Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Oct. 21-27 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

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58 comments:

  1. Since the print and digital sales reps are directed to sell pay per clicks on Google and face book, given the fact that the newspapers web sites deliver little or no return on the adverting dollar spent by our clients. The question I have is how much of the money we show as increase in the digital revenue do we have to send to Google and face book to pay for the ads we broker?

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    1. Varies by product, but is no less than 30% and can be as high as 60%. Yahoo is a straight 50%. As you count the full amount of revenue on the books, the money you pay back is booked as an expense.

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    2. Thank you 10:37

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  2. I may be forced to actually go out and buy a copy of USA Today to see if Michael Wolff's weekly media column was published this morning.

    Searching the paper's website, his column was last published two weeks ago.

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    1. Dude, you want us to help for the blood and sweat you put into this blog, but you wont spend $2 for something you want to read in Usa Today.

      Dude!!!!

      Delete
  3. Don't despair! It's all within reach!

    Hmm, what was exactly in reach again?

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  4. Release shows that Gannett spent $37.7 million on stock buybacks during third quarter, all while it was laying off reporters, copy editors and photographers. Total spending on buybacks for the year now stands at $78.8 million. Only rationale for a stock buyback is to pump up stock prices to protect corporate and other top management (including publishers and exec editors) from possible outside takeovers. Many journalistic livelihoods have been sacrificed so that Martore, Dickey, Harker, et al, can be more secure in their jobs.
    Dan Piller, Des Moines, Ia

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    1. Good observation. Gannett is hooked on the drug of buybacks. And it's pretty clear that when a company can't grow its business to boost profit, it resorts to gimmickry to drive the EPS. This is a company that needs to reinvest its cash. Instead, we see acts of desperation.

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    2. Sounds like a Ponzi scheme. Madoff would be proud.

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  5. I wonder if they will close out October with more layoffs, or will there be a layoff in December. A strange thing to wonder about, but for GPS it seems like they need to weed out some overlap and redundencies.

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    1. December. Copy editors.

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    2. Source. Credibility. Zero.

      * flush *

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  6. Stock buybacks accomplish nothing of value to the enterprise, only a temporary boost to the shareholders' pleasure. Sort of like financial masturbation.

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    1. It's all within reach!

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    2. 7:17, not as funny the second time around.

      * flush *

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  7. Martore the Knife will be coming to a Gannett Information Center near you.

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    1. Way to enforce that "name-calling ban," Jim.

      Delete
  8. Here's why you need an exit strategy.
    http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/business-news/the-biz-blog/225905/gannett-report-suggests-newspaper-industry-will-lose-more-than-1-billion-in-advertising-this-year/

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  9. All the paper properties better be hoping that the Belo deal doesn't come to fruition. Gannett is placing all bets on broadcast. The papers will be packaged up as a separate unit and either sold off individually or as a bulk crap sale.

    Print is not even an asset, its only a liability.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. "Print is not even an asset, it's a liability". Has to be the most ignorant comment I have read on here. Print has been treated as a liability for the last seven years all while being the main money maker.

      Delete
    2. You didn't read the post 12:21 pm. Print obviously makes more than digital, but as a part of all Gannett's portfolio, broadcast is the winner. Print loses year after year and the company is propped up by broadcast. Print is a leach sucking Gannett to a slow death.

      There are a handful of markets that are worthless, poorly executed and a waste of time, money and resources. Sell them off or kill them altogether.

      Sell them off either one by one or as a bundle... that is what Gannett will do if the Belo merger happens. Print overhead is just too high and demand is too low. Even when it is a positive margin or revenue, its very slim. I say, "Death to Print"

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  10. I don't know how the monsters that terminated all those workers that were contributing to the company for years can live with themselves.

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  11. I don't know how the monsters that terminated all those workers that were contributing to the company for years can live with themselves. These would be the following Cock Suckers:
    Tom Donovan
    Dom Lemire
    Tony Simmons
    Tony Simmons
    Tony Simmons
    Tony Simmons
    Tony Simmons

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    1. My guess they're living better than you.
      just saying

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    2. Isnt cocksucker a single word? There ought to be enough Gannett managers to know that one...

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    3. All of this talk about "sewing socks that smell" begs the question: Take the classic scene from the beginning of "The Usual Suspects". Your lineup is Gracia, Maryam, Hunke, Big Al, Crochfelt and Michael Wolff as the Stephen Baldwin character.

      Which of those fine thespians says the phrase that pays ("give ME the keys . . . ") as well as Keyser Soze?

      Delete
  12. Jim must be sleeping as the character assassination and slurs pile up. Not that there's anything going on (3rd quarter report still hot, etc.).
    But send in your money to help him out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jim allows character attacks. That's why it's hard to sympathize when he gets blasted.

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    2. Jim hasn't ruined the livelihoods of thousands of people. Just saying.

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    3. Non-argument, 12:27.

      * flush *

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    4. Says you, 2:34, you Gannett dick. (How's that for a slur?)
      *FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH*

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    5. Converted in just two posts. Not even Obi-Wan could do so well! But I think the storm troopers had more mind power than the Blogeteers.

      Delete
  13. There are only two reasons to stay at any Gannett paper.

    1. You're just starting out in the biz and need some experience before moving on.

    2. You are older (close to retirement age) or have some sort of personal dilemma that would impede you from finding a new job.

    I suspect a lot of people would put themselves in the "personal dilemma" category by saying they have too many bills to pay, kids in college, etc., but I also believe many of those people are just unwilling to make the life adjustments that would allow them to accept the change that comes along with switching jobs or professions.

    Stick with Gannett as long as you feel you need to, but please, for your own sake, be prepared for the worst if you stay too long. It doesn't matter who you are or what you're job is, odds are you will be ousted on Gannett's terms, not your own. And that can lead to an even bigger life adjustment than you might have had if you simply got out while the getting was good.

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

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    2. New wording on the same, tired mantra here: Quit Gannett!

      Not original.

      * flush *

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

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  15. Is it Gannett wide or only at Florida Today. They have ramped up Wed. draws for single copy to promote a section similar to their TGIF section. All they've done is create more returns aka waste. Now it's heard they are going to put out way more Thanksgiving papers than what's called for under draw guide lines, over burdening the carriers. I know the excuses they're coming up with but I suspect it's their creative accounting that's pushing up the numbers. After all, "a printed copy is a sold copy".

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    1. I don't know what kind of accounting you do but a printed copy is not a sold copy, sales determined by gross draw minus returns equal "sold copy". Take a circ 101 class!

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    2. In case you didn't notice I put that in quotes....not mine. I know the difference and I've also seen what FT does. Maybe you should read better before taking a shot at someone else.

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    3. Posters unable to read.

      * flush * to the whole string.

      Delete
  16. Enough of the tiresome *flush* thing. It's just a tactic used by someone who's not able or willing to make a real, insightful point.

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    1. Actually, it's a tactic used to point out posts with no real or insightful point.

      You didn't grasp that, so your post gets the

      * flush *

      Delete
  17. The best explanation and defense of paywalls yet written.

    http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/10/21/paywall-content/

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'd like to flush this "flush" guy. It was amusing at first even if I disagreed with his views. Now it's like listening to a four-year-old babble his favorite new word over and over and over, only snootier. Stop it.

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    1. Hear hear! I agree totally. It was cute at first, but now it's become very infantile.

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  19. Just got an e-mail for Make a Difference Day.

    Flush!

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  20. Everyone is volunteering!

    "BOOM"

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  22. Does that make you all feel better? Say what you will about the blog, it's a place that actually does attempt to get at information that the company -- a communications company -- does not want communicated. It costs you nothing.

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    2. Let our immature posters get these tired attempts at satirical humor out of their systems. Eventually, it will be time for their bottles and naps.

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    4. Mr. Hopkins, this is getting pretty bad. One has posts like 8:43's, reasonable, and describing the reason your blog exists, yet it's time to delete the "flush" thing. Disparate views, bring 'em on. I am very interested in them! But there's nothing worthwhile in arrogance there over and over and over. Please.

      Delete

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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