers.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteNo, I think what 3:44 is saying is that feature stories don't need to be local. It's kind of an unnecessary thing, especially since most features department personnel have been eliminated at a lot of the sites.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteI can’t imagine a feature story on Oshkosh’s garden club would go over well in Oshkosh either.
ReplyDeleteSo,as previously posted,were there more layoffs on Friday ?
ReplyDeletePlease post where and how many.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis is a reader comment from another site:
ReplyDeleteThose Patch editors who are about to be laid off should take the weekend to enjoy some much-deserved time with their families, and then get in touch with one of the hundred-plus members of Local Independent Online News Publishers (http://www.lionpublishers.com) next week. If you’ve got the drive to be an entrepreneur, we’ve got a network of independent publishers who are ready and willing to help you establish a news outlet that is focused on your community.
AOL’s Patch is failing not because local news isn’t a solid business, but because they’re not local.
The local news industry is strong, healthy and growing — the real *local* segment of the industry. LION members and our many colleagues running local news websites are demonstrating that every day.
Local doesn’t scale. We’ve seen it again and again; giant chains trying to templatize the production of news. That’s not a tactic that worked in print for Gannett and others, and it certainly won’t work online. The troubles of large-scale attempts at covering local news are only relevant to LION Publishers in that they show the contrast between the operations of local businesses and chains.
Networked plays such as Patch fail precisely because they are *not* local. They seek to profit from communities, rather than being invested in them. Centralized planning leads to success in journalism just as effectively as it worked for Soviet agriculture.
The national networked plays haven’t, but many locally run news outlets are finding success – because their readers and sponsors value their community connections. Local news sites can connect local small business owners with the engaged local readers who are their customer base — and do so effectively and affordably.
We regularly see LION members announcing that their readership and revenues are reaching new heights, that they’re hiring new staffers and deepening their coverage.
Local news is successful when it truly *is* local — historically, when newspapers and radio stations were owned by families or local partnerships, they served their communities more effectively. Chains broke that model, focusing more on quarterly reports, stock prices and executive salaries than long-term investments. Local news organizations must be *of* their communities, not just *in* them to ship profits out of town. Local news must respect readers: know what they want to know, know what they need to know, and provide it quickly, accurately and comprehensively. Cookie-cutter editorial priorities mandated on a national level are the complete opposite of that.
The withering of Patch isn't the end of local news online. Rather, it's a chance for talented, motivated enterpreneurs to tend their own gardens.
#2 Posted by Dylan Smith on Fri 9 Aug 2013 at 02:56 PM
Heh Dylan please name the top 10 sites in you network with a bottom line annual profit of $50,000. I'd like an example of actual sites "reaching new heights"
DeleteI read my site's paper every day, cover to cover except the USA Today content. At least the rest has a fighting chance to be recent and relevant - nothing that happened after 3pm yesterday ever shows on the news page, and the sports page barely has half of yesterday's results. And those pages NEVER have ads, because the local advertisers know people don't read them and national advertisers don't give a crap about my market.
ReplyDeleteDitch the garbage and give us back our newshole so we can run more garden party stories. Even if we can't afford writers or photographers, we can at least print the submitted stuff big - and people will read it!