Saturday, January 11, 2014

Jan. 6-12 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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48 comments:

  1. The stock is going up,Gannett keep buying broadcast!

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    1. The stock is going down - look again!

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    2. Stock going up and down daily . Not good.

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  2. I have lost track,sorry.
    When does the last quarter financial get reported ?
    That will also give the 2013 final as well correct ?
    Is there speculation of a good ,strong , profitable year or will
    layoffs be on the horizon again as with so many other quarters
    with budget short falls /

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    1. Jim - as the dismal newspaper results are eventually reported, a recap of the promises made as the sales division was thrust into the realm of "World Class Sales" would be an interesting read. I recall stats from Phx indicating the millions of dollars that would be generated if sales teams just adopted this mission. It's been a couple of years now since the Winthrop Group sucked millions of dollars in consulting fees from GCI for this debacle. And what does the company have to show for it? Massive turnover, poor results and a whole lot of nothing.

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    2. I hope management didn't spend millions on the Winthrop Group. If so, what a waste. We lost good veteran people at our site this past year due to layoffs.

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    4. 5:01 I remove comments that include the word "troll."

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  3. Anyone know how GPS Minneapolis is doing? From what I've heard it was a rough year last year.

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    1. Yes, stands to reason that someone would know how they're doing.

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    2. Outstanding, just like the rest of our Production Centers, Raises for everyone again this year, just like the last 4 years

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    3. GPS in Minneapolis not doing so well. First of all they, just like many of the other PS are losing Advertising print jobs and these are large print jobs. The GPS found new visitors when the USA Today crew of the Minneapolis Market sold their building in Shoreview and moved in with them in 2012. Then our great management team decided to move the Circulation Director of USAT. The 1st move was with the Circulation Director to Des Moines Register, one of the two Circulation Managers was moved to Appleton and the 3rd Circulation Manager has the responsibilities of handling USA Today and is the Circulation Manager at the Saint Cloud Times. Must be a lot of fun doing both jobs for the price of one (bend over). Then there were some other jobs cut like an IT person and some full-time customer service people from the department. As you all are aware all the GM's lost their position and were moved backwards into their best skill set. The GPS in Minneapolis does have the printing of The St. Clouds Times which helps. The Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune are delivering most of the USA Today's single copy and home deliver which helped Gannett remove 8 District Sales Managers positions from the Minneapolis Market. 5 years ago there were 10 DSM positions. The question now is what will they do with the last two DSM? Them there's Marketing. Well, you can figure it out. As Sonny & Cher would say, "and the beat goes on, and on, and on, and". Good luck to the Minneapolis Markets and Gannett's Maple Wood Print Sight. Good luck, you'll need it.

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  4. Great ethics here....steal the idea, art and try to get away with it in a national publication?
    http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/235439/usa-today-apologizes-for-lifting-weather-map/

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    1. Nation Now is staffed by amateurs and wanna bees with virtually no oversight. It is appalling.

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    2. Indeed. Amateur hour.

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    3. This happens when you put people with no journalism experience under a lot of production pressure. We were all dumb once but most of us knew it and were lucky enough to have old-timers around who reminded us frequently. But they also taught us the right way. All these folks hear is how great they're doing.

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  5. How many papers does Gannett own in Jersey? And The Bergen Record breaks the Christie story? Geez, Maddow had been hinting at it for weeks. Any reporters left?

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    1. Charles Everett1/10/2014 9:23 AM

      NorthJersey.com broke the GW Bridge scandal.

      Also, "The Bergen Record" does not exist -- the correct name is simply The Record.

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    2. nothjersey.com is the Bergen Record website

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    3. Gannett owns six papers in N.J.

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    4. At least The Record prints several Gannett papers at The Rockaway Production facility, including USAT

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    5. Coverage of many topics has been scaled back under Butterfly and Picasso, including transportation, until it gets too big to ignore. Then management expects miracles. Older reporters who once were on the projects team and regularly covered issues like the port authority are being marginalized in favor of younger, eye candy who were hired by HT. To its credit, The Record of Bergen has been kicking everyone's ass on the GWB and Christie. At least they haven't given up on real journalism.
      Discrimination in the workplace and losing readers? It's all in reach

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    7. The guy at GNJ who's in charge of coming up with Big Story Ideas (which he just cribs from other papers anyway) was a flop at the old News Tribune, practically killed the old Courier News, and only got this gig because he actually had an idea that worked at the Morristown Daily Record. But even that was only good for one day a week, for a short period of time. And it has not translated well.

      And HT brought with him from Cinty a reputation of being a mediocre manager (at best) and a self-described asshole (at worst).

      So when two-thirds of the active newsroom management team (Mr. Watchdog is too busy writing blockbuster mystery novels these days) is steeped in mediocrity, what do you expect the final result to be?

      Add to that the fact that HT has no idea whatsoever of how to delegate responsibilities, or how to choose people to delegate those responsibilities to, and is really clueless about what to look for in a new hire (besides a nice ass), then you've got yourself a perfect storm of fail.

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  6. The Records coverage area includes the area hit by the bridge closure, so it makes sense that they would be on top of the story.
    If it happened in the area of one of the Gannett papers, well the Record or the Ledger would still break the story first.

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  7. http://blog.schaver.com/post/72870837813/why-im-quitting-journalism

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  8. The answer to The Record breaking the story is simple; The Gannett papers in northern NJ have been so decimated by staff cuts that true investigative journalism is impossible. Nor is there an appetite for it among top editors, some of whom are more concerned with marketing and fluff.

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    1. It's only going to get worse under "Picasso" and the brilliant idea to build circulation by pulling out of towns and shrinking the coverage area to 12 towns.It is sad to see the once great APP undergoing the death by 1,000 cuts. Look for circ to drop below the 100,000 mark.

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  9. So does anyone in the know have an idea of when the BELO stations will start to transition over to the Gannett "This is Home" theme and have their websites and mobile apps converted? Just curious!

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  10. Jobs posted on Careerbuilder.com tell alot about what's going on in Gannett - openings for "Regional Account Managers" and "Topics Reporters" in Shreveport, LA - Passion topics. etc - Good luck to those left behind......

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  11. Shreveport Times had a bowling party tonight for community members. Nobody showed up!

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    1. We don't care about bowling!!!! We don't want to meet the publisher or editor !!!! We want a quality newspaper that gives us investigative reports, news about our community - not Monroe, Lafayette or Opelousas - about a 10th of the 6-column photos of society parties, consistent coverage of topics that include city hall, religion, education, business, opinion, ... Is this too much to ask? Lose the gimmicks or continue to lose the readers.

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    2. Bowling is fun. Try it, you'll like it!

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    3. But Gannett is all about gimmicks now. You're going to hurt someone's feelings. The editor is trying so hard to make this paper relevant again.

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  12. 5 of Gannett's 6 N.J. papers are printed in their Freehold facility.
    Everything in N.J. runs through there, except for the paper printed in Cherry Hill.

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    1. Still printing in Cherry Hill because it is a union shop?

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    2. How much power does the unions have in NJ, or for that matter in the over all structure of Gannett?

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  13. You never even hear about The Times in Shreveport anymore. It's like it doesn't exist. Weird.

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    1. It's not so weird.

      I pick it up off the driveway every morning when I walk the dog. I then give it to my wife who spends no more than 10 minutes looking at it. I never look at it anymore. I watched it dying for several years and now The Times really doesn't exist anymore.

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    2. Couldn't disagree more about the Shreveport Times. As a former longtime Gannett staffer in another area, I like some of the changes that have been put in place recently and find the reporting lately to be exceptional. I see more copies around town and I believe your assessment of the Times's demise to be way too premature.

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    3. 9:57 AM, as a community member who never worked at The Times, I can assure you that yours is not the sentiment of the community at large.

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    4. As a 40 year resident of Shreveport, Bossier City I agree with 10:47 AM

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    5. Former Times news staff employee and current Shreveport resident here. And, NO, I was not fired by The Times and my employment ended by my own decision over 20 years ago when I pursued another field. So, I have no animosity toward anyone currently at The Times or Gannett.

      Could be the reason 9:57 sees copies of the Times around town is the recent push by the paper to get readers by delivering free copies of the "Voices" section with ad inserts to every driveway possible. Those copies are scattered all over town, still laying there unread each week. I see them constantly and wonder why no one has complained about the litter being tossed out by The Times. That's about the only reason anyone could state they see "more copies around town".

      Furthermore, the only person who could consider the reporting currently found in The Times to be "exceptional" would be someone who lacks any real knowledge of what constitutes quality reporting. The current level of quality being displayed at The Times is why the paper has become so irrelevant to the residents of the area.

      The Times that was no longer exists. The Times that is...well, it's The Times in name only.



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  14. Not much Richard considering the only Union left in N.J. for Gannett, is in Cherry Hill and there have been rumors, for years, of them also coming over to the Freehold Facility.

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    1. The teamsters deliver the Courier-Post so it seems unlikely that printing there would shift to a non-union Gannett site.

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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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