Sunday, March 04, 2012

Feb. 27-March 4 | Your News & Comments: Part 7

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29 comments:

  1. And the not so funny stuff continues at Florida Today with the Sumday draws. Though they have cut some, they are still running 33-38 percent returns. What gives with that? Gannett has that kind of surplus money to be throwing away newsprint and ink that way? The carriers, and more importantly the stores, are tired of dealing with product they shouldn't have to be dealing with. Some of the stores are laughing at the stupidity. Some of the carriers are embarrassed and ridiculed though they are not to blame. The cut this week is lass than half of what it should be again.

    Is Florida Today the only place this is happening or are others forced to go through this? Seems like such a waste with people having to take furloughs to save money, then they throw it away on too many Sundays. It's nonsense.

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  2. This "increase in draw" starts with adding a large number of Sunday papers at the end of the month (the last Sunday of the month). The returns usually do not come back and aren’t added in until the upcoming month, therefore inflating the current months paid circulation. Once this process is stated it can never end (in a nice fashion). One will need to continue to add more and more papers every Sunday to compensate for the returns coming in from the last Sunday of the month when papers were added to the draw to increase the "sales" or paid circulation for that month. I saw this process being done at a paper in the Northeast. Once it begins and is in place for more than a year, it will take a year to cycle through. Meaning deep cuts in the draw for a 12-month period. It was a living hell where I worked. The Carriers and stores complained. The company bitched about all the wasted in paper and ink. Finally someone stepped in and took control. But, as I said it took over a year to get the draws back to where they needed to be and the “sales” numbers were in the toilet every month for that 12-month period. At the end of it all the "real" numbers weren't anything to brag about after all. They were just simply inflated numbers that started out to make one month look good. It does come back to bite you in the butt. I’m glad I don’t work there because it will be one hellva ride when they start cutting draws. The circulation manager better have his resume’ in order and out there.

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  3. 9:11 that's bull, you can change the draw for every store/location in a matter of hours if you have the right people working the ADA...co mon man
    If you took over to get it right and took you a year , you are clueless

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  4. Ahhh, if it's Saturday morning, then it's time for cranky newspaper carriers in Florida to wax grumpily about newspaper draws on this blog. Jim, how about if we punt this rather narrow and not particularly interesting discussion to its own link?

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  5. Tech Dirt: It's "suicidal" for newspapers to put up paywalls, but it will clear the way for online newcomers. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120302/04174217945/dear-big-newspapers-keep-putting-up-silly-paywalls-clear-internet-field-us-newcomers.shtml

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  6. 9:11 -- That's fascinating! I've never heard of it, but, knowing Gannett, I'm sure it happened. And I'll bet someone won an award for the idea.

    10:12 -- Of course draws can be changed quickly. That's not the point. The point is the record-keeping.

    Very cool.

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  7. I just lost five minutes of my life looking at three videos on our website that reporters, armed with their fancy new iphones, shot. One was of a city leader talking about redevelopment (I couldn't make it to the end), one was of snowfall and a snowplow (really?!) and the other; crap, I can't remember.

    And we're putting up a paywall?

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  8. 1:05&9:11 won an award for rigging the numbers?? That is something The ABC of Circulation would love to here. That is illegal, if my memory is right, I believe The Chicago Sun Times and a couple other large metro's were audited a few years ago and they found out they were inflating the numbers so they could charge advertisers more when actually they were claiming the paid circulation was thousands below what the press run's actually were. I hope you don't work in a GPS circulation plant....The award would be several thousand dollars in fines, YEA brilliant idea
    9:11 your right about having the resume in order, because that person would be toast


    HP

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  9. 9:11-I can see your point, especially if it involves hitting or missing that month, quarter or yearly bonus. Sure, it does make sense from a bonus standpoint.

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  10. Lets not forget the NIE (newspapers in education) accounts where 1000's of papers are dumped on school loading docks and later thrown away. Do the Advertisers know about them also???

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  11. Interesting to look at Cincinnati Enquirer's old school coverage of the Kentucky tornado story, in light of all of Gannett's efforts to be a cool, digi-first news organization:

    Eye-popping Flash graphic following the path of the tornadoes and where they caused destruction? Nope.

    Compelling videos from scene shot by reporters? Nope.

    ANY photos from the scene shot by reporters? Nope.

    Photos (or videos) from readers? Nope.

    Effective use of Facebook to "crowd source" and help coordinate relief efforts? Nope.

    Lots of long stories topped with timed updates, that are tedious to read? Yup.

    Huge galleries of photos (shot by staff photographers) guaranteed to get lots of page views? Yup.

    Dredging up galleries of old photos from tornado events of decades ago? Yup.

    Number of videos shot by staff videographers: 3

    Same old same old ...

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  12. Oh, I did forget one thing: While tornadoes were destroying communities Friday, the editor was using Twitter to encourage readers to download the mobile phone app to follow Enquirer coverage ...

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  13. Our small,local weekly newspaper/shopper has been lying about circulation for years.They even have preprint advertisers,such as Menard's, still shipping the thousands of extra printed copies to match the old circulation numbers.Those extras are then quickly put in the trash/recylcle.Those customers are still paying insertion costs as if the circulation had not dropped. This means they are paying thousands of dollars extra per year for preprint copies that went straight to trash.Really,that is fraud.

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  14. 9:27 PM

    Are you really shocked and appaled that this is happening?

    This has been going on since Christ was a corporal!

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  15. I was told less than 25 percent reach their real destination. That is more than an outrage. Just like the publisher at a small daily pocketing rack change. When will it end.

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  16. 9:21 PM...old school or "right school"?

    10:40 AM...and what would you rather be talking about...never ending furlough and buyout whimpering?

    So they're covering promised circulation to the pre print ad people. So all that overcharged insertion money gets thrown out with wasted paper and ink. Sounds like good business sense to me...NOT.

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  17. 8:19 PM, I would challenge anyone, especially those from corporate to give just one reason how NIE benefits the Advertiser. Please, don't use the line, "well my friend they are,

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  18. the rest of the sentence: our future readers".

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  19. Gannett has launched a new benefit website that includes the ability to estimate various pension options. The link is: https://gannett.ehr.com. Should be helpful to those considering the EROP offers.

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  20. Charles Apple at ACES weighs in on tornado coverage front pages, including three big Gannett properties: http://apple.copydesk.org/2012/03/03/eight-powerful-tornado-front-pages/

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  21. Gannett has a terrible reputation in our community now. Readers have seen how the employees are being treated. It's hard to rebuild confidence in a product, when the company has tarnished its on name in a city.

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  22. Oh please!!! What a drama queen. I've worked at the same paper for years. I've yet to hear that

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  23. Now that everyone has iPhones, does this mean the photography staff will be eliminated?

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  24. No but way to try and start a crappy rumor

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  25. @5:12pm - don't be so quick to dismiss. Most of the other consolidations that have already happened, as well as those that are in progress, started with the affected department stating, "....they can't/won't do that...." IMHO, the Newsroom (oh excuse me, Info Center) consolidations are just getting rolling......

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  26. Yeah, photographers can just ask your staff cartoonist, columnist, obituary writer and morgue clerk to tell you how the paper survives without local content and control. Sorry guys, Siri isn't such a prima donna, she'll let us crop her photos and run them whatever size we want.

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  27. I worked in different Gannett properties, for years, and I always witness acurate & precise numbers for circulation.
    The circulation numbers, of all publications, are also followed by third party companies, which further substantiate our circ-counts.

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  28. I can assure you that many games are played with Circ numbers. I seriously doubt that any paper doesn't play these games. They pretty much have to in order to slow the continuous drop in readers. People just don't read newspapers anore.

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  29. The published circulations acurately reflect any declines in traditional print newspapers.
    10:46, I think that your moral-fiber is in question, if you assume that anyone would do this.

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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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