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Wednesday, September 18, 2013
24 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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This story is on USA Today right now:
ReplyDeleteN.J. district's controversial lunch policy draws flak
"The Willingboro School District has received attention recently for a controversial policy that requires cafeteria workers to throw away a child's lunch if he or she does not have enough money in the account that pays for it."
"Received attention recently"? Oh, the Cherry Hill Courier seems to mean it already was reported by every other local media outlet.
And then there's this damning factoid pulled out by some smart editor at USA Today:
"The $46,000 spent on free meals for students is less than 0.001 percent of the district's $73 million budget for the 2013-14 school year."
Except it appears neither the original reporter, his editor, the original copy editor or the USA Today editor can figure out percentages. The actual percentage is about 60 times greater than what they wrote, or .06 percent.
More great days in newspapering.
In Louisiana, Corporate has just found another expensive publisher's job to ax.
ReplyDeleteWow! Terzotis is becoming a real power house! How can she effectively manage all the Gannett LA papers PLUS Fort Collins, CO! Somebody likes her!
ReplyDeleteAll the women of Gannett are super and obviously more qualified than the men. Just look at our numbers.
DeleteAs Women's roles in upper management at Gannett have increased the Companies revenues have declined.
DeleteIt's a finance issue. Women are cheaper to employ than men. I'm surprised they haven't replaced the entire company with women under 35 years old! :-)
DeleteThis so called Butterfly Project would seem to work with big national store chains such as home depot and lowes as examples. How it's going to relate to local businesses, I can't see much of a change. It's all about how many people that are reached at the best price
ReplyDeleteSomeone posted on another thread that the company is in "sunsetting" mode and attempting to do it in the most financially lucrative way possible. I think the only problem is that all of the decision makers aren't in on the plan. Surely if they were we'd see much better execution of things like this Butterfly project. The best solution is ONE newspaper with 81 ZONES or editions! Of course for that to happen, it would take tremendous communication, coordination and effort.
DeleteToo bad you couldn't even give a passing nod to the Detroit Free Press's phenomenal coverage of How Detroit Went Bankrupt on Sunday. Like anyone and everyone else of substance did.
ReplyDelete9:55: From what I read of that coverage and elsewhere, it sounded like the Free Press's bullying of city council members led to a hideous deal to restructure pension obligations that wound up inflating the debt. It sounds like the Free Press wasn't "On Guard" while Kwame was "creatively" reshuffling the debt so that his friends could raid that money for themselves ... er... I mean their "investment" deals. That is far from what I was taught about middle-of-the-road-newspapering. If anything, a lot of Detroit's messes could have been avoided if the newspaper had been less political and more skeptical. The Detroit Free Press bears some responsibility for some of this mess simply by not doing its job.
DeleteYou guys make such a big deal of change. Why would a local newspaper dedicate a single person to national or world news/sports when you can have a single source like USAT? What is the big freaking deal. Putin disses the President of the USA. USAT will provide a better story than the local political writer. Stop the whinning already.
ReplyDeleteThe local political writer has never written about that. The coverage comes from wire services. Part of what's going on is to marginalize and sometimes eliminate any services other than USAT. As someone who reads USAT copy daily, I can tell you that their national and world coverage is usually inferior to The Associated Press--very shallow reporting and poor writing. The local sites aren't being given a choice--some of the larger papers used to have supplemental services such as the New York Times and Washington Post -- most have lost this due to budget cuts. And now the company wants to cut out the AP as well.
DeleteAgain, this is what a company that is sunsetting its print operation does.
But the NYT will provide a better story than USAT. Editors don't get that choice, how
DeleteThis is how Gannett loses readers: not in huge cutbacks, but incremental ones like these cutbacks.
At my community newspaper the community members complain about USAT anything being in the paper. That is why it's a big deal. Gannett is not listening to their customers or giving them what they want, LOCAL NEWS!
ReplyDeleteIn White Plains NY, Corporate has just found another expensive publisher's job to ax. Hasson
ReplyDeleteis out and will be replaced by Tom Donovan
Is that a new job for Donovan, or is in addition to his GNJ duties?
DeleteIs there a memo out there on Hasson exiting? I'd like to see it.
DeleteNo, because it isn't true. Not that facts ever get in the way on this blog.
DeleteCynDee must be thrilled. Mrs. D...No so much!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone out there know what happened to USAT GM's who lost their positions, demoted but, still hanging on with a different title/job and still receiving the same pay. This was done right after USAT merged with the dailies. Seems to me the company could have let a bunch of do nothing's go when they had the chance.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the rounds of layoffs.
ReplyDeleteAfter all the gutting of newsrooms to beyond bare bones.
And after all the pullbacks in newshole, beats and hard-asset tools:
I continue to be amazed at how little the top echelon in some of the USCP newsrooms has been affected. The news from Louisiana last couple of weeks made me go "hmm" though. Really, why does a 20-30K newspaper need a publisher, managing editor AND Executive Editor?
Which paper in Louisiana has a publisher, executive editor and managing editor? The correct answer is no one does. The managing editor ranks were gutted years ago.
DeleteNote to execs: create one "master" paper that has 81 unique, locally branded editions or zones. Do this fast, not in 1-2 years. People won't bitch about the USA Today and they will think they are keeping their cherished local newspaper. It will save a ton of headaches and allow you so much savings that you will be shoveling money off the top until your backs can no longer handle it.
ReplyDeleteHow can one "master" paper work in 81 markets with vastly different economies?
DeleteFor example:
In Elmira, N.Y., the Star-Gazette's current circulation is about 15,000 daily. I would imagine that's a paper that's often just 16 pages total because that's all the advertising available in that market.
In Phoenix, The Arizona Republic's daily circulation is more than 300,000. I'd guess that some editions number well over 100 pages, given the amount of advertising in that market.