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Tuesday, October 15, 2013
36 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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Does anyone remember working for Rick Jensen and, if so, what do you remember as remarkable?
ReplyDeletewho cares
DeleteAbsolutely nothing remarkable. His leadership skills were virtually nonexistent. His tenure in Salisbury was short lived, but the poor decisions he made while at the helm still exist today.
DeleteYour remarks belie your contention he was unremarkable.
DeleteMark your calendars and join us at 1 p.m. (ET), Monday, Oct. 21 for the next Employee Town Hall webcast held with President and CEO Gracia Martore following the release of Gannett's third-quarter earnings.
ReplyDeleteGracia will discuss earnings and other company news, announce Rewards & Recognition Program winners and answer employees’ questions. Employees also will hear details about the Innovation Grant winners and the Innovation teams taking their products to market.
Please bring your party hat, horns and streamers.
I was just going to ask about that "innovation" grant thing. I'm a former Gannett employee who was on one of those teams that won. I left the company right before they presented in DC last March or April to get board approval. Is this the same round of innovation grants?
ReplyDeletePsst. I wonder if Gannett corporate realizes this: "media analysts have predicted that video advertising revenue could also soon decline"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/business/media/a-leaner-times-aims-for-global-growth.html?pagewanted=2
More canned rah rah to come from our tone deaf fearless leader.
ReplyDeleteHeather Frank seems to have disappeared. I know she's still drawing a massive salary, but just what the heck does she do all day as Weekend publisher? When does she and The other Hunke Holdovers get shown the door?
ReplyDeleteTom Beusse leaving USAT Sport Media Group. Dave Morgan taking his place.
ReplyDeleteI could put up with the Blog's endless blather and mean-spirited tone and unfounded accusations and all the rest if it could be relied upon when it counts.
DeleteBut on news development after news development (the new health care atrocity, the apparent success of Butterfly, the pay walls, the USA TODAY price hike and now the ouster of controversial Sports chief Tom Beusse), the Blog is either missing in action, clueless or unable to cut through the speculation.
For all the health care postings and analysis here, readers have little insight except hand-wringing. What happened to Beusse? What is Butterfly really leading to?
Jim Hopkins can read a financial form, that is agreed. But beyond that myopic worldview, everything else is up for a members-only free-for-all approach where no real reporting takes place.
Beusse leaving is a huge deal. Is Hopkins still asleep?
Success of butterfly? What counts as success? The mere fact it's being published at a few Gannett papers? It's way to early to declare it a success. Let's wait to see what happens to circulation and advertising at those papers.
DeleteIf Beusse really isleaving Gannett, that's a big, big deal, indeed. But it would hardly be surprising. Here's what I told a reader a week ago in an e-mail:
DeleteI'm a skeptic by nature, and that's what's made me a reasonably good journalist over the years.
Having said that, the doubts I've had about Beusse & Co. from the git-go far exceed ordinary skepticism.
One thing's for sure: I will be 100% not surprised if I log into my e-mail one morning and see many copies of the same memo, all announcing Beusse has left the company to pursue other opportunities/spend more time with his family/take up needlepoint.
Gracia Martore loves, loves, loves sports, and I fear that's blinded her to serious holes in the Sports Media business model. Hope I'm proven wrong, but I doubt I will.
Colleagues,
DeleteDave Morgan has been named president of USA TODAY Sports Media Group. Dave replaces Tom Beusse, who has decided to pursue other career opportunities. Dave has been senior vice president of content and editor-in-chief for USAT SMG since 2011.
Tom’s energy and enthusiasm were key to the initial stage of building USA TODAY Sports Media Group into a top five digital destination for sports fans. As the Sports Media Group transitions from entrepreneurial startup into the next phase of its development, Tom felt it was time for a new challenge. I want to thank him for everything he’s done to guide the Sports Media Group and I wish him nothing but success as he tackles the next challenge in his career.
We look forward to Dave continuing the work Tom started. Dave’s newsroom experience and business background make him the right fit to lead our sports team moving forward.
Those of you who know Dave know he’s an innovative leader. He spent more than 20 years at The Los Angeles Times before being named executive editor of Yahoo! North American Audience, where he built Yahoo! Sports into what it is today. His work at Yahoo! earned him a place on BusinessWeek’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in Sports” in 2008.
Please join me in congratulating Dave on his new position.
Larry
11:24 a.m.: It is easy -- and mean-spirited -- to sit on a high horse and blather accusations. This blog is all about the grownups contributing and comparing their knowledge of current events in the often-murky world of Gannett Land. Jim can't do it all alone. Instead of cheap shots, how about making your own useful contributions? Note: Insults don't count. Thank you and try to have a positive day.
Delete11:24's comment would be more credible if they said why Beusse's exit is a big deal, or what the new medical plan means, or how the paywall's success is anything more than the result of a straight-up subscription rate increase.
DeleteBut the 11:24s always want everyone else to do the work.
##But the 11:24s always want everyone else to do the work.##
DeleteThat's an incredible statement, Jim.
This is the Gannett Blog, not some message board. When I go to a blog I expect to find the owner (you), doing the work.
How hard is it to e-mail people and ask what happened; to talk to others in the sports mediaverse about Beusse pro and con?
To put the onus on your readers is just crazy. Report it out or shut the Blog down.
I publish this site free of mandatory charges. As such, I make very little beyond ad sales. That's been true even when I made this a full-time occupation.
DeleteDo you work for free?
The truth hurts, Jim.
Delete11:24's post is solid. And I laughed hard at the post from 11:36. Everything he lists as a criticism of 11:24 is EXACTLY what the hand-wringing posts do. His description of the "positives" the "grownups" bring is pure fiction. Just look at last week. This place was as dysfunctional as ever.
It all comes down to Jim and the tone he sets. It's a nursery school tone, with lots of fit-throwing. Not much in the way of fact, though.
P.S.: I predict Jim will be moderating comments before the end of the day. That's his refuge when he starts getting blasted.
There's truth and then there are the posters who only contribute zingers to amuse each other. It's Jim's blog to manage as he sees fit. If you don't (obviously) like his management, toddle off and start your own. Simple enough.
Delete4:02 offers the standard toadie response: If you don't like it, then leave. Quick proof that 11:24 was right.
DeleteSomeone who asks for money routinely for a Blog that says it is a "Journal" about Gannett should be expected to do something in return. Basic reporting would seem part of that equation.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of message boards where people can vent for free.
We don't think it is too much to ask for Hopkins to actually try to find out what's going on instead of asking like some journalistic beggar, "anyone know more?"
Exactly. The "Anyone know more?" approach is particularly desperate.
DeleteI'm still not sure what the venters (and Jim, who is likely within that set, too) are trying to accomplish. They hate Gannett -- we figured that out some time ago. They want people to quit. They want to wreck the stock price, even though they have little ability to do so. They enjoy ripping on managers by name, although Jim finally curbed some of that.
None of that accomplishes what they claim they do, which is to provide "knowledge" about the company.
Asking for money is not the same as actually receiving it.
DeleteThat's your defense? That you suck at getting people to donate?
DeleteAnonymous, do me a favor. As you are obviously the only moral compass left in the universe, you should stand up at the town hall meeting and tear up your paycheck. That's the moral thing to do.
DeleteOtherwise, you should shut up and let Jim ask for money how he wants.
Sigh. One of the many lessons I hope this blog has taught is that there's no viable business model for independent local news outlets.
DeleteGannett Blog is a labor of love for yours truly. I spend 10-15 hours a week on it because I think a company as powerful as Gannett needs a watchdog.
But I sure don't do it for the money. It's a volunteer effort, and my readers get a lot in return for what they pay -- which for 99% of them is nothing.
That's why I'm amused when I read huffy comments from self-entitled readers like 1:59, who writes: "When I go to a blog I expect to find the owner (you), doing the work."
Golly, Leona Helmsley, I thought you were dead?
In other words, no real response to 11:24's valid complaint about no real reporting taking place.
Delete6:55, I think this place is just too much for you. Why don't you shut up and spare the rest of us?
I'm with 4:02 p.m. Enough already with the whining about Jim. Follow your dreams and, with your pals, start another blog.
ReplyDeleteThat's nice. Anything else to contribute? If not, you're proving the point.
DeleteCorporate posters are really out today. This Beusse firing really has them riled up, as it means the failure of the sports initiative has been revealed for all to see. Big meeting in sports today too. I'm betting Mr. Morgan won't last too long either before following his best pal in pursuit of other interests. Surely if Ms. Martore figured out Beusse, she'll be on to Beusse Light.
ReplyDeleteAs I post this, for the first time in nearly two weeks, USA Today does not have a cruise-related story in its top news story list on the homepage.
ReplyDeleteEither the paper has concluded its still-undisclosed advertising contract guaranteeing a cruise story in a prominent spot -- or someone's about to get fired!
Here's a spreadsheet showing the sorry list of stories published since Oct. 3.
I find it amusing to read the Jim bashing here, and I can't for the life of me figure out, if it is corporate soldiers (some use another word to describe them), or just some evil person(s).
ReplyDeleteComplaining about Jim not doing any real investigation on some subject or another, or that he moderates the blog too much, not enough or not at all, and the basic name calling or juvenile insults about his life choices.
This is a blog. It is for people to share information about Gannett, hence the name Gannett Blog, and for getting some of the "behind the curtain" corporate strategy, which otherwise wouldn't be available to us any other way.
The day this blog becomes a subscription based format, then we can all demand certain in depth stories, a more journalistic approach to the information posted by Jim.
If you don't like what is here, don't read it, don't visit or even better yet, come up with something worth sharing here. It is easy to be a verbal bully under the anonymity this forum provides, much harder is it to become a contributor of something we all would like to read.
And no, I am not defending Jim. I am defending the integrity of this blog.
What integrity is there to defend, Happy? We have now waited half the day for you or someone else to share these examples. You have yet to do so. Instead, you offer the same weak responses.
DeleteIf you don't like the criticism, why don't YOU leave or come up with something better? The street runs both ways.
Well said, 10:34!
DeleteWell, Anonymous10/15/2013 10:53 PM, I have added a few nuggets here, but I am too far down on the food chain to get some of the big bites, so my entries are mostly observations and gut feelings.
DeleteIf you had bothered to search the blog for entries by "Happy", you would have found some.
I suspect that your attention span is about that of an gnat, and if it isn't right in front of you, then it doesn't exist.
If you have waited half a day for a response, then I can assume, that you are either top management or unemployed. If it is the latter, I suggest, that you spend the time looking for a job (that may apply to both).
I went to bed after posting the above, and from I got out of bed till now, I was at work. I don't have the luxury, nor the time to check or respond here during normal working hours.
Have a nice evening.