By the numbers | What's up, Des Moines?

It's been a busy week in the land of Gannett newspaper publishers: Corporate announced new hires in Montgomery, Ala., and St. Cloud, Minn. And it created a vacancy for the publisher's job overseeing papers in Lafayette and Opelousas, La.

Hollingsworth

But 2½ months after Laura Hollingsworth was promoted to a newly expanded position at The Tennessean in Nashville, the top job at The Des Moines Register remains unfilled. That's odd, given the Iowa daily's high profile. There ought to be many publishers at smaller GCI papers clawing their way toward Des Moines.

Some key numbers:

2

days since the publisher's job was vacated at The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette and the Daily World in Opelousas

73

days taken to hire a new publisher at St. Cloud Times

77

days since Des Moines publisher's job was vacated


100 69
days taken to hire a new publisher at the Montgomery Advertiser

New pubs in Shreveport, Fort Collins and Green Bay

I was offline today when Corporate announced a series of management changes at three of the 81 U.S. community dailies:

Judi Terzotis, publisher of the Fort Collins Coloradoan, was named publisher of The Times in Shreveport, La. Terzotis joined the Coloradoan in 2011. Prior to that, she was associate publisher of Freedom Communications' Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo.

In Shreveport, she replaces Don Bailey, who resigned unexpected in March.

Kathy Jack-Romero, business development director at the Coloradoan, was promoted to publisher there. Jack-Romero has been with paper since 2005. She has also held management jobs in two other Gannett markets, in Nevada and Montana.

Scott Johnson, publisher of Minnesota's St. Cloud Times, will be moving home to his roots to be the publisher at Wisconsin's Green Bay Press-Gazette. Before St. Cloud, Johnson was regional advertising director of Gannett Wisconsin Media in Green Bay. He also was advertising director at the Press-Gazette and has had various advertising roles at other outlets in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Corporate's statement didn't detail plans for Johnson's replacement in St. Cloud.

In Green Bay, Johnson succeeds Kevin Corrado, who was named president and publisher of New England Newspapers Inc. in March. Johnson is the only the sixth publisher in the Press-Gazette’s nearly 100-year history, according to the Press-Gazette's story about Johnson's being hired.

It's worth noting that another very high-profile publisher's job must still be filled: at The Des Moines Register, after Laura Hollingsworth was promoted to the Nashville Tennessean yesterday, with significantly expanded responsibilities as president of the newly merged South and Central group of papers.

Tip: More paywall sites named -- plus, $3 Sundays?

Add three more names to the list of known sites leading Gannett's broad rollout of paywalls starting Feb. 1, according to one of my readers: Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; St. Cloud, Minn., and Sioux Falls, S.D.

They would bring to at least six the number of sites believed to be making the switch that day. The others are Wilmington, Del., which I wrote about Monday, plus two others that Gannett Bloggers have discussed in earlier comment threads: Brevard, Fla., and Lafayette, Ind.

My tipster reader also says these six sites may boost their Sunday single-copy prices to as much as $3 when the paywalls are introduced. At Florida Today in Brevard, that will double the current price, according to my readers. Any Sunday increase would come as GCI tries to raise overall circulation that day.

GCI's paywall plan is especially noteworthy because it arrives as newspapers everywhere look for new revenue streams to battle declining advertising sales. As the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher, GCI's decisions are closely watched and frequently mimicked.

Early last month, CEO Gracia Martore disclosed for the first time that most if not all U.S. sites would require that readers pay for full digital access. In remarks to a conference of Wall Street media analysts, she didn't give a timetable, other than to say the move would start early this year.

Pricing remains unclear
She also didn't give details on pricing for digital-only subscriptions. However, at three sites where GCI has been testing paywalls for more than a year, those subscribers pay $9.95 a month, or $2 for a 24-hour "pass."

Under the new plan, non-subscribers would have limited free access, Martore said. Existing and new print customers would get access with their paid subscriptions.

The broad paywall debut follows GCI's test since July 2010 at papers in Tallahassee, Fla.; Greenville, S.C., and St. George, Utah. And it comes more than 16 years after many newspapers began giving away content free online after the introduction of the first commercially viable web browser.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Why Gannett Digital wants more local news videos

Gannett is selling "pre-roll" advertisements on web videos for $40 to $50 per thousand viewers -- a strong incentive to push all its approximately 80 U.S. community newspapers to produce more local news videos, according to a Gannett Digital executive.

In another interview with Beet.tv, senior director Kate Walters says the challenge is in helping local advertisers, such as restaurants and law firms, produce the pre-rolls. These small businesses often don't have the pre-roll "creatives" on hand, so need production help. For that, Walters says, GCI's local sales force is turning to third party producers, including the company's ad services subsidiary, PointRoll.

Walters

Compared to national ad revenue, Walters says, "where we really make the money is when our local sales team sell,'' she says.

Walters did not say how much GCI typically earns for traditional online banner and text advertising, so I can't offer a comparison to the $40 to $50 CPM she cited for pre-rolls. Perhaps some of Gannett Blog's advertising sales readers can weigh in on that point.

In the Beet.tv interview, Walters appears in a panel discussion. Her remarks start about two minutes into the segment.

Walters' remarks on higher pre-roll revenue follow an earlier interview where she disclosed GCI will soon ask newspaper reporters to once more start producing local news videos as part of their traditional news-gathering work. GCI tried that once before, starting in 2007, before a series of layoffs depleted newsroom staffing. Her earlier disclosure drew a very strong, and not altogether positive, reaction from Gannett Bloggers.

Video training got 'muddled'
Wasim Ahmad recalls his first-hand experience getting Gannett video training in 2006-2007 -- and why the video-is-important message got "muddled." Now an assistant journalism professor at Stony Brook University, Ahmad previously worked at New York's Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin and Minnesota's St. Cloud Times.

Refocusing digital efforts, GCI wants all newspaper reporters producing web videos again; 'traditional journalists have to change' thinking, exec says

Gannett will push reporters to resume shooting video at all its more than 80 U.S. newspapers, an idea first tried four years ago that largely fizzled amid steep cutbacks in staffing.

Walters

The new push was outlined by Kate Walters, a senior director at Gannett Digital, in a recent interview with Beet.tv. She said the plan is part of a broader campaign to generate or buy more local news video for the company's digital network, as Chief Digital Officer David Payne, hired last spring, steps up his reorganization of digital efforts.

Walters did not give a timetable in her Beet.tv interview, and she didn't disclose any advertising elements with the plan. However, video "pre-rolls" command higher ad rates, so it's likely more revenue-generation is one of the goals.

'A huge opportunity'
The drive for more video from reporters doesn't come without risks. It could further strain newsroom resources because of the labor-intensive nature of video production. Currently, only 5-10 newspapers are producing video, according to Walters. The company wants to extend that to all 80 or so.

"That's a huge opportunity,'' Walters told Beet.tv. "That's our biggest opportunity to really increase the amount of content across our newspaper properties."

The company plans to equip and train reporters. The idea was tested at one paper -- the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota -- where video viewership rose 461% from a year ago after the test, Walters said.

"We need to give them the ability to shoot video, so we don't have to just rely on photographers and videographers, which are few and far between," Walters said. "So we really almost need a culture shift across all our reporters. Traditional journalists have to change their thinking about the way they're creating stories by adding video."

Wanted: breaking local news
The new video strategy mirrors one rolled out in 2007, when Corporate's News Department provided training and cameras to newsrooms, as the company made websites a centerpiece of news delivery. Since then, however, GCI has cut newsroom staffing in a wave of layoffs that reduced overall GCI employment by more than 20%.

Walters said GCI is focusing especially on breaking local news because that "performs well across all our sites,'' and can be shared using new video players on homepages. She did not explain, however, why readers in, say, Des Moines, would be interested in watching local news videos from Cherry Hill, N.J.

To process and share the growing video inventory, GCI is building a central production center in Atlanta, at WXIA-TV. That center was first made public in early August, when then-CEO Craig Dubow disclosed plans for a "relaunch" of GCI's core websites.

In addition to producing more video in-house, Gannett Digital will buy video to cover subjects -- such as business news -- or markets where GCI doesn't have a strong presence, Walters said. And the company will be looking for more reader-generated videos, too.

Related: Why newspapers should jettison most web video efforts.

[Photo: Beet.tv]

St. Cloud | Attn: Mr. Blonigen. See story above

Oops.

The banner "refer" at the top of today's St. Cloud Times front page in Minnesota directs readers to an eight-page section, "Exercise: weigh options for workouts at home or gym."

The unrelated story below, "Business owners eager for new take," features a photo of the very large Don Blonigen Dijital Majik, president of a local computer repair business. (Bigger .pdf of the page.)

[Image: Newseum]

GCI has now shifted 17 newspaper CEOs this year

Hurst

This morning's promotion of Leslie Hurst to publisher of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., is at least the 17th 14th13th turnover of a top Gannett newspaper executive this year.

This unusual turnover -- half of it, in the past month -- is among GCI's 81 U.S. community publishing newspapers, and the Tucson, Ariz., newspaper partnership. It follows recent Gannett Blog speculation that the division was due for a big reorganization. The list so far:

1. Today. Hurst is replacing retiring Larry Whitaker. Her successor at The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La., hasn't been announced.
2. Yesterday. Gabe Aguiree named general manager of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, replacing Dan Brown, whose departure wasn't explained.
3. Dec. 10. Kim Wilson leaves Fort Collins Coloradoan; her departure isn't explained, and a replacement hasn't been announced.
4. Dec. 6. Scott Johnson to publisher of the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. He replaces Bill Albrecht, who was earlier named president of the Media Network of Central Ohio.
5. Nov. 30. Charlie Nutt retires as publisher of The Daily Journal in Vineland, N.J. Advertising Director Joseph Calchi also assumes title of general manager.
6. Michael Beck to general manager of Wisconsin's Stevens Point Journal; he replaced Mark Baldwin, whose departure wasn't explained.
7. Nov. 18. Howard Griffin named publisher of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., replacing retiring Curtis Riddle.
8. Nov. 15. Mike Jameson leaves as CEO Tucson Newspapers, the joint operating agency co-owned by Gannett and Lee Enterprises; it publishes Lee's Arizona Daily Star. Jameson's replacement hasn't been announced.
9. Oct. 20. Andrew Oppmann leaves as publisher of The Leaf-Chronicle for a university job; his permanent replacement hasn't been announced.
10. Oct. 12. Lee Webber officially retires as publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser after its sale to a cross-town rival.
11. Sept. 28. Linda Greiwe to publisher of the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri, replacing retiring Thomas Bookstaver.
12. Sept. 13. Mark Winkler to publisher of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., replacing Richard Ramhoff, whose departure was not explained.
13. Sep. 13. James Fogler to publisher of the Burlington Free Press, replacing Brad Robertson, who was promoted to president of the new GannettLocal.
14. May 25. Samuel Martin to publisher of the Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama. He replaces Cheryl Lindus.
15. May 25. Lindus to general manager of The Muncie Star in Indiana. She replaces Gene Williams, named executive editor of the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J.
16. April 7. Paul Grzella to general manager of New Jersey's Courier News in Bridgewater and the Home News Tribune in East Brunswick; he replaced Skip Hidlay, who left to become publisher of the Wichita Eagle in Kansas. 
17. March 25. Mei-Mei Chan to publisher of The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., replacing Carol Hudler, who was promoted to publisher of The Tennessean at Nashville in November 2009.

Have I missed anyone? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

St. Cloud | Wisconsin ad exec named new publisher

Corporate just announced that the regional advertising director of Gannett Wisconsin Media in Green Bay, Scott Johnson, has been named publisher of the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. Johnson succeeds Bill Albrecht, who earlier was named president of the Media Network of Central Ohio and president and publisher of The Advocate in Newark, Ohio.

Johnson's is the ninth appointment of a publisher this year alone among GCI's 81 U.S. community dailies. The news came today in a written statement that included a quote attributed to U.S. newspaper division President Bob Dickey. Fashioned and refashioned by publicists, quotes such as these risk sounding like commodities, rendering them less meaningful.

Quotidian quotations
Following are some of Dickey's quotes this year, with identifying names redacted. One of these is about Johnson. I've linked to the original statements.

"_____ is an innovator in finding solutions for customers and delivering the right audiences for advertisers across all platforms. _____ brings an impressive background in market development strategy and sales."

"_____ is an experienced advertising executive with a solid track record of building sales and competitive market share. _____ will be an important member of our team as Gannett continues to expand the ways we provide business clients with customized solutions and engage consumers."

"Through _____'s leadership, the _____ launched innovative products to increase readership and market share while also producing products and services that meet the needs of the community."

"_____ brings a diverse and fresh perspective that will help us continue to expand the many ways we meet the changing needs of our communities and customers, both consumers and advertisers."

" _____ has had a long, successful career with Gannett and brings important sales and marketing skills to this position. _____'s breadth of experience and leadership abilities will serve _____ and _____."

" _____ is bringing diverse experience and valued leadership to our _____ market and will build on the solid foundation _____ helped establish in this important market."

" _____ has intense drive, a collaborative spirit and a strong track record of providing innovative service to consumers and advertisers."

Got a favorite press release? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Cincy | Callinan is said noncommittal on future; Green says it would be 'incredibly hard' to move

Callinan

Amid published speculation during the past 48 hours that he may be leaving as executive editor of one of Gannett's bigger dailies -- The Cincinnati Enquirer -- Tom Callinan has now told alternative weekly CityBeat in an e-mail: “Regarding the rumor, I am telling inquiring reporters the truth: My wife and I have an appointment with our financial advisor next week. She is self-employed and does not have health care insurance so we would need to be very careful about any decisions."

Callinan, 62, has been Cincy's top editor eight years; his first GCI job was in 1975, at Minnesota's St. Cloud Times.

Green

CityBeat, meanwhile, asked Executive Editor Rick Green of The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., about rumors he might succeed Callinan: “What I do know,'' Green said, "is that the past six-and-a-half years here in Palm Springs have been a tremendous chapter in my life, professionally and personally. As much as I loved Cincinnati and the Enquirer staff during my 15 years there, coming out West has been the best move of my career. Frankly, it would be incredibly hard for me at this time to leave my team and the opportunities at hand here in Palm Springs to return to Cincinnati — even if there was a vacancy.”

Two editors with Ohio ties
Green has been a rising editorial star: He was one of three top winners of President's Rings in May. And that was the first time he'd snared one of the newspaper division's top honors. Also, as a former Enquirer editor, he has Ohio connections.

Washburn

Another star editor with deep ties to Ohio is Carolyn Washburn, now executive editor at The Des Moines Register; she grew up in a rural area west of Cincinnati. Under her, the Iowa paper won a Pulitzer Prize for photography this year. As well, Washburn became a five-time ring winner in May, garnering her a coveted Chairman's Ring.

I worked with Washburn at The Idaho Statesman during the mid-1990s, when she was that paper's managing editor and I was projects editor. When I've been asked in the past about a possible vacancy in Cincinnati, I said I'd recalled Washburn expressing an interest in one day leading the Enquirer. I have not spoken to her in many years, however, so do not know her current plans. She's made one appearance here on Gannett Blog, when she posted this comment.

Circulation compared

• Cincinnati: M-F, 157,574; Sunday, 255,037
• Des Moines: M-F, 109,095; Sunday, 205,662
• Palm Springs: M-F, 34,419; Sunday, 40,893

Earlier: In a Cincinnati riddle, when is a rumor not a rumor?

Related: Ex-publisher Keating would accept $1.3 million to settle suit; his $50,000 monthly expenses

Newark | St. Cloud's Albrecht named publisher

St. Cloud Times Publisher Bill Albrecht has been promoted to chief executive of The Advocate in Newark, Ohio, and chief of the Media Network of Central Ohio, a portfolio of 10 small community dailies, Corporate announced today in a statement. His appointment confirms a report here yesterday by a Gannett Blogger.

Albrecht replaces Linda Greiwe, who was named publisher of Missouri's Springfield News-Leader in late September. In that role, she also is responsible for markets in Minnesota's St. Cloud; Mountain Home, Ark.; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Today's statement did not identify Albrecht's replacement in St. Cloud.

Newspapers recasting themselves as media firms; at Indy, no detail missed -- including voice mail

Gannett is unlikely to jettison its best-known brands: USA Today, plus 99 other newspapers, 23 television stations and hundreds of smaller subsidiaries. Those legacy businesses are the company's public face, after all, and are part of the goodwill GCI has bought and built up over the years. (Or, torn down, depending on your perspective.)

But a recent switch at one of Gannett's biggest newspapers, The Indianapolis Star, shows the company is trying to expand its public image beyond those legacy brands. Last week, the Star told employees that it had officially recast itself as Star Media for the purposes of promoting itself to current and future customers. (Memo's full text, below.)

Other Gannett operations have done the same -- or likely will soon, I imagine -- as they draw more attention to Web ventures like Metromix and Moms Like Me, and away from aging print products. This shift comes after a report that Corporate itself has been considering a new branding campaign with the tagline, "Gannett . . . Connecting you to your world." And it follows a February notice to shareholders that Gannett now regards itself as "an international media and marketing solutions company."

In Minnesota, the St. Cloud Times has been calling itself Times Media ("One media company, countless solutions") for two years now, a Gannett Blog reader says.

In Kentucky, it's now CJM, or Courier-Journal Media. "Rethink the possibilities,'' the Louisville paper's marketing site says, foreshadowing a headline last Sunday above an op-ed piece by Publisher Arnie Garson. (Subliminal messaging?)

And in Ohio, another reader says, the company's chain of smaller dailies will be known as Media Network of Central Ohio. It registered the domain www.mncogannett.com back in February.

Text of Star memo
We have officially launched Star Media as our business-to-business branding effort. The purpose is to communicate to advertisers and potential advertisers that while we still publish the state’s largest newspaper, we offer many other products and services that deliver to a variety of audiences. We are a dynamic media company that offers mobile messaging, search-engine marketing and text-loyalty promotions, as well as our traditional online and print vehicles.

A new sign has been placed over the Employee Entrance downtown. You will also be seeing the new Star Media logo on letterhead, business cards, sales presentations, and other materials.

We kicked off a significant advertising campaign targeting business decision makers. The campaign includes geo-targeted online ads, billboards, radio spots, e-mail messaging and print ads in the Indiana Business Journal and the Star. Our ultimate goal with this effort is to promote new brand awareness, transformational messaging, grow new active accounts and improve customer retention.

In the coming weeks, most employees will be provided with new e-mail signatures, templates for PowerPoint presentations, electronic letterhead, as well as other items. We encourage all employees to change their voicemail message to reflect Star Media.

Our President and Publisher, Michael G. Kane, will be sharing additional information regarding this Business-to-Business branding effort during the upcoming quarterly Employee Meetings.

Is a similar effort underway at your site? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: yesterday's Star, Newseum]

Dickey suggests eight more press closings in '10

The president of Gannett's U.S. newspaper division, Bob Dickey, says eight more newspapers have been identified for possible press closings, according to remarks he made last month to a group of Wall Street media stock analysts. He did not identify those newspapers, however.

I don't believe Dickey's estimate has been given much attention before now. In his prepared statement to the UBS media stock conference, Dickey notes that 53% of Gannett's newspapers "are now outsourced and printed by commercial printers or other Gannett and non-Gannett newspapers." Then he adds: "Another eight have been identified as outsourcing opportunities."

These press closings save a lot of money, while costing lots of jobs, too: dozens in most cases. The most recent closing I saw, at The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y., resulted in the elimination of 166 positions. If the average were 40 to 50 positions per paper, closing eight would cut 320 to 400 jobs in the months ahead.

Earlier: Through May 2009, the 12 press closings to date

Has anyone heard whether their site is targeted? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: today's St. Cloud Times in Minnesota, one of at least 12 papers to shutter their presses last year, Newseum]

Recap | The TV division is getting Gannettoided!

Gannett Blog readers wrote 910 comments last week on posts you may have missed, including these:

The Obama Administration denied Corporate's request to completely shutter Arizona's Tucson Citizen. But a settlement announced Friday allows Corporate to strip the afternoon paper of virtually all its editorial employees, replacing them with an online-only publication that appears to be little more than a fig leaf. Gannett and partner Lee Enterprises will continue splitting the roughly $10 million in annual profit produced by their joint operating agreement. Arizona's attorney general intervened, filing a suit to block Gannett, but it's unclear where the case is headed next. Next, in Minnesota, the St. Cloud Times confirmed that it's closing its press, shifting production to a Gannett Offset factory near Minneapolis. Finally, seeking to trim costs once more, the broadcasting division reportedly replaced all its local webmasters with a smaller number of regional employees.

Context | How to understand press shutdowns

14%

That's now the new proportion of Gannett's 85 U.S. newspapers that have given up their presses in the past 18 months, following the recent announcement, by the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota.

Just In | St. Cloud confirms; 12th to close press

(Updated at 12:17 p.m.) The number of Gannett presses headed for the junkyard now totals 12, a sharp-eyed reader says, pointing to a site I'd missed in my previous tally: The News Leader of Staunton, Va.

From an earlier version of this post: Confirming speculation, St. Cloud Times Publisher Bill Albrecht sought to reassure the Minnesota community that only production is shifting to Gannett Offset, 51 miles away in suburban Minneapolis.

"I want make (to) sure everyone understands that Times Media and the St. Cloud Times are not moving to Maple Grove,'' the paper quotes Albrecht saying, in a new story online. "Our printed products are going to be produced at a Gannett location in Maple Grove. We will maintain our operation in St. Cloud with roughly 170 employees.”

St. Cloud becomes the 12th site to shutter its press in the past 18 months. The others: Asheville, N.C.; Battle Creek, Mich.; Clarksville, Tenn.; Fort Collins, Colo., Hattiesburg, Miss.; Iowa City, Iowa; Mountain Home, Ark.; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Richmond, Ind.; Staunton, Va., and Stevens Point, Wis.

What am I missing? Post your replies in the comments section, below. E-mail confidentially to gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Today's front page, Newseum]

St. Cloud | Printing said moving to Minneapolis

Speculation is mounting that Minnesota's St. Cloud Times is about to announce plans that it will shutter its press, and move production to the Gannett Offset site, 51 miles southeast, in the suburban Minneapolis community of Maple Grove.

Citing a reported employee meeting yesterday, a tipster says printing may cease in St. Cloud on June 26. "Eleven press people are said to be losing their jobs,'' my tipster says, adding, no one knew if the reported move would "trickle down" to mailroom or packaging.

Only Sunday, the Coloradoan silenced the roar of its "mighty beast," printing its last issue at Fort Collins, and shifting production to the Denver Newspaper Agency. It became the ninth GCI paper to junk a press in the past 18 months.

St. Cloud 148 years old
It launched in June 1861 as the Minnesota Union. Today's paper:

• President/Publisher: William Albrecht

  
• Executive Editor: John Bodette

  
• Joined Gannett: 1977
  
• Circulation: daily, 25,376; Sunday 35,176
  

Can anyone confirm -- and add detail? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.

[Yesterday's front page, Newseum]

St. Cloud reportedly trims workforce another 5%

The 10 jobs just eliminated at the St. Cloud Times would follow the Minnesota newspaper's nearly 11% reduction during December's Gannett-wide cuts; that left the paper with about 194 positions. Today, Anonymous@10:41 a.m. said an Argus Leader human resources employee in Sioux Falls, S.D., traveled to St. Cloud to help tell workers over the past three days; the paper reportedly no longer employs an on-site HR representative.

"Not sure why she came, as she doesn't leave the office," wrote @10:41 a.m. "Our publisher and few managers were on furlough this week. Publisher did not have to give up the company car for a week, however. One accounting person was escorted out of the building. . . . We still have more assistants than sales on the street, and more managment than we can ever imagine. Wow, this is crazy. Stay tuned."

Publisher William Albrecht has been the top executive since October 2001. St. Cloud's circulation fell 4.1%, to 25,449 daily, on Sept. 30 from a year before. Sunday was unchanged, Deutsche Bank says.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.

[Today's front page: Newseum]

Asheville: Fired editor files $15M suit against pub

Veteran Gannett employee Susan Ihne (left) claims in a lawsuit brought in North Carolina Superior Court that Citizen-Times Publisher Randy Hammer began verbally abusing her soon after he was named the paper's chief executive in October 2007.

"He made statements to her threatening her job and ordered her not to call the corporate headquarters concerning him,'' her complaint filed yesterday says. "He also told her that she could not forward his e-mails to anyone without his permission."

Hammer dismissed Ihne in May 2008, when she was 52 years old, her suit says; she got the job in October 2005. Ihne is claiming age and sex discrimination, and seeks more than $15 million in compensatory and punitive damages, plus attorney's fees. In addition to Hammer, she names as plaintiffs Gannett and the Citizen-Times.

There is a copy of Ihne's complaint, here. Gannett Blog readers have been chatting about it since the news was first posted, here. Hammer has not responded to my request for comment.

Earlier: Fear factor -- probing Gannett's mean-boss legacy

Got a mean boss tale to tell? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Datelines: Chicken fears, and a marijuana retailer

Datelines is an occasional roundup of news topping Gannett websites.

Salisbury, Md.: Small chicken farmers are growing wary of giant competitors. Hattiesburg, Miss.: Sen. Hillary Clinton is visiting, and the Hattiesburg American is live-blogging the event. St. Cloud, Minn.: Officials want to boost the area's below-average foster child adoption rates. Palm Springs, Calif.: Two Cathedral City residents are determined to keep their medical marijuana store open; it has up to 600 customers.

[Image: the American, Newseum]