Friday, September 20, 2013

Pop Quiz | Why is it called the Butterfly Project?

Because calling it the Pigs Fly Project would mean Corporate was really serious about adding more local news.


(Plus, When Hell Freezes Over Project is kind of wordy.)

17 comments:

  1. I thought of a song. It goes like this:

    Turd in Jim's mouth
    In his mouth
    There's a runny turd in Jim's mouth

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Instead of insulting him, 6:45, please go away. No one will miss you.

      Delete
    2. 6:45 AM -
      Sorry you missed your deadline designing agate pages - don't take it out on Jim.

      Delete
  2. Why is printing local news even a project in the first place?
    That’s pretty much what we did before everyone was fired and it couldn’t be covered.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Butterflies are pretty at first, but have a short life span, just like most Gannett projects.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Butterflies: beautiful, ephemeral, blown about by each breeze, short-lived, born from hairy worms...

    Who thinks up these names for projects? Good grief.

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  5. Butterfly, as in bandage.

    Gannett’s basically using it like one to save its injured newspapers and USAT so why not call it what it really is...very well might be the most honest thing Gannett has ever said, shared.

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  6. Jim, you're missing a Banakarim, I mean Blue Ball, in the middle of the pig photo!
    How appropo.
    Thanks for the laugh anyway!

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    Replies
    1. It's called “Butterfly” because any employee with a common sense will fly away and transform their life outside of Gannett.

      Delete
    2. Surprised she isnt out in the field providing brilliant advice to the pilot papers on how to sell this. She is our Chief Marketing Officer, isnt she?

      Delete
  7. It's call the Butterfly Project because the "hey look! More local copy" is going to simply be a wrap around the USAT content.
    That wrap will then act as wings carrying those nation/world stories no one is asking for and landing on the flowers (readers), pollinating them with more Gannett than ever before.

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  8. Butterfies are lighter than air and breezy. Just like Gannett managers. I do have to hand it to them, though. Tthis is probably the most audacious reach by corporate in some time. Too bad there are few details of how this is going to be carried out. The geniuses havent explained that to what is left of the worker bees.

    I will say this, though, after this fails to stem losses in a year or two, get ready for a wholesale dismantling of news ops as wenow know it. Usa today could be an all digital operation by 2015 with 33%!of present staff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Corporate's been dreaming of doing this since USAT got launched 31 years ago.

      Now, the stars are in alignment: USAT is on the ropes, and the community papers have been so depleted, readers could hardly be made any more disappointed.

      The coup de grace comes with the big subscription rate increase next month.

      If Corporate can pull that off again less that two years after the last one, and sell national ads in the new USAT section, the top brass may get to keep their jobs a few more years.

      Delete
    2. As accountant Leo Bloom told Broadway impresario Max Bialystock in "The Producers," about a scheme to profit from a musical designed to flop:

      "IT COULD WORK!"

      Delete
  9. Named by Ellwood after the Firefly project.

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  10. In Detroit, Ellwood used "Project Griffon" for planning the switch in home delivery to three days a week from seven days.

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  11. Mei-Mei Chan, publisher in Fort Myers named it. Its a symbol for evolving.

    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."

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