Friday, August 30, 2013

Aug. 26-Sept. 1 | Your News & Comments: Part 5

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.)

38 comments:

  1. Bill Bowman, who just left the Asbury Park Press, has launched an online local news site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AWESOME! And can somebody explain to me how some guy can create a much better looking news website out of his house than a fortune 500 company?

      Delete
    2. Did bowman get canned or leave on his own? No ads on his site. Lots of luck with that.

      Delete
    3. Good for Bill ... he's a good guy, very talented. Hope his site does well.

      Delete
    4. He has to get out of the old-school mindset of directly selling advertising himself. It won't work that way online.


      Just throw up the Google ads and go for page views.

      Delete
    5. I agree, 7:51. This site has it all... really solid content and great visual presentation. I hope it is successful.

      Based on the design I wondered if the publisher would eventually go to a "pay per view" model for specific articles. I noticed in his design that you find teasers on the upper level pages with invitations to click on a link to "read more." After that click would be a logical place to either insert an ad, or a login screen, or to ask for payment to see a specific piece. (Personally I think there is more potential in that model of charging than in a paywall/subscription model where users pay a flat rate for unlimited use.) On a local level, the ads should come, as long as the content remains of such high quality.

      Best of luck on this endeavor.

      Delete
    6. Thanks for the comments, and for the mention, Jim.

      I did not leave on my own, I was one of the 8/1/13 13 that was (were?) laid off from the Asbury Park Press.

      I just launched this on Aug. 29, so I'm still getting the kinks out. As I mention in the box on the masthead, it's going to be free for a while, then I will probably put up a paywall. Don't know when that's going to be, but I need to get my marketing going and get the folks here used to it.

      And, yes, advertising is in the plan. But I can't go to potential advertisers until I have some solid "eyes" numbers to show them.

      Delete
  2. Packing it in? http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_VTD&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lincoln Parish News Online published this.


    Kathy Spurlock, News-Star Exec Editor on Thin Ice?
    With the next round of layoffs looming at Gannett, could The (Monroe) News-Star Executive Editor Kathy Spurlock be in the crosshairs? Sources have told Lincoln Parish News Online that employees at the newspaper have dropped the dime on Spurlock over her blatant conflict of interest. Spurlock is married to Lindsey Wilkerson, a $52,000 per year Director of Web Services in the office of University Advancement & External Affairs at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

    Gannett has strict guidelines regarding conflicts of interest and outside influence. The company is headquartered in Arlington, VA in what is often referred to as the “Crystal Palace.”

    Spurlock’s fawning coverage of ULM and its President James Cofer is legendary. To our knowledge, Spurlock has never publicly acknowledged her marriage to an employee of an institution that her newspaper covers daily. Cofer recently moved into a posh new crib, courtesy of Louisiana taxpayers.

    Gannett last year laid off about 70 employees statewide. This next round of cutbacks is expected to pare another 3% of the company’s workforce.

    Louisiana’s Gannett newspapers include The Town Talk in Alexandria, The News-Star in Monroe, The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, The Times in Shreveport and The Daily World in Opelousas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, yes, the Lincoln Parish News Online is far from a high moral authority. It boasts the title, "What isn't in the newspapers is often more newsworthy than what is," yet its content appears to be articles stolen from newspapers. Also love the line, "To our knowledge," which means we may be right or we may be wrong, but we don't know. Nice.

      Delete
    2. 3:56 am neglects to mention the article was published in 2009.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  5. CP was talking about "upgrading" the bathrooms five years ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish they'd upgrade the bathrooms in Indy. The urinals in the men's room has been bagged up for several month. I know they're supposedly moving soon, but vital maintenance on the building just isn't done. Hell, don't even stop correctly, sometime in between floors or off by several feet. It's embarrassing

      Delete
    2. Ha in the 5 or 6 years I was in the old Binghamton building that we left in 2010. It was a well know fact that you were not to flush one urinal if someone was standing at the other if you did they got covered. Everyone knew about it but no one ever bothered to fix it. Then we moved into the new building and for the first 6 months we were in the new building the bathrooms hardly ever got cleaned because they were to busy arguing with the building owner over whose job it was

      Delete
  6. It's noon, Friday of holiday weekend. Questions:
    --How many of you have pubs in the building today?
    --How many have ad directors working at their desks?
    --How many of you have any ad staff working at all, with the exception of support folks playing computer games, pausing long enough to answer a pre-press plea about a crisis ad?
    Meanwhile, all of us in news are trying to create four days worth of newspapers, all to satisfy the design studios deadlines.
    Just another day in the Gannett Co.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hardly a new phenomenon, and hardly unique to Gannett.

      Delete
    2. Wahhhh Wahhhh Wahhhh. Get back to work while I leave early for Great Falls or catch my early flight home to Manhattan or "work from home" (wink wink, chuckle chuckle).

      Delete
    3. amen brother and sister. Not just Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday copy/budgets, but Wednesday as well

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    5. Stop dragging your cross . It's making a rut in the floor.

      Delete
  7. Why does Gannett need 81 separate newspapers? Wouldn't it be more efficient to have one "master" paper that has 81 uniquely named zones?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is there a need for 81 web sites?

      Delete
    2. Richard Michem8/31/2013 2:30 PM

      So 4:30, you worked in Gannett's tower of fantasy, and your starting a campaign, to see how readers will react, if 81 papers became one newspaper with 81 sections of local news?

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  8. I was laid off from my almost 7-year position with Gannett this month. Searching for jobs is a challenge. I saw a few recent openings in Ohio, but they are Gannett jobs. I need a job, but I don't want to sell out or go back to a company that treating people like this. "Oh, we're going to lay off hundreds of peole, but wait, here's some job openings with us." Thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  10. I have been told that there are layoffs being made at some of the Midwest weeklies,they are definately way off the radar.
    Anyone else hearing similar?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who told you this? Which papers? How many employees?

      Try to provide some small speck of credibility.

      Delete
    2. not true, wait til Monday

      HP

      Delete
  11. Talk about deep discounts for new subscribers: 67 percent off for the Arizona Republic. Now that's a heck of a business model.

    https://fullaccess.azcentral.com/

    ReplyDelete
  12. A Cincinnati reader was offered $3 a month for the paper. That's less than the employee rate.

    ReplyDelete

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.