Sunday, September 01, 2013

Aug. 26-Sept. 1 | Your News & Comments: Part 6

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48 comments:

  1. The company's drive to shoot more videos because of the good advertising rates for them apparently has gone to a new level.

    The Arizona Republic's azcentral.com now starts playing the video as soon as you click on a page. That's a jarring and obnoxious experience that's sure to turn off readers.

    But it no doubt boosts the number of video plays, even if you shut down the video quickly. (Metrics software counts it as a video play as soon as it starts, and advertisers no doubt are told just that the video played, not that it only played for a few seconds.)

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  2. Another cynical ploy for clicks: If you read a wire story under Nation on Cincinnati's website, it comes up with a USA Today byline. At the end of each story is a "Read the complete story" link, giving you the impression there's more to read. That link takes you to USA Today's site -- for the exact same story. No longer, no different. (At least the three I read.) Even worse, they are AP stories! Is every site doing this now to push readers to USA Today? I won't fall for that crap again.

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    1. Cincy website's main photo today showed a girl in a bikini with a little bit of ass crack flashing. This was next to a link for an obituary story about a trailblazing feminist reporter.

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    3. It's been like that for a long time. The nation/world blocks are just feeds to the sites, and the links are probably there to give USAT some SEO benefit.

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  3. USA Today's been doing that for a while. It's very annoying -- amateurish, too.

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  4. If you want to stop the videos from playing right away, use Firefox and install the Flashblock plug-in. The video will be blocked, and the video spot on the page will display a "play" button. You get to choose whether to play it or not.

    Flashblock also will block Flash ads, such as the ads for Deal Chicken. Talk about unintended consequences - Gannett's push for video clicks could hurt its revenues from banner ads.

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  5. I find myself not looking at the Gannett papers because of the obnoxious videos...if I want videos I can watch the Internet, tv news, all kinds of web sites. When I go to the newspapers, I want the story. I don't mind a link in the story to a video, but I don't want the video first. Especially since so many of them suck -- the shooting is horrible, you got people in the background yelling, etc...especially h.s. football...

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  6. Good suggestions, 11:32. There are several other ways to block autoplay, as well. It took me about 30 seconds to do so. The disruption from having those videos ambush me without my specific call is very annoying.

    I believe Gannett is shooting itself in the foot by using video autoplay. Already, the Apple iOS blocks the autoplay HTML5 tag on its native Safari browser, the company stating that autoplay is abusive to users on limited cellular plans. Gannett appears to be trying an end run around Apple by serving their autoplay videos from the cloud through brightcove.com. The problem is that using a cloud server isn't going to force the videos on users any better than the autoplay tag does. Outside sites can be too easily blocked from any browser or network. In fact, were I still a system administrator in a business environment, I would be tempted to block that content server from our entire network due to the disruption that such sound causes in a work environment. At home autoplay is, well, just annoying and alienating.

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  7. APP folks: did BJ get axed? Haven't seen his byline since the beginning of Aug.

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    1. Do your own homework. These kinds of chickenshit inquiries are stupid.

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  8. Gannett owned USATSI moved the wrong photo of Ichiro Suzuki’s 4000th hit. Apparently the photographer missed the real thing and moved another hit as THE hit.

    https://nppa.org/news/swing-and-hit-and-miss

    I wonder how Reuters is feeling now about jumping on the USATSI bandwagon.

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    1. WOW, just read that, 8:41:
      https://nppa.org/news/reuters-dumping-north-american-freelance-sports-photographers

      That's a big deal.
      "It's not known right now how many contract freelance photographers will be impacted by the Reuters switch, but based on the number of cities with major league franchises in football, basketball, hockey, and baseball, the number could range anywhere between 30 and 50 photographers, Blacker estimated...

      Gannett, of course, pays Thomson Reuters large annual fees for providing news and financial content to Gannett publications and now, apparently, Reuters will be paying USATSI for its live sports photography feed.

      Paying USATSI.
      But NOT the content providers (the photographers) who once again GET THE SHAFT.

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    2. 8:41 here. It’s not only the former Reuters‘ photographers who lose out, it’s also readers (or consumers in 21st century marketing speak).

      Reuters didn’t have very many clients in the US, but they employed professional photographers who knew what they were doing.

      USATSI, on the other hand, employs UPS drivers and Walgreens clerks who dabble in photography. Mistakes like the Ichiro photo are bound to happen when you go employ people who don’t know what they’re doing.

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  9. What cuts have been made in the Gannett and USAT executive ranks now that so many have been fired in the productive ranks?

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    1. You should ask Jim directly. I'm sure that he will have an informative report about that topic any day now.

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    2. Seriously? They are counting their bonuses while screwing over others with paltry raises.

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    3. None. In fact, a new VP of Advertising was just hired for the NY office at USAT. Can't have enough veeps around here.

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  10. Well,
    It is September. The end of another quarter month.
    Just when you thought you could relax,the layoffs are over and you survived yet the latest round.
    Are there any signs of an upward trend in print advertising revenue? More than likely the dive will continue just as it has in the last 5 years and the layoffs will continue. Business is business and costs have to be cut to equal the revenue losses.
    And just as in the past,you believe they can't cut anymore,yet they will find a way just as they always have.

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  11. Charles Everett9/01/2013 2:05 PM

    Daily newspapers are digging their own grave. If it isn't declining ad revenue or an aging audience, it's the fact that dailies love to beat the war drums. And newspaper people wonder why nobody reads their product any more!

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    5. Digital in same advertising boat. Desktop declining, tablet/mobile rates falling. Not good news for overstaffed unit. SMG failing to deliver also.

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  12. How important is it for a firm's leader to live in the same place as the company's home base” asks the Cincinnati Enquirer today. Then it writes, “there is an advantage to having the boss in the community as well because more often than not they take an active role as civic leaders.

    Pretty hypocritical question coming from Gannett whereby it’s CEO is headquartered in a location whereby it produces nothing but profits. Then again, maybe it's just Buchanan whining about her shrinking power.

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  13. Dear Shreveport, expect a late delivery of your newspaper. It's almost 3 ...still no paper.

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  14. Was thinking that Evan Ray might not have made all the decisions for my local paper after GPS took over distribution and circulation. My local circulation and distribution managers used to always blame Gannett headquarters for anything not customer friendly. When layoffs came the GM claimed it was out of his control. He claimed it was all part of the next step in GPS. Yet the GM got a promotion and the managers are still their. The only people that got cut were the ones that serviced the customers. Bringing in outside distribution made their jobs easier. Service didn't get better but they don't care about that.
    I believe they did have a say and chose to throw out the longtime employees to make it look like they were doing something to improve numbers. Whether it worked or not didn't matter to them.

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    1. The VP's of GPS call the shots, he is a puppet with a over paid salary, he no doubt has some dirt on Dickey and Gracia

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    2. That's what I meant by the General managers got promotions at GPS. They are now the Vice Presidents in charge of different regions then they replaced them by hiring new General Managers. The hourly workers got cut in the name of saving money while the Vice Presidents got more money plus the added cost of hiring new General Managers some of them never worked for Gannett or GPS before. They didn't save money they cut employees to line their own pockets.

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  15. Aaron Barrett to the rescue.

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    1. Found it odd on my linked in account I had a hearst VP reading my profile. I still work for Gannett.

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    2. Hearst is hiring all kinds of Gannett people, just look at The Hearst Corp. web site and press release's

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  17. Florida Today's "we deliver all papers" concept just took a slap Sunday as the press came up on time and immediately went down for an hour. That means all the carriers...especially single copy who now deliver all the papers in the county were an hour later in deliveries. Most didn't get done until 7-9 am. Great plan Gannett/Florida Today.

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  18. Well that is what happens when you don't maintain a press. Just move the rest of the printing to another central Fl printer. Its time to put that press out of its misery!

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    1. My paper has spent untold millions on the presses, tower conversions, numerous cut downs, etc., etc., and they're run and maintained by a bunch of clowns. All the really good guys were laid off. Yeah, sure you can run presses this big on a daily basis with a bunch of part-timers and treat them like dirt. Just don't be surprised what happens; and it will happen. Doesn't OSHA have a minimum for press crews?

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    2. The answer would be NO, SIR
      GPS can rif any press op, and keep who they want. End of story

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    3. Not quite, in a Union shop layoffs go by seniority.

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    4. OSHA has nothing to do with unions, and as far as seniority, that's a joke, all the old guys I work with are not worth what they are paid and don't do shit

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  19. Fla Today press run by clown GM

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    1. That's insulting clowns all over the world,

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  20. From top to bottom GPS is managed by clowns.

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    1. From the very top, Ray, Dickey and the rest of the Veeps, how ever the remaining Production guys who still work gor GPS are pretty sharp guys, and the folks under them bust ass daily to keep things going. We have rifed so many people, at our site we are down to a very limited crew off pressman and supervisors. We are not clowns, we are doing the best we can with not much help from the guys at the top

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    2. GPS gained a bunch a clowns when USAT Production/Advertising group was integrated in. That group is a frigin' side show with it's own dog & pony act. Not sure what USAT Production/Advertising brings to the table besides heartburn and headaches.

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    3. And yet somehow they are able to produce a newspaper EVERY SINGLE DAY for the last 31 years. Right, must be terrible!

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