Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Nov. 28-Dec. 4 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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40 comments:

  1. I recall being reprimanded when our site started including comments with stories a few years back. It was easy to see the writing on the wall when the first wave of comments started rolling in. I expressed concerns over the tone of racist, vindictive comments and questioned how they sparked community involvement in a positive way. Rather bluntly, I was told to sit down and shut up because comments were the thing of the future and would help establish the web site. Guess they weren't.

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  2. Ok get something straight, Craig was just paid 37.1 mil as an exit package and now we have to pay for it....yes folks we are paying for that with furloughs.... I CALL FOR A ONE DAY SHUT DOWN OF ALL THE PRESSES....Don't be fooled by Dickey's memo....stand up and fight!!!!!!!!! We PAID CRAIG 37.7 million dollars....yes...37.7 million dollars to leave after 6 YEARS of service? What the heck? I call for dis-occupy Gannett for one edition...refuse to run the Newsroom, Pre-press and the presses...come on guys screw them because you are next in line to get notice in the second Q that you job is gone...it is amazing they have to nerve to pull a move thinking employees would not notice that they GAVE CRAIG 37,100,000 AS AN EXIT PACKAGE....stand up folks you just got screw by Dickey!!!
    STOP THE PRESSES IN THE NAME OF GREED!!!!!!! We need to band together and shut it down to prove a point!!!

    I am an unhappy employee and I will spread the word to shut it down in protest of the 37.1 mil to one person which all of us as everyday employees are paying for!!!!

    The date for shut down will be posted ASAP...

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  3. 7:03 Stop. I paid for your job with my job two years ago. Just stop.

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  4. 7:14 I don't think so...we all paid for our jobs working 50+ hours and get paid for 40....blame Mr. Craig for your job which he got a bonus for the cut....

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  5. I agree with 7:03 you hit it right on the head!!!

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  6. Florida Today is starting their Facebook sign in on the 5th. 49 comments on the story and all but a couple are against, with most saying they are disgusted with FT and am now going to quit the paper/online version altogether. Their kickback from FB won't be enough to make up for the lost page views now. Seems like another "great" plan by non newspaper people.

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  7. The iPad was developed faster than these a**hats have been able to unmanage the company for 4 flippin years. Shame, shame.

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  8. A poster yesterday wrote about Des Moines and it's subsidiaries still being in the layoff scenario.
    I have heard some of this as well.
    Any other comments?

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  9. Last night on Glee, Sue Sylvester takes a phone call from someone at USA Today and announces it's "the newspaper for people who can't read." I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants.

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  10. Heard some interesting scuttlebutt this morning regarding Brevard. Could an EE change be in the works? Replacement name I heard was... Silverman! Anyone else hearing this?

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  11. Breaking: Buffett just bought the Omaha World-Herald Co.

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  12. This is the kicker from yesterday's NTYtimes story about the back-stabbing corporate culture at Zynga. The same could be said of Gannett.

    “We’ve learned that when companies treat talent as a commodity, the consequences are severe,” said Ms. Toledano of Electronic Arts. “It takes years to repair a reputation.”

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  13. Jim, you should try to get some pictures from the "occupy The Star" protest in Indy today. Held across the street from the publisher's corner office window and on the same day the corporate attorney was in town to try to stick the Guild with another bad contract. Contact Guild prez Bobby King at the Star for details.

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  14. Jim, is there anything to the rumors in Brevard about top editorial changes?

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  15. 9:51, I heard that same thing myself about Brevard last week. Wonder if Silverman would actually take over Brevard after his last gig ended so abruptly at Nashville.

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  16. And now we have a new President of USAT Travel. Revenue down, hiring way up. Makes sense.

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  17. 3:04 I can't add anything to those rumors, other than the following:

    Brevard's weekday circulation is 59,000.

    Nashville, Silverman's last editing gig, is at 121,000.

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  18. how about taking down the blog part with the naked chic photos- NASTY

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  19. Speaking of buying newspapers... Gannett has removed ALL of its papers' individual infrastructure and replaced it with centralization. So explain to me how they could ever even try to sell a site, since individually, they are incapable of operating without rebuilding their local structure. Doesn't this make each site sort of worthless?

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  20. . The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y., where morning circulation plunged 38% over the last six years, according to a review of Gannett's annual reports.

    All under the world of Tony Simmons, who deserves to be fired. Instead they move him
    to Kentucky. What a joke.

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

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  22. There is definitely something afoot in Brevard. Top editors look like dead men walking.

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  23. 4:28 - What makes you think that any individual Gannett newspaper is worth anything now? If Gannett ever sells itself, it will be sold as a whole, not in parts. Of course, it also means that no corporate raider will ever want to buy Gannett to then break it up and sell off the pieces - since the pieces will be worthless!

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  24. Jim, you should add a furlough alert button to your sidebar with the layoff alert button. My suggestion for the sound: either a wah-wah-wah or a whoopie cushion ... just a thought ...

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  25. 5:25 p.m. - LOL. I love the "wah, wah, wah."

    I propose Hugo Montenegro's version of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" theme song.

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  26. @ 9:09 a.m. - All I know about Des Moines is that they clearly said in their FAQs that there will be some positions eliminated (read attrition and layoffs, too, I bet) but nothing "division-wide." I assume that means whole departments will not be eliminated, but maybe a few positions here and there.

    What have you heard?

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  27. Maybe the time is indeed up for the top folks at Brevard. And wasn't Silverman there not long ago on some sort of "official" visit?

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  28. Maybe the gaggle of clueless Brevard managers will follow their fearless leaders out the door.

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  29. Florida Today, what a sham.
    More furloughs, what a laugh- you've got to pay for those bonuses somehow.
    work peons work!!!!!

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  30. 6:09
    Heard a few weeks ago that a manager let it slip
    that some tentative lists be ready.
    Nothing more than that.

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  31. So far, nearly 500 reader comments on this announcement on sctimes.com: And most of them NOT happy.

    IMO, page views and unique visitors, on which Gannett establishes pricing for online ad sales, is going to totally tank with the "Facebook-required" comments strategy: (Even LESS revenue potential going forward....) And any Gannett executive who tries to tell you this won't happen is smokin' something or drunk from the corporate Kool-Aid!!!

    -------

    To our readers:
    Starting Dec. 7, you will notice a change to our online story commenting system on www.sctimes.com.

    We will be using Facebook-based comments on articles to create a more civil environment for conversation, and to give everyone an easier way to share with their friends.
    The new system requires a Facebook account to participate in comment threads.
    For more details, check out our FAQs.
    To discuss this new feature, please feel free to comment on this story online at www.sctimes.com or join the conversation on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stcloudtimes.
    John Bodette
    Executive editor

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  32. You gotta love how Gannett is top-heavy with managers and top-heavy with pundits. This morning USA Today published a soft and mushy piece by Mike Lopresti about Duke basketball ... which lost big last night at Ohio State. Naturally this bigfoot columnist doesn't bring up the fact that Coach K openly admires the now-disgraced Joe Paterno.

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  33. Nobody at Florida Today is going anywhere. All the changes are working and the leadership is strong. Hold your heads up and be positive, we are true survivors and things are looking up.

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  34. I've heard some rumors from some of my contacts still in Gannett that they are trying to make it harder for folks to apply for unemployment. UI is governed by state laws under federal guidance. Each state is different on their rules. The majority have a 1 week waiting period before benefits can be paid, but it's not necessarily the first week. You still want to apply so that if there's another furlough in the next 12 months, you'd then get a payment.

    Exempt, non-exempt and outside sales people have different rules. Exempts must take their furlough a PAYROLL week at a time. For most GCI sites, that's Sun-Sat. Makes it very easy to apply for UI. Plus the reason is lack of work on the company's part, so it should be approved by the state.

    For non-exempts and outside sales, you can take it one day at a time. That's where it gets sticky. They have to consider what you are paid in wages during the week as part of the UI process. So if you only take one day in a week, you're getting paid for 32 hours, so you will probably not qualify for UI. Your manager may say that you have to spread your time out over the quarter because they can only have X people out on any single day. If that's the case, then that's how they can prevent you from collecting UI.

    Just remember it's still your right to apply.

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  35. 9:51 You are correct. For the past couple of years I have encouraged people to apply for UI. My state has a rolling 12 month period, not a calendar year, so as long as I take my furlough within the 12 months of the prior year furlough I received UI. Unfortunately some non-exempt can't afford to take a week at a time so they are stuck. And I understand some exempt sales people take a day at a time so they don't lose a week's worth of commissions.

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  36. 9:51 Thanks for the helpful comments. Big G will even kick you when you're down.

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  37. To me, it seems clear that Silverman, who I think is about 61 years old, is on the glide path to retirement. After Gary Watson left Gannett, Silverman lost his last big supporter at Corporate. The reign of terror + error he inflicted on Gannett's papers is about to end.

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

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  39. Jim, can you delete 2:08's comment for obscenities?

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

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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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