Thursday, September 15, 2011

Sept. 12-18 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

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49 comments:

  1. No wonder I woke up in a bad mood.

    My Boss said...

    Happy Birthday Gracia!
    9/15/2011 7:02 AM

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  2. I see that the Miami Harold has sold that building & will be out within lesss than 2 years
    What about the FLORIDA TODAY building- there isn't really anything left in it- when will it dicipate--new format came out this morning looks just like the Orlando Sentinnel format- they already took over the printing of USA TODAY from this plant- when will the Orlando Sentinnel start printing the Florida Today--my guess would be the beginning of the year.

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  3. The quarter is nearly over,just 2 more publishing weeks.Are there any sites that have
    not had very weak,even terrible quarters?
    Here,even comparing to low revenue standards,it is much worse.

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  4. Remember Mr. Smith from the JJ Cooke debacle. Mr. Smith responds back, in print today.

    http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20110915/NJOPINION0201/309150003/Reader-responds-critical-columnist?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

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  5. Florida Todays new format came out today and we love the "fart ad" on page 3

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  6. Is anyone surprised that circulation is DOWN across Gannett? The CUSTOMER is asked to purchase a product that is: Smaller in size, less content, fewer folks covering the news, giving the content away on the internet and on and on?

    The only thing that has increased this past year at Gannett is the CEO's pay -- up 49 percent!!

    Oh, I forgot that new program: DEAL CHICKEN!! How creative....

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  7. I clicked on the Deal Chicken thing on the Des Moines Register Web site a couple days ago and they were promoting something I might like to get. Found out that Deal Chicken has more fine print than the documents did when I bought my house. Will never go back to that.

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  8. That's page 3 of the new STYLE section.

    Florida Today has the same problem
    "oops"
    more layoffs!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  9. So what's with this deal between Florida Today and orlando Sentinel? They are owned by different people right? It wasn't that many years ago that the OS was in trouble themselves. Are they really a company/paper we want to entrust our future with...or has Gannett really thrown Florida Today under the bus? This whole ordeal has true believers in the newspaper industry really sick.

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  10. I recently saw Gracia on a CSPAN broadcast - Very unimpressive answering softball questions.

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  11. Why did the cheicken cross the road? To get a better deal?

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  12. Maybe Gannett sould say they are going to build Solar Newspapers and apply for Government money!

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  13. Did I read this right? Gannett bought a group of 21 papers, 8 in Wisconsin and some in Ohio for 1.2 Billion..fact or fiction

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  14. 4:12, are you sure you aren't reliving the year 2000?

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  15. Florida Today is selling out to the competitor, The Orlando Sentinnel took USA TODAY from Florida Today, it went from 2 presses down to one,they laid off those press guys & let go of it's prepress dept., the finance dept is shrinking, as is the newroom in October, the new format will fit in nicely with the Orlando Sentinnel. Also, they closed their commercial print shop. The management that is left is moving towards this transition probably by the end of the year.

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  16. I love the knuckleheads on here who don't even realize that Florida Today had and does not have anything to do with USAT's decision to move printing to Orlando. You need to aim your arrows farther up the foodchain on that decision (HINT: Corporate and Hunke) on that one.

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  17. Correction to above post. I meant Florida Today NEVER had and DOES NOT have anything to do with decision to move USAT printing

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  18. This just in:

    A Message From:

    Craig A. Dubow
    Chairman
    Chief Executive Officer

    Dear Co-workers:
    I want to let you know that I will be taking a leave of absence to address continuing issues relating to my prior medical conditions. Gracia Martore, our president and chief operating officer, will serve as principal executive officer during my absence as she did during a prior medical leave in 2009. Attached is the press release that has just been issued.
    While this is a difficult personal situation, the Board and I are very confident in Gracia and Gannett’s superb management team and talented employees. Gannett won’t miss a beat as we continue to position the company for a successful future.
    Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to Gannett. It is greatly appreciated.
    Craig

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  19. Following up on 5:09

    http://seekingalpha.com/news-article/1842340-gannett-chairman-and-ceo-to-take-medical-leave-of-absence

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  21. Interesting choice of words, “Gannett won’t miss a beat.” In recent years, Gannett has missed the beat, the boat, and the road to a successful future.

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  22. 4:59, can you say that corporate and Hunke also decided that pre-press and in-house print shop had to go also?

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  23. Why wouldn't Craig just retire? He's got more money than he could possibly spend. Get out of the way and let someone else steer the boat.

    Is anyone else surprised that the board didn't just nudge him out? There has to be more to this story.

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  24. 6:07 pm Agreed. I think it's an odd press release.

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  26. Oh bother, another bean counter running the company.

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  27. "...the Board and I are very confident in... Gannett’s superb management team and talented employees." Wow. They sure have a strange way of demonstrating it -- e.g., not a single "co-worker's" life's work lost by lack of performance, merit nor experience, but by sterile numbers applied carte blanche, nothing measured, files and files of annual reviews.

    With the type of confidence Mr. Dubow blathers on about, one can only wonder whether such gushy trust between all the "love you, man" crap, is the product of some "it's past 12 noon" liquor cabinet.

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  28. Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester new york is laying off all truck drivers on October 10th 2011 and will sub-contract all runs to Wolf News.... One week severance pay for each year employed nice going Gannett.

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  29. Additionally (by 6:23). If Dubow had cared about a "difficult personal situation" for anyone else, he would have resigned. But I'm fairly this guy sleeps all... night... long.

    Really, to be fair. Why shouldn't some CEO reaping in record millions every year? Sprawling pad. Pain meds. He's got health insurance. How many of the laid off have that?

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  30. Craig Sevier9/15/2011 6:51 PM

    When they "got rid" of the structure of local folks as individual contractors filling up racks here in Reno, Nev., there was a nearly instant result. Empty racks.

    No, an effort was made to survey this problem. Employees were enlisted. Morale was so low, few responded. I responded; I live in this. I got some "award" for reporting the most empty racks. It think it was cup of coffee or something. Such motiviation!

    They had to work for USA Today, the people loading up their vehicles with papers in the wee hours, not the RGJ.

    So rack sales plummeted with this change. So did subscriptions. When a subscriber was missed in delivery (again, the same switch), they would avail their selves to the stand on the corner. Right out side my residence's door.

    And now it's hard to find a stand at all. It's fairly stupid. The population is aging; they LIKE their newspaper. They have MONEY.

    Say what one might about market studies (which I think are automatically weighted to their employer's hoped-for results, so that's what I say... and I've seen it.)

    Lots of people in my neighb' which comprises a great mix of low-income but intelligent college types and and upper-income retired folks.

    When that RGJ rack disappeared (it was right on my corner), already the only left in about a mile on a major thoroughfare, these people banged on my door since lots of people knew I worked there "forever." .. RGJ parking sticker on my vehicle.

    I said I have nothing to do with that. It was kinda sad. Called the Circ Director. No dice. Typical Gannett. Again.

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  31. Just saw an APNews Now: Dubow going on medical leave.

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  32. Hello "ROCHESTER"

    Michael Kane is out of ?>"king control!.
    Who is going next in the EAST GROUP????

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  33. 6:07 et al are right. If he had any common sense, he would remember that life is short, he is very rich and get out.

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  34. Anyone else notice how we all seem to be going around in circles. Dubow takes a leave, and there's speculation here he's going to retire. Didn't he already do that two years ago, and he's still there and now heading off for another back operation.
    It's like this place is run by Zombies, the Night of the Living Dead. God what a prospect of reliving this over and over again, ad infinitem.

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  38. Crotchfelt has given the green light to three layoffs tomorrow. I was told to keep it low key and the explanation to staff is redundancy. I sense more will come next month.

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  40. 9:55 PM Where are you from?

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  41. Guess CD found a way to get out of the upcoming corporate visit to Paywall Central in N. Fla. The golf courses suck there, anyway.

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  42. I don't believe CD's pain is in his back.
    I think it's in his neck, after reading the Blasted Blog's spin yesterday on circ. losses being the equivalent of 37 mid-size papers!

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  43. Buy Yahoo, Gracia.
    The Chrystal will break much sooner.

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  45. It's the Oxycotin talking...

    "...the Board and I are very confident in... Gannett’s superb management team and talented employees." Wow. They sure have a strange way of demonstrating it -- e.g., not a single "co-worker's" life's work lost by lack of performance, merit nor experience, but by sterile numbers applied carte blanche, nothing measured, files and files of annual reviews.

    With the type of confidence Mr. Dubow blathers on about, one can only wonder whether such gushy trust between all the "love you, man" crap, is the product of some "it's past 12 noon" liquor cabinet.

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  46. What's going on with Michael Kane?

    Hello "ROCHESTER"

    Michael Kane is out of ?>"king control!.
    Who is going next in the EAST GROUP????

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  47. Inside info has it that FT is in the making of a transition, I think I would go with the knuckleheads on this one.

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  48. Closing printing plants and having other companies print is the new Gannett format. Wait to see what happens in 6 months. We are moving so fast away from print is mind blowing. Just think, only pay for printing and shipping. No payroll, no benefits, no up keep on older presses, shall I go on
    The Happy pressman

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