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Wednesday, October 02, 2013
70 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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Is the legendary Jeff Washburn still Perdue University men's basketball beat reporter at the Journal & Courier at Lafayette, Ind.? His Twitter page says yes, but he hasn't updated it for several days.
ReplyDeleteWashburn isn't just any sports journalist. Two years ago, he was inducted in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
I ask about his status amid scattered reports (in e-mails to me) of another possible round of job cuts -- action that would be coming less than two months after a round that cost the newspaper division an estimated 400-plus jobs.
I've now confirmed that Washburn was, indeed, let go. Not a good sign.
DeleteNot only let go, he was escorted out of the building. Thanks for 30 years of service..your riffed
DeleteIt is Purdue University. Perdue is the chicken company.
ReplyDeleteOoops.
ReplyDeleteJim, it's oops, not ooops. Come on.
DeleteWorthwhile cause but you just know it's going to be the big ol' "Ain't we great" centerpiece in the next day's paper. And the fun part for the local papers will be the e-mails from the local boss telling us, "Hey, only 3 of us have signed up to participate. Aren't you going to help?"
ReplyDeleteDear Colleagues,
Please join your leadership team, your fellow employees and me on Saturday, Oct. 26th in supporting our annual Make A Difference Day – the largest day of volunteering in the USA. For more than 20 years, we have mobilized millions across the country for this national day of doing good. Last year, we had more than 8,000 volunteers at Gannett-led projects and I’m hoping that we can make an even bigger impact in our local communities this year. I hope you will consider volunteering with us.
For those of you in the D.C. area, we will be partnering with Food for Others, a local food bank that serves Fairfax County. D.C.-based employees will be provided with more details on the project and information on how to RSVP later today. If you are elsewhere across the country, your management team will share local event plans with you. You can also visit the Make A Difference Day website to find a local project or other ways you can participate.
Thank you in advance for your participation. With your help, we hope to make this year our company’s strongest showing of volunteerism in the history of Make A Difference Day.
Best regards,
Gracia
Ah, Make A Difference Day, than annual ritual in which our general manager (publisher) picks an event that is little more than a sham, makes threatening hints that he looks forward to our attendance, demands news coverage that portrays hims as a hero, sends his assistant-publisher (secretary) to take attendance ... but then goes back to his native state for the weekend and doesn't show up himself! Good times.
DeleteHey Gracia, I made a difference EVERY DAY I worked for 21 years at this company. You didn't seem to notice or care when you took my job from me. Enjoy the "DAY"
DeleteI can think of about 6 people who participated last year but no longer work for us. LAID OFF. That could make a difference.....
Delete11:33 Sounds like that publisher would, indeed, be making a difference.
DeleteThis is pretty big news on the paywall topic -- Dallas Morning News dropping theirs and admitting very bluntly that no one was buying digital subscriptions.
ReplyDeletePublisher also makes the provocative (profound?) declaration that subscribers are paying for the experience of a printed newspaper, not for the news inside of it:
http://paidcontent.org/2013/09/30/another-wall-tumbles-the-dallas-morning-news-dismantles-its-paywall-focuses-on-premium-content/?go_commented=1#comment-211165
Haven't seen the print version of the ad.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=602045563171417&id=151394304903214
I don't think anyone would care about paying their fair share in Health Care. The problem is, that when you haven't had a raise in 5 years and money is consistently being taken away through furloughs, how much is enough already! Affordable Care Act means just that, so I don't quite get how someone making 16,000 a year pays the same as someone making 60,000. So once again the board shows just how ignorant they really are, to their employees !
ReplyDeleteThe board is so far up the ladder that they have lost touch with reality and what it's like to make less. The tiered health care cost of the recent past actually made sense but for 2014 I just don't get the single cost no matter how little or how much one makes.
DeleteSaw the "Make a Difference Day" e-mail. Delete.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone read what this managing editor at some po-dunk newspaper (The Journal Inquirer) in Conn wrote?
ReplyDeleteHere's a snippet:
The view of Manchester (Conn.) Journal Inquirer managing editor Chris Powell:
Newspapers still can sell themselves to traditional households — two-parent families involved with their children, schools, churches, sports, civic groups, and such.
But newspapers cannot sell themselves to households headed by single women who have several children by different fathers, survive on welfare stipends, can hardly speak or read English, move every few months to cheat their landlords, barely know what town they’re living in, and couldn’t afford a newspaper subscription even if they could read. And such households constitute a rising share of the population.
http://www.journalinquirer.com/opinion/chris_powell/journalism-s-problem-may-not-be-the-internet/article_845400c0-277d-11e3-a371-001a4bcf887a.html?TNNoMobile
Matt DeRienzo from Digital First Media (New Haven Register) has put in his 2 cents: "Journalism's problem may not be the Internet."
DeleteBTW, anon@4:04, don't go lifting Romenesko word-for-word.
4:04, right on target.
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DeleteHere's an experiment- Let's have Ford give away cars for 10 years and see how long before they go bankrupt. The problem with paywalls is they came 10-15 years too late. And the GCI paywall can be breeched by a cub scout.
DeleteFor several days now, it's looked like the cruise industry has bought a spot on USA Today's list of top news stories. (Has it?) They're all by a freelancer named Fran Golden. Here's the latest one.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you're correct. One of the potential "pillars" of an experiment underway at a limited number of locations around the United States (not Butterfly) is "sponsored content".
DeleteWhen my Gannett property uses freelancers, they apparently don't check (or don't care) that they are independent PR professionals whose clients they might be writing about. I remember seeing a website for one of these people that touted her success in placing articles about clients in local media. She is still writing for the paper.
Delete9:26 Let's here more details about that. Sounds like last year's AmEx Small Business Saturday series. (Or was that in 2011?)
DeleteMust be one of our new "pronounced voices".
DeleteMs. Golden has an "interesting" resume:
Deletehttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/fran-golden/4/245/a98
Why are so many Gannett job listings popping up? This comes after hundreds of layoffs across the country. What the? Explain that nonsense to me. What this company is doing is WRONG!
ReplyDelete8:52 - Because most of the senior management at each property has no idea what they are doing when it comes to personnel. There's no strategy for positions at all. There's random, aggressive hiring with fancy digital titles yet there are lay-offs for hard working employees. Apparently, the word is Indianapolis lost at least another three or four tenured employees last week. I'm afraid this is the tip of the iceberg because the bleeding in Indianapolis isn't going to stop. Mismanagement and misappropriation of funds spent on relocation to a fancy, vacated Nordstrom building are taking precedence.
DeleteGood grief. If someone's qualified for one of the new positions, then by all means apply. But if they're not, then that kinda answers the question, does it not?
DeleteLots of management appears to be exiting Gannett! And whatever happened to The World Class Sales' management team?
DeleteAs a laid off employee, I'm torn. Yes, I want a job, but no, I am not willing to sacrifice my well-being yet again to this unstable, clearly messed up company that does not value its employees. What guarantee is there that they won't show me the door again, after giving them years of my talent, and sanity, for that matter? This company is just a cluster.
DeleteYou're fooling yourself if you think Gannett is going to re-hire any of the laid off workers. They're not. The "need new blood to save the sinking ship" mantra is alive and well. And as we all know, there's nothing this "new blood' can do to infuse this dying industry.
Deleteyes, the actually do hire back laid off workers and workers that have quit.. over and over
DeleteYep hired one back the other day after they wanted to fire that person a little while back.
DeleteWe've rehired some people twice, and even rehired folks who took buyouts.
DeleteLots of people quit after the layoffs because they were tired of waiting for their number to be called.
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ReplyDeleteThe following is the Company's response to the news, Tuesday, that long time anchor J.C. Hayward was one of several being sued by the Attorney General of the District of Columbia for her part in a lucrative charter school contract scandal.
ReplyDeleteToday we find one of our own as part of a news story, rather than reporting it. As we will report in the 6 p.m. newscast, J.C. Hayward has been named in a lawsuit filed by the DC Attorney General in connection to her board chairmanship of the Options Public Charter School. We have relieved J.C. of her duties at WUSA pending further investigation. Please refer any calls on this topic directly to me.
Mark
I believe the station reported the story on their evening newscasts although it was broken by the Washington Post and the Washington City Paper.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/charter-school-officials-diverted-millions-lawsuit-alleges/2013/10/01/05fdc4f2-2aae-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_story.html
The US government shutdown isn't the only news in the nation's capital. J.C. Hayward, an anchorwoman at Gannett-owned WUSA9, is one of several people being sued by the D.C. government for allegedly pocketing $3 million from a charter school by way of sweetheart deals.
ReplyDeleteThe fourth quarter is here.
ReplyDeleteAre projections for the quarter being revised downward again?
Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J., lists its circulation of 40,531 in in its annual statement of ownership and circulation in the Oct. 2 paper. It's a drop of 3,000 from the 2012 statement.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is most likely a pumped up number.
DeleteWonder who Louisville is going to get to replace Teflon Tony since he got promoted to National Distribution??? I'm sure Gannett can find another willing Director to continue running the CJ into the ground.
ReplyDeleteReuters Will Cut Around Five Percent Across Editorial
ReplyDeleteStephen Adler, the president and editor in chief of Reuters, announced during a staff conference call this morning that the news service will be cutting around a five percent across the board in editorial.
http://observer.com/2013/10/reuters/
Welcome to the new Gannett.
ReplyDeleteWhy Gannett needs to do Page 3 girls
ReplyDeletehttp://www.postcrescent.com/
Your top story/video ... meet the female bartender ...
As a side note, the video right below on the high school dance team coach getting the boot is from a story that Gannett's Central Wisconsin Group had yesterday which the Journal-Sentinel picked up yesterday and The Post-Crescent ... well ... we hadn't seen the story before so it's news to us.
Gannett had that on line-it was called metromix, or what employees called "tits for clicks" , photos of scantly clad women on the beach and in clubs, which came pretty close to the almost porn line in the case of one beach shot, which brought a lot of complaints. Naturally the response was to throw in some male beef cake. It ran on the "front page" of the website. Stay Classy GCI!
DeleteWait, so you saw it and watched it on postcrescent.com?
DeleteIndy sold their building and the employees are being moved to the local mall.
ReplyDeleteSo what is your point?
DeleteI like my office. Not looking forward to our move.
DeleteI think it's obvious. Gannett is moving toward "daily digital," but will only "print" a newspaper a maximum of three times a week, Sunday being the big print day. That's why they need more "digital" employees and a handful of writers. They won't need as many editors either. Too bad if you happen to be an employee with a high salary.
ReplyDeleteThat's the goal. When is someone going to realize we need to concentrate on what we do and have always done best!?
DeleteGannett doesn't have a clue. The very fact people are paying 2 bucks for a depleted USAT says it all. People want print! Digital has it's place but print is what people want. Close the door to print and you might as well put your head between your knees and kiss it goodbye.
Delete"print is what people want"
DeleteIf by "people" you mean the retired.
Butterfly is going to fix everything.
ReplyDeleteDesign Studios will fix everything.
DeleteUSA TODAY wins best 2D design at the Fast Company 2013 Innovation By Design Awards. Here's what was written:
ReplyDeleteUSA Today / Wolff Olins
"As a newspaper, USA Today’s diverse, bite-sized stories made it the Internet before the Internet. But in the age of the actual Internet, the print icon has re-imagined its identity--creating a tablet-inspired, cross-platform redesign that includes the paper, the website, and apps. But its most notable update may be the blue dot logo, which now updates dynamically to reflect the day’s news. “[The paper] feels like you’re taking a little piece of the web along with you,” says Robert Anderson, creative director at Square. “For business impact, it’s a Hail Mary. You either alienate all the people you have, or you attract a whole different audience.”
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3019000/the-winners-of-our-2013-innovation-by-design-awards#10
As we all know, winning awards doesn't mean anything to the regular consumer. It's primarily an ego stroke for all the people who were involved in spinning GCI's money to create a blue dot (That has now apparently been validated as "innovative" by Fast Company). But, having said that, we have to ask: now that they are a year removed from the relaunching the print newspaper, website, and mobile apps, what has been the net impact?
More specifically, how much as the audience grown? Has circulation increased? Has website traffic increased? Has mobile downloads and app usage increased? Has overall engagement of the "brand" increased?
And, even more importantly, how much more revenue can USA TODAY directly attribute to the redesign?
I guess the supreme queen CEO herself will share all these wonderful deets on 10/21 (or not). But, perhaps someone from the shiny big shiny can share some insider info on these questions.
You have to be kidding me. USAT shouldn't be winning prizes for anything lately. It's become a joke. An embarrassment in almost every conceivable way.
DeleteHere's what's discouraging: all that effort, and the judges single out something USAT contracted to an outside designer, the silly blue ball.
DeleteWhat's that say about in-house innovation?
As for Martore on Oct. 21, she should be so lucky as to only have to dwell solely on USAT's results when she answers for the third-quarter results.
DeleteStay tuned here for more in that.
Martore never says anything in these quarterly meetings and nobody seems to care. Gannett just keeps on doin' and nobody notices.
DeleteJimmy, you won the Mirror Award and devoted a whole page to it. USAT wins an award and "It's primarily an ego stroke...." Can you spell Hypocrite?????
DeleteA shiny ribbon for Maryam Banikarim's #coolballs. That's nice.
ReplyDeletecheck this out - on my FB newsfeed saw friends responding to a page called "Cost Cutters By Brandy' - She mails you her newspaper inserts for $6 - wonder if her hubby is a carrier - interesting.... check it out...
ReplyDelete