Greenville | Print plant shuttered; 117 jobs lost

Gannett has reached an agreement with Halifax Media Group to print South Carolina's Greenville News and North Carolina's Asheville Citizen-Times at Halifax printing plants in Spartanburg and Gastonia, N.C., starting around April 1, the News disclosed today.

The two papers are now printed in downtown Greenville.

The move, part of a broader cost-saving strategy to consolidate printing at Gannett and non-Gannett sites, will eliminate 42 full-time and 75 part-time jobs. The Asheville paper was among the first across Gannett to shutter its plant when it moved printing to Greenville in November 2008, a switch that cost 60 jobs at the time.

Carolinas | More evidence of regional dailies?

In September, the five-newspaper Louisiana group hired a regional editor -- the latest sign, I wrote at the time, that Corporate may be leaning toward creating single regional newspapers in lieu of individual ones serving specific markets.

Awtry

Today, the two-paper Carolina group announced that Josh Awtry had been promoted to regional executive editor, overseeing the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina and the The Greenville News in South Carolina. Awtry is currently the top editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

Coincidentally -- or not -- the president of the Louisiana group, Judi Terzotis, was promoted to that job after working as publisher at Fort Collins. Indeed, as of September, and even as she ran Louisiana, Terzotis was supposed to oversee Fort Collins as well.

Today's move leaves me wondering whether Terzotis is now helping Corporate export the regional editor concept to other Gannett markets. Of course, the Carolinas and Louisiana aren't the first to go this route. There are regional editors for three Central New York newspapers; six papers in New Jersey, and 10 small dailies in Ohio. Other areas ripe for regionalizing are the 10 Wisconsin papers.

Awtry will be based in Asheville. The paper's staff list currently doesn't list a top editor. Greenville's senior-most news executive, Managing Editor Chris Weston, announced last week that he was retiring after 37 years at the paper.

Asheville and Greenville are about an hour apart.

[Photo: News]

How to make a mass layoff as painful as possible; thousands of East employees are left in the dark

Including this latest one, I've covered five mass layoffs -- those involving at least hundreds of jobs -- since Gannett's first big one, in August 2008, and every one has been awful for those getting kicked to the curb, and those left behind.

But this round, which began July 29, has been perhaps the cruelest of all -- in the East Group of dozens of newspapers from New York to Florida. Here's why.

It was well underway and prominently disclosed on Gannett Blog by the time Corporate finally confirmed it on Aug. 2 in a one-sentence statement to blogger Jim Romenesko and then the Associated Press.

Kane

By Aug. 6, it appeared most newspapers had notified employees losing their jobs -- except for those in the East Group, led by President Michael Kane based at New York's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Indeed, employees at some of the group's papers were increasingly anxious, asking me in e-mail whether they might have been spared.

In a comment that day, Anonymous@1:14 p.m. wrote bitterly: "Jim, you are too casually dismissing the greatness that is Michael Kane. He is perfectly capable of being the only group president to avoid cuts by making bottomline goals."

Whack!
But the ax finally fell big time yesterday, with seven at least eight layoffs at the Rochester paper, followed by more at sites including Greenville, S.C., and Pensacola, Fla. On Wednesday, the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina lost six terrific newsroom employees.

All that brought to more than 350 the number of layoffs and open positions cut across at least 57 of nearly 80 U.S. newspaper sites, according to Gannett Blog reader estimates. Combined, those sites had about 18,000 employees at the end of last year, according to GCI's latest published figures.

Yet, I suspect more are still on the way. On a spreadsheet I've been keeping, there are at least a half dozen sites that haven't been counted, mostly in the East Group's New York and New Jersey. Also, in Wilmington, Del., The News Journal appears to have cut only two jobs in this round, according to my readers.

Now, it's still possible Kane found a way to avoid eliminating jobs at those sites by cutting travel, newsprint or other expenses. But I doubt that.

Dickey

There's been no public explanation for why the East Group has taken so long after other employees were notified starting well over three weeks ago. Was there an 11th-hour attempt to find another way to save money? Did Kane's immediate superior, U.S. newspaper division chief Bob Dickey, hold up his plan for further review? We don't know.

What's certain is Corporate was planning for this round at least since July 5, according to a reader in a position to know. In all likelihood, work began even earlier. That makes the delay across the East Group all the more puzzling.

Unusually secretive
In those four earlier mass layoffs I've covered -- including one with well over 2,000 jobs in December 2008 -- employees were told days and sometimes weeks in advance. There was little doubt every site would be hit. No one was left agonizing over whether their site would be spared. It was just a question of how many jobs would be cut.

This time, Corporate has been especially chary with information, refusing to announce the layoffs in advance, even though it was clear word had already leaked. And when Corporate finally confirmed the truth, top executives refused to provide specifics, including the number of jobs. Contrast that with the last mass layoff in June 2011, where Dickey sent a memo announcing 700 jobs were being eliminated.

But most cruel: Dickey and Kane allowed thousands of his group's employees to watch what was rolling out across the rest of the newspaper division west of the Eastern Seaboard, prolonging their anxiety for weeks and weeks. If Dickey and Kane would like to explain the circumstances, we'd welcome hearing from them.

In the meantime, we're certainly hearing from those in the field.

PNJ's 'heart and soul'
At the Pensacola News Journal, Anonymous@12:48 this morning wrote eloquently of one particular employee's exit.

"Heart and soul Managing Editor Ginny Graybiel is sacked in so-called layoff," they wrote. "With 37 years at the PNJ, Graybiel's leadership bringing the powerbrokers and arrogant burghermeisters in this unbelievably corrupt town and county to heel has been legendary and an inspiration to a small but dedicated staff.

"A tireless editor who logged 80 hours a week shepherding a dismantled Gannett property to greatness week to week with ideas, great editing and lots of bloody verve, she's rewarded with a lame sacking."

Corporate reportedly is about to raise print newspaper subscription rates again nationwide in a bid to boost overall revenue when advertising revenue continues to fall. That it would take this step so soon after cutting deeper into the marrow of news production is a sign of desperation. It sure doesn't look like a winning strategic plan.

Is your site here?
An estimated 360 351 352 jobs have now been eliminated at 57 of about 80 newspapers since the current round of layoffs began July 29, according to the latest reports from Gannett Blog readers.

Please check this read-only spreadsheet, then post your site's current information in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.

Asheville | GCI reaches outside for new publisher

Neill

Dave Neill has just been named publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina. Neill, 51, is publisher of the Naples Daily News. That Florida paper is owned by Scripps.

His newspaper career started as a photo intern for the Detroit News in 1980. Neill replaces Randy Hammer, who announced his retirement last week.

In his new job, Neill will also be regional East Group president of the Carolinas, overseeing Asheville and the Greenville News in South Carolina.

Asheville's Monday-Saturday circulation is 30,000, and Sunday is 45,000, according to the March 31 AAM report. (Circulation lookup database.)

Cincy | Memo reportedly confirms print expletive

Anonymous@12:44 p.m. says Cincinnati Enquirer Editor Carolyn Washburn e-mailed the following memo to staff yesterday afternoon.

Sent: Mon 4/16/2012 4:10 PM
From: Carolyn Washburn
To: Cin-News Users
Cc:
Subject: in case you are getting calls about a photo in Sunday's paper

A photo ran on the state government page of a protestor holding up a sign that used the word f#*&. It was caught on the press and replated but it still went out to several thousand homes.

Here is how I am responding.

Yes, the photo was completely inappropriate, on many levels.

I learned about this after midnight Saturday when someone in our operation saw this photo and alerted us. We stopped the presses to change the photo and threw out thousands of papers still sitting at our dock. Unfortunately a few thousand papers had already gone out to carriers.

I deeply apologize and am working this morning to understand why this photo was chosen in the first place and why it was not caught sooner. I take this very seriously.

Again, I apologize.

Carolyn

Earlier: A WTF error in print at South Carolina's Greenville News.

Tip: More paywall sites named -- plus, $3 Sundays?

Add three more names to the list of known sites leading Gannett's broad rollout of paywalls starting Feb. 1, according to one of my readers: Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; St. Cloud, Minn., and Sioux Falls, S.D.

They would bring to at least six the number of sites believed to be making the switch that day. The others are Wilmington, Del., which I wrote about Monday, plus two others that Gannett Bloggers have discussed in earlier comment threads: Brevard, Fla., and Lafayette, Ind.

My tipster reader also says these six sites may boost their Sunday single-copy prices to as much as $3 when the paywalls are introduced. At Florida Today in Brevard, that will double the current price, according to my readers. Any Sunday increase would come as GCI tries to raise overall circulation that day.

GCI's paywall plan is especially noteworthy because it arrives as newspapers everywhere look for new revenue streams to battle declining advertising sales. As the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher, GCI's decisions are closely watched and frequently mimicked.

Early last month, CEO Gracia Martore disclosed for the first time that most if not all U.S. sites would require that readers pay for full digital access. In remarks to a conference of Wall Street media analysts, she didn't give a timetable, other than to say the move would start early this year.

Pricing remains unclear
She also didn't give details on pricing for digital-only subscriptions. However, at three sites where GCI has been testing paywalls for more than a year, those subscribers pay $9.95 a month, or $2 for a 24-hour "pass."

Under the new plan, non-subscribers would have limited free access, Martore said. Existing and new print customers would get access with their paid subscriptions.

The broad paywall debut follows GCI's test since July 2010 at papers in Tallahassee, Fla.; Greenville, S.C., and St. George, Utah. And it comes more than 16 years after many newspapers began giving away content free online after the introduction of the first commercially viable web browser.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Greenville | Pittman pledges 'f---' story follow-up

In a one-paragraph note today, Executive Editor John Pittman apologized to readers about yesterday's unexplained appearance of an expletive in a story -- a case that generated national headlines:

"In the Thursday edition of The Greenville News, someone added a vulgar word to a wire story inside the Sports section. We are saddened by this and assure everyone that we will deal appropriately with it. We apologize to our readers and the reporter whose name appeared over the story."

Earlier: Laid-off N.J. editor slips "corporate greed" column into print.

Greenville | The WTF error we're all talking about

At least three heavily trafficked websites -- The Huffington Post, Jim Romenesko and Charles Apple -- are reporting The Greenville News accidentally (?) published an Associated Press story today that included the word "fuck" where the third paragraph should have been. The mistake has spurred a lot of tweets, too.

One theory, floated in a reader comment on Romenesko, is that the snafu occurred because the News pages are designed and built at the Louisville, Ky.-based News Design Studio hub -- presumably the last bulwark against such mistakes.

The bigger question, of course, is how it got into the story in the first place.

Louisville is one of five such hubs being established to handle page production for virtually all the 81 U.S. community dailies.

This is the second time in a week that the South Carolina paper has carried a prominent error. Last week, the News published a quasi-advertorial on its homepage with the misspelled word, "Ulitimate."

Here's my ulitimate marketing solutions gift guide

Merry Amexmas, everyone!

There's no better time for advertisers to flex their collective muscle in the news media marketing solutions industry than the Christmas holiday shopping lollapalooza known as Black Friday, Super Saturday, Cyber Monday and all the other merchandising buzzworthy days.

This year is no exception, with much credit presumably due to Maryam Banikarim, Gannett's editor in chief chief marketing officer and newly minted mindful messenger.

Today and throughout this weekend, for example, newspapers and TV stations have become product placement whor warehouses for American Express, the credit card giant co-sponsoring Small Business Saturday. That's an event aimed at driving consumers toward small retailers generally and American Express merchants in particular.

Under a company-wide plan orchestrated by a department assigned to Banikarim, GCI sites in 15 markets are expected this month to showcase a combined 150 retailers that all accept Amex cards. And readers aren't being told about the Amex tie-in.

Here's a small sample of what I found today across the company's network:

Greenville, S.C., is publishing an "Ulitimate Gift Guide" on its homepage, a rotating carousel featuring 31 things to buy, each paid for "brought to you" by the very merchants selling the very products and services. (Example.) Editorial or advertising? You decide!

Denver offers a video interview with two retailers that prominently mentions American Express. We wouldn't be surprised if those two merchants accept Amex cards. 

Des Moines has a marketing solutions two-fer on its homepage: links to its Shopping Main Street page and the Cold & Flu page paid for by "sponsored by" Swiss over-the-counter medicinal maker Similisan. (Screenshot, left.)

Everyone seems to have that same Shopping Main Street page. (Here's Cincinnati's.) The journalism-lite page incorporates local versions of the Amex merchant profiles, plus maps locating those merchants; an embedded shop local Twitter feed; and a promotion disguised as a story for Amex' Small Business Saturday special rebate deal solely for credit card holders.

CEO Dubow's sneaky math vs. your Blasted Blog's

Craig Dubow is the Atlanta TV ad salesman-turned-chief executive, so it's no surprise he's still selling regular employees a bill of goods.

Dubow

Case in point: Yesterday, Dubow brought his Corporate roadshow to South Carolina's Greenville News, where he once more told a staff meeting that he feels their financial pain. Gannett Bloggers say he reminded his audience that he, too, has taken mandatory unpaid weeks off, so he also knows the sting of a pay cut.

Well, not exactly. Here's why.

Rank and file newspaper employees who were forced to take a furlough during the first quarter effectively got a 1.9% pay cut.

But Dubow's pay fell by just 0.2 of a percentage point after his week off, assuming he's paid the same amount this year -- $9.4 million -- that he got last year.

That is because the effect of his furlough week only applies to his base pay, which he has voluntarily set at $1 million. Last year, he got another $8.4 million composed of a cash bonus, stock awards and options, and a bump in the value of his pension account. Unlike you, his base pay is just a fraction of what he gets overall.

Losing a week's pay costs him $19,231. That's a lot of money to the average worker. But it's just a rounding error for GCI's richly rewarded CEO.

Indeed, even if Dubow took three unpaid weeks off -- one for each quarter so far -- his overall pay would fall only 0.6 of a percentage point.

On the other hand, many higher-paid employees without bonuses, who are being forced to take three unpaid weeks off this year, are seeing their paychecks plunge 5.8%.

A new name for Gannett Blog!
For the next 24 hours, I'm temporarily renaming this website after a remark Dubow reportedly made during yesterday's staff meeting.

Anonymous@8:44 p.m. says: "Dubow gave this blog a shoutout in the Greenville on-site today. Told us not to pay any attention to 'that blasted blog' and to ask him directly if we had any questions. He also feels our pain about layoffs and furloughs. He has to take furloughs just like us. Too bad no one asked if his paycheck takes as big a hit as ours from those furlough days."

(Note: the screenshot, top of this post, shows what the page looked like.)

Dubow nixes more newspaper, TV station buys

CEO Craig Dubow spoke to Wall Street media stock analysts early this afternoon at the annual Noble Financial conference, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Here's a link to a video of his presentation. The question-and-answer part starts at minute 15:00.

Highlights of Dubow's responses to some questions:

• GCI will continue to focus on expanding its portfolio of digital businesses, as opposed to buying any newspapers or TV stations that may be on the market. "The real drive is going to be to build out our digital portfolio first."
• The nearly year-old experiments with three different paywalls at newspapers in Greenville, S.C.; St. George, Utah, and Tallahassee, Fla., have shown there would be no single paywall model for all the company's properties. He did not give a timetable for any expansion of paywalls. But he added: "I would say it's not too far in the distant future.''
• GCI and its partners in the giant employment advertising site, CareerBuilder, are focused on continuing to expand into international markets. There are no plans now to spin off the site or sell it through an initial public offering.

Broadcasting, Phoenix lead top employee awards

Corporate just announced that Mark Cornetta, president and general manager of KUSA/KTVD-TV in Denver, has been named Manager of the Year for 2010.

Finalists for that No. 1 honor in the annual employee awards program were Darren Bruce, Newsquest Magazine publisher; and John Misner, president and general manager of KPNX-TV, Phoenix, and John Zidich, president of the U.S. Community Publishing's West Group and president and publisher of The Arizona Republic.

In another top award, USA Today's iPad Launch Team won the Innovator of the Year award. USAT's win comes a day after a member of that team disclosed that he's leaving for a software developer job at Twitter.

The winners were honored at a ceremony today at Gannett headquarters in McLean, Va., along with the recipients of the previously announced Unsung Heros.

Earlier: Zidich "warning labels" now on stories.

San Francisco daily reportedly planning paywall

Led by a team of former Gannett executives -- including its publisher, Frank Vega -- Hearst Co.'s San Francisco Chronicle is considering a paywall as part of a broad, new digital strategy, according to a published report that cites staffers briefed on the plans.

Employees said they were told the paywall could be rolled out by the end of this month, "although the plan is understood to be in flux," said the Bay Citizen, a local online news site.

In a statement, Chronicle President Mark Adkins told the Citizen that the paper "is planning to offer the newspaper’s content through an application for use on the iPad and other tablet devices.” He declined further comment.

Nation's No. 24 daily
The Chronicle would be one of the largest dailies in the country to plunge into a risky paid online model when other publishers -- including GCI -- are still experimenting with paywalls. With a weekday circulation of 223,000 as of Sept. 30, the Chronicle ranked No. 24 among the nation's biggest papers. The Detroit Free Press was No. 20, at 245,326. The Arizona Republic, No. 14, at 308,973; and USA Today was No. 2, at 1.8 million.

GCI began charging for access to at least some content in early July at its papers in Greenville, S.C.; St. George, Utah, and Tallahassee, Fla. CEO Craig Dubow has not indicated when, if ever, any paywalls will be installed at other GCI papers.

Only a week ago, The New York Times erected a paywall, a move that is being closely watched because of the paper's outsized influence in the industry. The NYT ranked No. 3 in weekday circulation at 876,638.

Vega

Team Vega
Since Hearst named him the Chronicle's chief executive six years ago, Vega has effectively assembled a shadow, West Coast version of Gannett. For example, Adkins worked for GCI for 23 years, the last as vice president of advertising, responsible for strategic and sales oversight of the company's then-90 U.S. local dailies. He joined Hearst in 2005.

In 2009, Jeff Bergin was named the Chronicle's senior vice president of advertising. Bergin had been head of ad sales for GCI's newspaper division since January 2002. In 2008, Vega poached top editor Ward Bushee from the Arizona Republic to run the Chronicle's newsroom.

Vega himself came to Hearst from the GCI-controlled Detroit newspaper publishing partnership. He was a key member of the team that developed the concept for USAT leading to its 1982 launch.

[Image: today's Chronicle, Newseum]

A 'great fit' -- until Oklahoma tax breaks ran out?

"Oklahoma has a low cost of doing business, competitive incentives and an available workforce. . . . We know that Tulsa will be a great fit for our company."

-- Rob Althaus, vice president of circulation for Gannett's Newspaper Division, in an April 2007 statement on plans for a customer service center in Tulsa, Okla., employing up to 500 people. Reporting on the project, the Tulsa World noted that "state incentives also were a draw. Gannett plans to be part of the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program, which offers companies monetary incentives to locate in the state or expand their operations here if they meet certain criteria." Today, GCI disclosed that it's shuttering the center, transferring 131 jobs to existing centers in Greenville, S.C.; Phoenix, and Detroit.

Earlier: 300 CareerBuilder layoffs reported after tax break

[Image: Corporate welfare: All the rewards of capitalism with none of the risks, Left Wing Conspiracy]

Memo: Tulsa service center closing on March 31

Following is a memo today to select employees; I believe the Tulsa customer service operation once known as the Center of Excellence has 150 employees. The consolidation plan calls for adding 131 positions: 53 in Greenville, S.C.; 43 in Phoenix, and 35 in Detroit, according to a FAQ sent to employees. Text of Trubiano's memo:

Subject: Tulsa CSC Closure Communications Completed

FYI.

Manager meetings and announcements to all CSC staffers have been made regarding the closure of the Tulsa call center effective March 31, 2011. Staffers have been provided these two documents [see, below] post the announcement. Following the announcement several communications will be sent to various individuals as well as the newspapers served by all CSC's . We wanted to provide this to you so you are aware of what has transpired.

Related: Austin Ryan's memo to employees. Plus: a FAQ memo

Paywalls | What are results? We really don't know

Gannett entered a crucial phase of future revenue growth during the third quarter, when in early July it erected paywalls at three of its newspapers, and faced a decision about setting subscription prices for USA Today's iPad application.

In USAT's case, GCI kicked the decision down the road, maintaining a free app instead of asking readers to pay for its use. At three U.S. community newspapers, the company added paywalls that varied in pricing and content. Those papers are in Tallahassee, Fla.; Greenville, S.C., and St. George, Utah.

Friday was Corporate's first opportunity to brief Wall Street stock analysts on results from these experiments, when it discussed third-quarter financial results during a conference call. Now, after reviewing the transcript, I'm struck by how little we were told.

CEO Craig Dubow devoted 570 words to the subject during his presentation, and this, apparently, is the bottom line: "We now have a couple of months of data as a result of these tests and, while it is still early, we are seeing some very interesting results and important takeaways."

Beyond that, details are scarce. Dubow says subscribers consume more content than non-subscribers. "Our subscribers are much more heavily engaged with our content than non-subscribers," he said. "Web users who are subscribers are consuming four and five times as many pages per visit as non-subscribers."

Yet, isn't that expected? For example, if I buy Coca-Cola and my neighbor doesn't, isn't it likely I'll drink more than my neighbor?

More unanswered questions
Even the most encouraging metric Dubow offered tells use relatively little: "We are seeing month-over-month gains in pageviews at two of the three sites." Question: How many pageviews did these sites lose after the paywalls were erected? And how many have the papers now recovered?

Perhaps most important, we weren't told anything about the impact on revenue. How does digital subscription revenue compare to any digital advertising losses, due to lower traffic, now that fewer people can view the sites for free?

To be sure, as Dubow said, GCI has just three months' data to examine. Changes in subscription prices; better promotion of these new offerings, plus content improvements, could significantly alter the results.

For now, though, shareholders and employees are left with a lot of unanswered questions.

But perhaps I missed something? None of the analysts asked a single question about paywall results during the conference call's Q&A session. Read Corporate's transcript yourself, and let us know. Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: today's Greenville News, Newseum]

Paywalls | How many digital subscriptions sold?

Gannett started testing its new digital strategy on July 1, when it erected paywalls at three newspapers: The Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, The Greenville News in South Carolina, and The Spectrum in St. George, Utah.

Since then, how many $9.95-per-month digital subscriptions has Gannett sold in total, across all three sites? A well-connected source gave me the answer, and it's one of the following:

• Fewer than 100
• 100 to 300
• More than 300

What do you think? Please post your answer in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Pence says no decision yet on other paywall sites

With paywalls going up today at papers in Tallahassee, Fla.; Greenville, S.C., and St. George, Utah, corporate spokeswoman Robin Pence told Poynter Online that Gannett has not yet decided on the approach for its other markets, but that the company will use what it learns from the test sites "to help us develop our long-term strategy for paid content."

St. George | In paywalls, 'a nervous, nervous time'

"The point is, somebody’s got to experiment. We’ve got to try stuff."

-- Ted Power, vice president of Gannett’s West Group, speaking about plans to erect a paywall on July 1 at The Spectrum of St. George, Utah. Gannett also will add paywalls at The Greenville News in South Carolina, and at Florida's Tallahassee Democrat.

Top-level changes at the Centers of Excellence?

Updated at 1:38 p.m. ET: I'm told there may have been management upheaval last week, a blow-up reaching into upper ranks of Gannett's customer-service call centers in Tulsa, Okla.; Louisville, Ky., and Greenville, S.C. The three-year-old facilities -- called the Centers of Excellence -- handle calls for subscription orders, delivery problems and other circulation issues for the company's U.S. newspapers.

Combined, they employ about 400 people, I've been told. More recently, they've struggled to sooth unhappy readers, amid cutbacks including hours of operation and the nearly complete elimination of redelivery of missed newspapers. Jeff Gillen has run the centers since they were launched in 2006.

It sounds like Corporate may have hired a consultant recently to offer advice on the centers's future.

The COEs, as they're called, were all up and running by the end of 2007, according to that year's annual report, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "The COE goals are efficiency and standardization of procedures, which will result in better customer service at a lower cost," the report says. "State of the art technology was employed at the centers. The three COEs will handle an anticipated 15 million phone calls in 2008."

Know something about this? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.