Sunday, September 09, 2012

Sept. 3-9 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

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31 comments:

  1. I submitted my acceptance paperwork for the Detroit EROP. While it will be a few weeks before we hear back I'm amazed at how my stress level is rapidly melting away just knowing that I may be out soon.

    I've had a backup plan in place but I have been waiting for the possibility of a buyout offer. Now that the EROP is a reality I am so looking forward to my life outside Gannett.

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  2. 6:10 - You have no idea how much your life is going to improve. You're going to wonder why you waited so long. Good luck!!

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  6. I was not eligible for the buyout. Would have taken it if I was. At 54, it's not easy to quit w/ out a paycheck or job lined up. Still looking, but there's not a lot of options. Don't blame those who have gotten out, but those who criticize us who have stayed should pump their breaks just a bit.

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  8. An interesting take on how we all have to work through our grief and bitterness about the industry that collapsed.

    http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/bitterness-is-like-wreaking-revenge-on-yourself/

    Many have no option but to slog along as the trains collide; others have been able to get some training and find other careers.

    Buttry spends a bit too much time defending a company that is among the worst of the bottom feeders. But he is a practical guy who is at an age where he needs to hang on as long as he can. Hope his pension does not get thrown on the shoulders of the federal gov't, like those of the rank and file workers.

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  9. I start my new job Monday.... whooohoooo

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    1. Let's guess 6:34 more money, great boss and better benefits. Yea, yea, yea we've heard it before. See ya

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  11. More evidence the Gannett New Jersey Newspaper Group is continuing to struggle.
    1. The Home News Tribune folded its sister weeklies in July.
    2. The Courier News folded its sister weeklies in July.
    3. Gannett folded the Islander, which covered from the Bayshore in Monmouth County to Berkeley in Ocean County, on a weekly basis during the summer.
    4. One fulltime sports writer resigned and was not replaced.
    5. One fulltime sports writer was shifted to the copy desk and not replaced, leaving the Asbury Park Press (also known as the Hollis Towns and Tom Donovan Mess) short two writers during its peak high school season.

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  12. Gannett continues to destroy the Asbury Park Press.
    For the first time in history, the Press went to question and answer features on each high school football team in its preview issue. Used to be a time when Press writers "penned" nice feature stories on each team. The Q and A format is juvenile and unprofessional. It lacks depth.
    Smells like Hollis Towns to me.

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  13. Opps, almost forgot. NA NA NA NA

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  14. 6:35 I remove comments that attempt to guess the identity of anonymous posters.

    If someone wants to sign their comments with their real name, they can. But if they sign it Anonymous, I'll honor that request.

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  15. The Asbury Park Press sports staff broke its back putting out its annual high school football preview issue.
    Did Gannett make sure each writer received a copy of the issue?
    Not a chance.
    Great going, Gannett.

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  16. 6:44, it could be that readers actually prefer that kind of approach, since it breaks up the text and makes the story more user-friendly. As opposed to making them work through a writer's masterly "prose." But, then again, who cares about what the readers think, right? It's all about the writers gratifying their egos.

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  17. Demographics for Ocean and Monmouth counties in N.J. are pretty good. These residents are not dumb and little by little are dumping the Asbury Park Press and subscribe to the New York Times. They know their link to local news has been broken by Gannett's greed and malfeasance. What a shame. It was once one of the best regional papers in the country (while privately owned).

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  18. If they were trying to guess my name, well it Dane Kammerer, I loved working for Gannett for many many years up until the recent "GPS" changes. So I left.
    When you place new people into top managment position instead of using the people that have grown with the company over 15 - 20 years nothing good will will ever become of it.

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  19. BEN BURNS, R.I.P.

    "Mr. Burns, former executive editor and chief administrative editor of The Detroit News and head of the journalism department at Wayne State University, died Friday after a long battle with a rare blood disorder. He was 72."

    From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120907/OBITUARIES/209070417#ixzz25yYMbwRk

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  20. Randy Lovely, editor of the Arizona Republic, writes again today about everything the paper is doing to justify higher subscription rates for print and an online paywall that starts tomorrow.

    He again gets ripped in the reader comments. The comment rated "best" by Republic readers:

    Cancelled my subscription Thursday. I only wanted the Sunday and Wednesday paper. AzCentral online was fun but not worth the money.

    http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/09/08/20120908arizona-republic-changes-lovely.html

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  21. Buried in Randy Lovely's letter to readers today is a statistic that should send chills down the spines of Gannett stockholders:

    "It's essential that we serve the array of information consumers. Many are committed newspaper readers. Others not so much, but they are loyal to azcentral.com. Most, however, navigate seamlessly between print and digital over the course of the day."

    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/20120908arizona-republic-changes-lovely.html

    The key statement: "most navigate seamlessly between print and digital."

    The Republic's last ABC report shows a circulation of 320,000 in a metropolitan area with 1.6 million households. That's a market penetration of just 20 percent.

    If most of azcentral's readers also are newspaper readers, then azcentral isn't doing its job, which is to reach younger readers who don't care for a printed newspaper and represent the company's future. Ideally, azcentral should have a larger audience than the Republic, just as nytimes.com has a larger audience than the New York Times in print.

    A market penetration of 20 percent just won't cut it with advertisers who want to reach the entire Phoenix market. If azcentral doesn't add to that number, then the advertisers will go elsewhere.

    The paywall is going to hurt that effort even more, because young readers simply won't pay for digital access. They'll bypass the paywall or go elsewhere.

    The Republic is one of Gannett's biggest properties, responsible for something around 15 percent of total revenues. This dismal performance by azcentral is a bad, bad sign for the company's future.

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  22. Make that 15 percent of the total revenues for Bob Dickey's newspaper division.

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  23. 1:04, at least you're trying to join the prison break and find another job. That's an important first step. Gannett will toss you overboard at the next opportunity, which will most likely come after paywalls are instituted and readers learn to live without their local Gannett rags. Speed up your networking and size up the transferability of your skills to other fields. You'd be amazed at how people in other industries love to get their hands on writers and editors. Law firms, hospitals, government agencies, non-profit organizations, universities, etc.

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  24. I have three children all between the ages of 25-38. Between them one is a Doctor, one with a MBA and another in IT. Although they were brought up in a home which received a newspaper daily, none of them subscribe to or ever have to a newspaper. Each of them have said to me that they would never pay for news they receive for free over the internet. Give it another 5, 10, 15 years and we'll be looking at a large loss in newspaper readers. I think we all know it, so why do we keep trying to pretend like it's never going to happen? And do you really believe the ipad and iphone will be the batons that are passed to make it happen and be the saving of the industry? Almost laughable, every baton will be dropped before it even reaches the 2nd runner.

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  25. The more Lovely and Zidich talk about how great the paper is (the online paper), the less people believe them. Did they just recently fall in love with the paper?

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  26. I've been reading about Patch employees who are disgruntled over the amount of hours they have to work and their small freelance budgets. I guess you "journalists" are always angry at someone or something.

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  28. At what point will retail stores stop providing space for newspapers? There's no profit, and while there was once a point to suggesting papers drove customers into the store but the recent push to the digital component makes me wonder when retailers will stop providing prime space near the register?

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  29. Newspapers may be something of a loss leader at retail. For some of us, a coffee, roll and newspaper were the way we started the day.

    Here's an idea: Get Don Draper to be an industry advocate for paid content.

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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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