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Tuesday, August 27, 2013
34 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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If I didn't have stock in GCI, I would say I hope this mother-_____ crumbles to the ground. There's a penthouse suite reserved in hell for all those greedy bastards at corporate.
ReplyDeleteEven though this is a satirical piece in The Onion targeting CNN, this perfectly captures Gannett's so-called 'strategy' as well.
ReplyDeleteSome snippets:
"So, you may ask, why was this morning’s top story, a spot usually given to the most important foreign or domestic news of the day, headlined “Miley Cyrus Did What???” and accompanied by the subhead “Twerks, stuns at VMAs”?
It’s a good question. And the answer is pretty simple. It was an attempt to get you to click on CNN.com so that we could drive up our web traffic, which in turn would allow us to increase our advertising revenue."
"But boy oh boy did it get us some web traffic. Which is why I, Meredith Artley, managing editor of CNN.com, put the story in our top spot. Those of us watching on Google Analytics saw the number of homepage visits skyrocket the second we put up that salacious image of Miley Cyrus dancing half nude on the VMA stage. But here’s where it gets great: We don’t just do a top story on the VMA performance and call it a day. No, no. We also throw in a slideshow called “Evolution of Miley,” which, for those of you who don’t know, is just a way for you to mindlessly click through 13 more photos of Miley Cyrus. And if we get 500,000 of you to do that, well, 500,000 multiplied by 13 means we can get 6.5 million page views on that slideshow alone. Throw in another slideshow titled “6 ‘don’t miss’ VMA moments,” and it’s starting to look like a pretty goddamned good Monday, numbers-wise. Also, there are two videos—one of the event and then some bullshit two-minute clip featuring our “entertainment experts” talking about the performance."
http://www.theonion.com/articles/let-me-explain-why-miley-cyrus-vma-performance-was,33632/
FYI - Artley (@MeredithA)tweeted that "I did not write this ... but I accept all compliments and deny all accusations. Tx for the page views."
DeleteSadly and thankfully the Onion seems to be the only publication that makes sense today as newspaper sites learn how to better deceive and manipulate readers.
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ReplyDeleteWhat on earth does this mean???
DeleteI am sure it has something to do with pea-brained.
DeleteIt means, among other things, that someone doesn't like to see Corporate criticized in public.
DeleteOMG. Gannett is firing people. What shocking headlines. Who would have thought that a newspaper company would do something like that. This is news, buddies, this is real news.
ReplyDeleteJim Hopkins: Whatever happened in Binghamton deserves some reporting. Calvin Stovall was a star in the company and personified the company's commitment to diversity in its leadership. I worked with him while he was an interim top editor in Indy and was quite impressed. I would take any GCI decision regarding him quite personally and would see it as a reflection of even larger problems company-wide.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, and working in that.
DeleteAs someone who works in Binghamton, but not in the newsroom directly, I have heard horror stories about him and we have lost many great people who couldn't take his 'leadership' anymore.
DeleteLooking at the newseum front pages, this morning's Lafayette Indiana Journal and Courier newspaper has zero local stories on the front page. Two from USAT and one from the Indianapolis Star. This comes two days after the "Less is more" nonsense from the editor. So less local news is the goal now?
ReplyDeleteWell, the Northwestern in Wisconsin had not one locally written story in its 8-page A section yesterday, not even a brief.
DeleteGive it to me local!
I'm sure the heavy use of Appleton and Green Bay stories will help ease community speculation that Oshkosh will turn into a PC bureau!
DeleteSo what happened to the big New Jersey announcement about a state wide newspaper?
ReplyDeleteThe only announcement was from Hollis about merging the day and night desk in to a unified "finishing desk," serving all the NJ papers. And deadlines are an hour earlier. NJ Government officials, please take note, it is now easier to duck the question you don't want to answer. It's all in reach!
DeleteOne cut in Elmira. Night editor.
ReplyDeleteGive it to me local is so yesterday's news. God forbid they stay with a branding campaign for more then six months.
ReplyDeleteYep, 8:19, just like the whole "purpose" fad about improving people's lives.
DeleteI was an editor and reporter at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, NY, for about 3 years from 1993-95. As most of you know, this was Gannett's flagship paper before the birth of USAT.
ReplyDeleteAfter 20 years, I can't really say exactly what the staff levels were while I was there. Suffice to say that it was a large and enterprising staff, worthy of a paper that circulated in the neighborhood of 200,000+ daily and 300,000+ Sunday. We had a large suburban and regional reporting staff covering 7 or 8 neighboring counties and about 20 suburban towns and cities. We had an investigative team and a very active political team with its own editor and 4 or 5 reporters. We had 3 or 4 cops & courts reporters. There were at least 2 regular local columnists, a local op-ed columnist, a couple of local sports columnists and at least one local columnist in the features section.
Even with a large staff and a healthy payroll, the D&C was consistently among Gannett's most profitable papers, with a profit margin of 47% in a good year. And even today, I believe it remains one of the nation's top papers in terms of market penetration -- industrywide, not just within Gannett.
But it has come down sadly in the world. I'm vacationing this week in upstate NY, and today I picked up a D&C. I was struck by how thin the paper was, and so I went through it and logged the story count. Here it is.
A section: 8 pages. 1 staff-written story. 5 AP stories. 2 from USAT. A one-page op-ed page, with a local editorial and 2 syndicated columns. No local opinion columnist. Also a couple of briefs packages from wire services.
B section: 6 pages. 8 staff-written stories. 3 AP stories. 2 free-lance pieces from community members. 2 stories from other Gannett papers. No local columnist. A couple of briefs packages from wire and staff reports.
Features section: 8 pages. No staff-written stories. 2 AP stories. One story from another Gannett paper. A briefs package, comics and the usual syndicated features (advice column, crossword, horoscope, etc.).
Sports section: 6 pages. 4 staff-written stories. 4 AP stories. No local sports columnist.
The total: 28 pages in four sections. 14 AP stories, 13 staff stories, 3 stories from Gannett papers, 2 free-lance pieces, 2 USAT stories, plus some briefs and syndicated features. No local columnists or opinion writers.
I was proud to work at the D&C and I recognized a very few bylines from colleagues still there. It was a talented staff 20 years ago, and I have no doubt that those who remain are doing their best. But it certainly feels as though they're having their legs cut out from under them.
It may be unfair to judge the paper based on one late-summer Tuesday, but this is the snapshot I saw today.
Good morning, Mr. Van Winkle. While you were sleeping, the long-anticipated demise of the newspaper came to pass. RIP.
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DeleteGannett should just admit that bad management starting at the top had more to do with the decline in print revenue than anything else did.
ReplyDeleteThat's nonsense. Overall newspaper industry revenue collapsed by more than two-thirds in just 11 years. That's not Gannett management's fault. If anything, Gannett has fared better than most—thanks to its clear-eyed and hard-nosed management during this disaster.
DeleteI just rolled out of my chair on that one.
DeleteDitto.
Delete12:26 Not nonsense at all. Gannetts management has only cut cost and made bad investments the last five years. They have done little other than raising prices to bring in more revenue. Any one who defends them is full of nonsense.
DeleteGood old clear-eyed, hard-nosed Craig Dubow drove the stock from $90 a share to $1.99 and walked away with millions in bonus pay.
ReplyDeleteThat's Gannett leadership.
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Deletehttp://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013308270351
ReplyDelete"Give It To Me Local" wasn't a home-grown marketing piece, we had a temporary license to use it. That license is expiring so we have to use something else.
ReplyDeleteOf course "Give It To Me Local was not a "home-grown" marketing piece. Nothing Gannett does these days is "home-grown". That would mean that their products are locally focused and contain information that is important to the people who live in the communities where their products are distributed. I worked at the Binghamton newspaper(s) for over 20 years. I left Gannett 15 years ago because I could not tolerate the counter-productivity that the constant turnover in management fostered. Nor could I continue to tolerate the way they treated their employees (even back then). At that time, I joined another (smaller) media company and have had a successful career ever since. I have worked for a company that realizes that local focus is critically important to our products--and that neither print nor "digital" is the answer. The answer is b-o-t-h! Local media companies (they are out there--believe me!) that have embraced a business model where they continue to commit to resources that provide hyper-local information that readers want are not only surviving--they are thriving!
DeleteIt breaks my heart when I visit family and friends in the Binghamton area and pick up a copy of what remains of the "local" newspaper. This most recent round of job cuts in Binghamton (20 in all)--where local work is being reassigned to Rochester, Indiana and "elsewhere"--simply reinforces that Gannett simply does not care about the local communities where their products are distributed.