Passion Topics | Back to the future won't work

I don't envy the editors of Gannett's top 31 U.S. newspapers, who are gathering next month for a briefing on how Corporate expects them to run GCI's newsrooms following June's layoff of 700 U.S. employees.

In a memo, News Department Vice President Kate Marymont said they had a critical question to answer: "How can we create unique, high-impact journalism with smaller staffs?"

That question might be better phrased as: "How can we create unique, high-level journalism with even smaller staffs in the future?"

That is because U.S. newspaper division President Bob Dickey has virtually guaranteed there will be more layoffs due to work consolidations. For his division, that means the loss of hundreds of jobs to the five News Design Studios, which will produce newspaper pages for nearly all the 80 U.S. community newspapers. The timetable is now in flux. The five hubs were to have been up and running by about summer 2012.

More broadly, Corporate confronts growing skepticism among the several thousand newsroom employees, whenever a new quality-control initiative is announced. In the Aug. 16-18 meeting, it appears editors will learn more about the as-yet defined "passion topics" that have been the source of speculation on this blog. We've heard about a Content Evolution Team that's been studying the newsrooms' future for the past year. In her memo, Marymont did not mention by name passion topics, nor the team, however.

Back to the future
I can well imagine Corporate publishing a summary of the meeting, one that might read as follows:

GANNETT EDITORS HEAR ABOUT A NEW LOCAL-NEWS APPROACH: PASSION TOPICS

It has been four years since Gannett editors have gathered for a group-wide meeting, and not even a hurricane could prevent them from getting together this week at corporate headquarters in McLean.

Perhaps it was symbolic that the winds were blowing strong, for the meeting's theme was that we needed to breathe fresh life into one of our traditional mainstays: local-news coverage. This is especially true in this world of varied media choices for readers and potential readers.

So, editors heard about a new approach to local news aimed at becoming much more relevant to readers and much better at intersecting with their life experiences.

The winds-of-change approach introduced at the meeting is called: Passion Topics.

Passion Topics is reporting on people, places and events significant in the everyday lives of readers and covering other news so that it directly connects to them.

The program was developed by a group of Gannett editors, publishers, researchers and Corporate News Department executives who, earlier in the year, gathered to explore strengthening local-news coverage.

Based on research on readership and observations and experiences of the group, it was determined that too often our newspapers don't cover topics in ways that intersect with the everyday lives of readers. Thus, Passion Topics is designed to help newspapers rethink coverage approaches to connect more often and more meaningfully with readers and potential readers.

Key elements include covering breaking news and key topics in ways that are more relevant to readers, carrying out exclusive enterprise and First Amendment stories with readers' concerns in mind, extending the democratic conversation in our communities -- particularly through online, and respecting and writing more about the Passion Topics that are especially important in our readers' lives.

All of these elements are to be delivered in print, online, and in other ways that bring this news to readers, users and listeners. Or, more simply put, the news is delivered where they want it, how they want it, when they want it.

Editors not only heard about these themes, but they also spent time in breakout groups doing some of their own brainstorming on Passion Topics aspects.

Why staff is skeptical
In fact, what you've just read is the slightly edited text of a News Watch article that then-News Department chief Phil Currie published Sept. 19, 2003 -- nearly eight years ago. I've added or substituted just two words in bold-face type. Otherwise, the text I've quoted is 100% the same.

What's my point? Corporate has a history of pushing top-down initiatives that are long on buzzwords, and very short on substance. One sounds just like the next. And they all boil down to the same obvious conclusion:

Exclusive local news with broad impact is the key to our industry's survival. That requires a newsroom with more -- not fewer -- resources. Pretending otherwise is folly.

Passion topics | At least two years in the making

"Judges said the new Sunday section is a bold, ambitious effort to target Burlington’s boomer audience with the passion topics of green living and environmental coverage from a Vermonter’s point of view."

-- August 2009 issue of News Watch, announcing first place Award of Excellence to the Burlington Free Press for its then-new Sunday section, Green Mountain. This is the earliest reference I've found (so far) to a new "passion topics" initiative that the U.S. newspaper division appears to be unveiling at a conference for editors in mid-August. This may be focused on boosting Sunday circulation.

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.

Palm Springs | How they spend taxes on the Sun

The Desert Sun's Rick Green was one of three executive editors Corporate singled out among 10 who got President's Rings last week -- an award carrying a citation that left me hungry for much more information.

"Rick brought an entrepreneurial spirit to the watchdog journalism and community leadership of the Desert Sun,'' said Thursday's edition of the News Department's newsletter, News Watch. "His reinvigorated focus on quality journalism led to 'How They Spend Your Money,' which tracked how cash-strapped governments spent taxpayers’ dollars."

$700K for advertising
My curiosity about that tax-spending series was aroused by memories of a story the Sun published deep on an inside page a year ago, one about an absurd six-figure tax giveaway that appeared to benefit, yes, the Sun itself.

The staff-written story, published April 20 on Page B3, said the nearby Cathedral City Council had voted in favor of the Redevelopment Agency spending $700,000 on -- get this -- advertising on behalf of local automobile dealerships.

Although some of the money would support other businesses, auto dealers were the ones mentioned prominently in the Sun's account. No doubt, some of the $700K was going to advertising on TV, radio and other local media. Yet, it seems more than likely that a chunk would wind up in the pages of the dominant Desert Sun.

Deal 'beyond belief'
Amid the Great Recession, the proposal's backers argued that residents were hurt by declining auto sales, which comprised 45% of the city's budget. The mayor recused herself from the council's vote, because her husband worked for one of the auto dealers. But (surprise!) she nonetheless supported the measure. It passed unanimously, 4-0.

At least one Sun reader was outraged. "The idea of using redevelopment money to give to auto dealers is beyond belief," reader CoveDweller1 wrote online. "And to listen to the mayor try to justify it is just plain crazy."

The newspaper not only ran the story inside the B section, but it didn't publish the account until 12 days after the city council vote.

Did Sun investigate?
I don't know whether the Sun included the auto dealer bailout in its "How They Spend Your Money" series. Unhelpfully, News Watch didn't include a link to the project. I searched the Sun's website, but none of the links to the series mentioned the auto dealers. Indeed, the few links provided required readers to pony up to read the stories.

Related: The Sun's 379-word story about Green's award

Earlier: 10 President's Rings for publishers, and another 35 for everyone else

[Image: today's paper, Newseum]

S.O.S.: This is your News Department on Kool-Aid

I've never met Ann Clark, one of two executives Corporate stationed at Arizona's Tucson Citizen last week. But Clark may recall me as the blogger who made light of an especially dreadful News Watch article published under her byline last fall.

A general executive in the News Department, Clark is supposed to help mentor thousands of reporters and editors in the community dailies. Now, however, she's in Tucson with another Corporate executive, apparently charged with one of these missions:

1. Quell a mutiny among 60 employees, all in the Tucson Citizen's newsroom, after Gannett ordered them to put out the newspaper on only a day-to-day schedule, with no guarantee of future employment, pending an unlikely sale to 11th-hour bidders as early as next week. The paper stays alive at least until until then.

2. Provide support to those employees during an incredibly difficult time, as Tara Connell described Corporate's goals for Clark and the second executive from McLean, Va.: Bob Oliver, a vice president for compensation and benefits.

Kool-Aid O.D. evidence
Last fall, I offered Clark's News Watch article as fresh evidence of how little Corporate had changed, more than two years after CEO Craig Dubow started pushing urgent, meaningful "transformation'' to keep Gannett alive. What was my smoking gun? First, some context.

The article was published by the News Department when long-time Gannett executive Phil Currie (left) was still in charge. (Fort Myers News-Press Executive Editor Kate Marymont assumed the position with Currie's retirement late last year.) Currie's job was to help journalists do watchdog journalism -- a newspaper's most fundamental responsibility -- at a time when GCI's finance side was putting the screws to newsroom budgets. I recall him mostly for his many, many editorial quality control and efficiency programs, beginning with 1991's News 2000, and ending with the Local Information Center business model of 2006.

Yet, by last September, Gannett's newsrooms were in disarray. Only a month before, the company had launched one of the largest workforce reductions in its 102-year history. The 600 newspaper employees laid off, combined with the elimination of 400 more jobs, was probably the industry's single-biggest such cut since World War II. (The December cuts were bigger, of course.)

So, looking to Corporate and the News Department for practical advice on rebuilding their increasingly emaciated newsrooms, here's what journalists got in that Sept. 18 News Watch article:

Headline: Find ways to strengthen your diversity efforts on Information Center Web site

Introduction: Four papers get cited for good work -- Cincinnati, Nashville, Phoenix, and St. Cloud, Minn. Then, word-for-word:

These are just a few examples of efforts by Gannett Information Centers to further understand and report on the diversity communities in which they live. These examples are based on information provided in the All-American Review materials and the Diversity Award entry process. We have culled “Best Practices” of journalism and Information Center actions that reflect the principles of All-American. Examples are organized by key areas in our collective outreach efforts: Diversity committees, Community outreach, Diversity examples, Mainstreaming examples, Staff development and Diversity source lists.

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

[Today's St. Cloud Times front page, Newseum]

Dueling doulas: In niche site battle, more rivals

[Moms Like Me vs. niche audience competitor Twitter Moms]

I am a 52-year-old gay man with no children, yet I now know the difference between a midwife and a doula, and Baby Loves Disco vs. Baby Loves Hip Hop. Unfortunately, little in my new-found wisdom represents good news for Gannett as it chases advertising in an increasingly crowded field of splintered "cloud" communities. (You're visiting one now: Gannett Blog.)

My education came after surfing for websites similar to Gannett's much-touted Moms Like Me, a social community for mothers initially launched by The Indianapolis Star in fall 2006, and now on most of the company's sites. The moms franchise is part of a larger digital portfolio of niche sites GCI has launched or bought, in hopes of generating more ad revenue at a minimal cost.

"Moms represent a critical user group with huge buying power and a longing for outside contacts and advice,'' Star Editor Dennis Ryerson wrote in News Watch. "They lead incredibly busy lives and want information that is easy to access, full of utility and as warm and refreshing as their own children."

Gannett's portfolio also features infamous-for-skin Metromix, a joint venture with financially decimated Tribune Co. GCI invested a reported $8 million in Cozi last June; for advertisers, the family calendar start-up could pair well with moms consumers. The newest home-grown microsites are the "green pages," including those in Wilmington, Del., and in Louisville, Ky.

(Woven into much of this, we worry, is ethically dicey Ripple6 software. Chief Digital Officer Chris Saridakis and partners sold the consumer data mining firm to Gannett less than four months ago. At possibly under $15 million, the deal itself stretched the bounds of arms-length ethics. GCI gave Ripple6 a $2.2 million contract a year ago to provide "computer programming services related to strategic plan initiatives,'' the March 2008 shareholder proxy report says.)

Tattooed moms vs. your CPMs
Competition is keen for scarce ad dollars, as publishers create even more niche sites -- splintering the market further, and driving down CPM advertising rates again, and again.

Twitter Moms, for example, offers its own reader group on a hot topic: natural childbirth options beyond traditional midwives: doulas. In Indianapolis, Moms Like Me offers a nearly identical group. Gannett's strength may rest on the Moms local-local tagline, customized for each site: "Where Indy moms meet."

But just try keeping up. Childbirth no longer an issue? How about joining Frum Twitter Moms, for tech-savvy Jewish Orthodox mothers who "discuss life at the intersection of Torah and Internet."

Got a more edgy spiritual side? There's Counter Culture Moms. "Are you Goth? Punk? Metal? Tattooed?" the blog asks. "Not like all the other moms? Then you have come to the right place!"

How about something more, oh, suburban: Polling Moms, for mothers addicted to polls and surveys. "Post your polls here, so we can all get our fix,'' says the site's creator.

'Green' dancing babies
The number of parent-focused sites Gannett faces in this increasingly crowded industry appears endless. As quickly as I discovered the Philadelphia-area mom-and-pop founders of Baby Loves Disco, I learned they also sell a line of recorded music.

Plus, they've got a blog featuring tips on -- what else -- how you and your kids could celebrate a "green" Valentine's Day: "Talk to your child's teacher about swapping eco-cards made from recycled and tree free materials you find around your home."


Ripple6 on its 'brand' cloud communities
"In social environments," Gannett's consumer data software maker says, "people don't want to feel they're being used, overtly pitched or sold at. Marketers have needs and wants, too."



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

By the numbers: How they retire top executives

1,295

-- number of words retiring News Department chief Phil Currie spent in yesterday's News Watch honoring four Corporate executives leaving the company. (Rank certainly carries privilege: Two of these guys didn't even work in Currie's department.)

22

-- number of words Currie spent honoring the other 2,000 or so newspaper workers losing jobs in Gannett's mass layoff. ("Indeed, this week many other good people are departing, too, and their individual losses also are deeply felt wherever they have worked.")

Consolation prize!
Those other good people forcibly laid off in the worst economy since the Depression can always take CEO Craig Dubow's advice for students seeking journalism jobs:



You may not count as much at Corporate, but you definitely count here! We're tallying job cuts, paper-by-paper. Please post your figures on our list, or in the comments section, below. You may also e-mail confidentially via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com].

Results weak, GCI revamping Information Centers

Nearly two years after launching a radical change in how its newsrooms distribute information, new top Gannett executives are revamping the concept amid weak Web traffic growth, an alarming decline in revenues, and a plunging stock price.

The Information Center concept emphasized digital delivery over print, and was a cornerstone of CEO Craig Dubow's turnaround plan for the 84 U.S. community newspapers. But based on GCI's recent financial results, the closely watched experiment is failing its main mission: shoring up Web traffic and online ad sales.

Gannett has disclosed little about the scale or timetable for any changes to the model, which is still being applied to the 23-station TV division and the 17 daily papers in the U.K. Yet, details have started emerging in newsletters to employees, regulatory filings, internal documents, and in recent Gannett Blog comments. "Info Center 2.0," as one reader calls it, targets younger baby boomer demographics -- "which if you haven't been clued into yet, you will soon.''

Listening to 'fatbottoms drone'
Another reader wrote about an Information Center meeting Tuesday attended by the "high muckety-mucks" (though not Chief Digital Officer Chris Saridakis). "We're listening to the fatbottoms drone on endlessly,'' the reader wrote, apparently while still in the meeting. "Good thing we wasted a good portion of the day looking at screenshots we've seen eight times before, though. Very informative!"

Trying to tamp down such unrest, the company told employees late last month that any newsroom organizational changes wouldn't be dramatic. "These steps are more evolutionary than revolutionary,'' News Department chief Phil Currie (left) said in the June 26 edition of News Watch newsletter.

Currie's department played a big role in developing the Information Center idea, which directly affected about 5,000 newsroom employees -- or 11% of the workforce. But as one of its chief ambassadors, Currie is a font of disinformation -- since he long ago jettisoned journalism in favor of Marketing Speak. (See Pop Quiz, bottom of post.) For example, word for word from his News Watch piece, here's how Currie described the "next key steps" in whatever gets done with the newsrooms:

• Identifying and understanding vital audiences at locations across the company and delivering effective content to satisfy readers, digital users and advertisers.
• Engaging our audiences in ways that better connect our digital and print products with them -- and the audiences with us.
• Providing our audiences with more and better multi-platform public service journalism that will help distinguish our work from that of other media. Our audiences want effective watchdog work particularly in this time of turmoil at all levels of government and life. We will deliver it.

Huh? The first two are total gobbledygook. The third apparently refers to the internal findings of the Newspaper Division Print Task Force, which emphasized more hard news and watchdog journalism for the print newspapers, and their core baby boomer audience.

New management, weak financials
The Information Center strategy, and that task force report, were hatched under now-retired newspaper division president Sue Clark-Johnson. Her successor, Bob Dickey, is already putting his own stamp on the division, dramatically reshaping top leadership, and inevitably raising questions about the Information Center's future.

Dickey, 50 (left), has no time to waste, given Gannett's deteriorating position. Second-quarter net income plunged 36% from a year ago, to $233 million, on an unexpectedly bigger drop in ad revenues. That was a far worse performance than the second quarter of 2006, just before the Information Center was introduced. Net income that quarter fell just 8.3% from the year before, to $310.5 million.

What's more, Web traffic growth has been anemic, and penetration has been flat, GCI's monthly statistical summaries show. Last month, Gannett recorded a combined 23,076,000 unique visitors on its U.S. websites, including USA Today's. That was 14.1% of the Internet audience. In June 2006, just before the Information Center was rolled out, GCI had 22,238,000 such visitors -- 14.2% of all.

Meanwhile, online ad revenue growth rates at the domestic community dailies are apparently now so dismal, Gannett no longer publishes them. No wonder investors are losing patience: The company's stock is now trading around $18 a share -- down more than 60% from the second quarter of 2006.

Earlier: At Gannett headquarters, the band plays on

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

Pop Quiz: Phil Currie or oil industry flack?
Someone wrote the following: "In troubling times in our industry, we are not about to retreat. We continue to march forward, counting on getting closer to the people who count on us. And we are saying, 'Yes, [                ] does matter, and it remains a must."

(No-duh answer, here.)

[Image: this morning's Florida Today, Newseum; Today was one of the original 11 test sites for the Information Center]

Unity: Gannett attendance way down from 2004?

Updated at 11:05 a.m. ET to correct hed: Regarding my post about CEO Craig Dubow's low profile at this week's mammoth Unity '08 minority journalism conference, a reader says: "Another sour grapes BS post. There are a number of Gannett executives here in Chicago. At least 15. Instead of constantly bitching, people ought to at least have some kind of constructive words rather than always tearing down and then lying about the rest. This blog has been going from bad to worse. The company appears to have a major presence here, is a major supporter, and comments like this do not help any cause except the few malcontents."

A "major" presence, eh? From the News Department's ever-reliable weekly News Watch newsletter:

• Yesterday: "More than 200 Gannett journalists and executives from across the company are gathered in Chicago this week."
• Aug. 13, 2004: "Doug McCorkindale, chairman, president and CEO of Gannett, welcomed about 300 people to a Gannett rally before the formal start of Unity."

Upcoming today
Dubow and other executives are to host a reception for GCI attendees. Other top dogs expected at Unity, according to News Watch: Chief Financial Officer Gracia "The Knife" Martore; human resources chief Roxanne "Insurance Audit" Horning; USA Today Publisher Craig "Other Craig" Moon, and broadcasting division head Dave "No Snarky Nickname Yet" Lougee.

Earlier: At Unity '08, the color of sponsorships is green

Related: Unity President Karen Lincoln Michel of Gannett's Green Bay Press-Gazette says diversity is "taking a back seat" to industry woes

Your latest bitching (hah!), in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Who will replace 'class act' Eberle at Brevard?

Florida Today's next editor will have a tough act to follow, based on the comments I've read about Terry Eberle, the newly appointed top editor at The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.

"Eberle is a class act,'' one reader said yesterday, after his move was announced. "Many Gannett editors at larger papers won't give the time of day to editors at smaller papers. Eberle treated all as equals and was always willing to share advice. He doesn't lead with his ego like many in top editing ranks at Gannett metros do. His record at Florida Today is a good one. He's one of the best editors in the company -- part of a cadre of quality folks that is diminishing in numbers by the day."

A lauded editor, at a bigger paper
Eberle will now lead the newsroom of a somewhat larger paper: The News-Press' daily circulation is about 84,000 vs. 79,000 at Brevard. Sundays, it's about 101,000 vs. 95,000. I don't know the cast of possible Eberle successors at Today or at other Gannett papers. Anyone want to take some guesses?

Employees aren't the only ones who've lauded Eberle's work, of course. He tied for editor of the year in the 2006 Best of Gannett awards. Judges noted the speed with which Today switched to the then-new Information Center model. “In a year of extensive transition, Terry provided outstanding leadership. . . . It was a remarkable job,'' their citation said.

He's bound for another Florida paper that grew in stature within Gannett for its early work on the Information Center model. Under the editor Eberle replaces -- Kate Marymont, now in Corporate's News Department -- the News-Press became the public face of GCI's efforts to merge online and print news gathering: The Washington Post featured the paper in a fairly glowing page-one story, in December 2006.

Related: Eberle's November News Watch article on how new technologies are shaping decisions by editors to publish once-verboten stories -- like news about bomb threats at public schools.

Your thoughts, in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, use this link from a non-work computer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Image: this morning's Today, Newseum]

Currie is now 100% composed of Kool-Aid

Case in point: In his News Watch article yesterday about this week's Information Center teleconference, News Department Senior Vice President Phil Currie (left) has the gall to write the following: "Riding a wave of accomplishment and innovation, Gannett Information Centers soon will move to the next level of operation that builds on an impressive base and capitalizes on success thus far." (Emphasis added.)

How about backing up that lede? The only specific example of "accomplishment and innovation" I could find in Currie's piece is a reference to the mom's sites. Puh-lease. Nearly two years after Gannett finally began merging print and digital, that's the best he can offer?

Earlier: Lost readers: Why we gave up on News Watch

I would love to know how much Currie gets paid. $250,000? $300,000? Your thoughts, in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, use this link from a non-work computer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Beck: Inside the Argus Leader's Clinton 'maelstrom'

Top editor Randell Beck faced a "maelstrom'' after that Argus Leader editorial board meeting with Hillary Rodham Clinton, where she created headlines mentioning Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination. The newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D., did a great job: It quickly published video of her remarks, plus a transcript, drawing a surge of readers when the video spread to cable and broadcast TV.

"Visits were up nearly 40% from the previous month,'' Beck writes in yesterday's edition of the weekly News Watch, published by the News Department. "Unique visitors jumped nearly 160%. At last count, the video had generated more than 1.2 million viewed minutes."

Beck says he learned three big lessons from the experience: Streaming video works. Editors must be ready for a video to go viral. And the medium's transparency is a good thing.

Gander? It's Goose -- again
As we discussed the other day, News Watch could be a rich multimedia showcase for Gannett's best work -- an online classroom to discuss outstanding journalism. (I'm not afraid of competition!) For example, look at Beck's piece yesterday: He's writing all about a video, plus associated stories -- without News Watch providing so much as a single link, so readers could easily watch and read on their own. Hello! Linking and embedding aren't hard. Look what I've just done here:



(Confidential to Phil Currie: Little annoys the community newspapers more than Corporate's piling additional digital work on already overstretched newsrooms -- when you guys can't seem to use the most basic technology tools yourselves.)

[Image: this morning's Argus Leader, Newseum]

Lost readers: Why we gave up on News Watch

An employee at a paper in the Midwest told me that he stopped reading the weekly News Watch for the same reason I (mostly) stopped. Under chief honcho Phil Currie (left), the News Department spiked two features in the newsletter that we liked most -- an easy-to-shop list of job openings at each of the 85 dailies' newsrooms, and a rundown of new hires. "When they were listed," the reader said in an e-mail, "it was a weekly must-read to get a bit of a feel for the company, for other sites -- maybe think about other opportunities. Now, as you say, it's just Kool-Aid for the executives."

For me, the newsletter's roster of reporters, editors and other employees moving into new jobs was my local-local Gannett news fix: I liked seeing where former co-workers landed.

I noticed the change when Gannett substituted its CareerBuilder employment website for the old list of jobs that, at a glance, once showed openings companywide. I suppose that move was designed to promote CareerBuilder, while also reducing costs associated with creating the special list for News Watch. I don't know why the newly-hired feature was dumped, though.

Hello, Gander? It's Goose, calling
News Watch desperately needs a revamp to make it more, well, 21st century. I'm thinking of digital improvements like those we recommended last week for the Daily News Summary. Interactive tools so readers can offer feedback. Video showing how, say, an artist created a graphic. How about a team News Watch Blog edited by the News Department? In other words: How about the News Department using the very digital tools it insists the community newspapers adopt? (Don't have time for all that time-consuming Internets stuff? Well, tough shit! And welcome to our work-off-the-clock world. Hah!)

Consider last Thursday's edition: The top editor at the Pensacola News Journal, Dick Schneider, writes about his paper's asking readers for money-saving ideas to help them through rocky economic times in Florida's poorest urban county. Schneider's content is OK; it's the one-dimensional presentation that's nuts. His piece is basically a text document; I count one embedded link, to a three-week-old Schneider column in the News Journal, inviting readers to participate.

His News Watch piece doesn't include an e-mail address, so readers could contact him with feedback and follow-up questions. What's more, the article is illustrated with what I finally realized is a screen shot (inset, above) of a Gannett News Service story that appeared in the Pensacola paper, apparently as part of its new money coverage plan. Want to read it? Don't look in Schneider's article for this easy-to-add link; the News Department didn't include that, either.

Do you read News Watch? Got any other examples of ways the News Department and Currie could improve their digital support? Leave a note, in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail feedback; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Marrying trends: New wedding mag is green, too

[See DATABASE story tip, at the bottom of this post] Rivals for advertising revenue are launched 24/7: Alternative wedding magazine Bond published its inaugural issue with a "green" theme -- just in time for a bombshell California Supreme Court ruling Thursday, declaring a ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. At $8.95 per issue, San Francisco-based Bond is like a coffee table art book. It offers loads of luxe ads from well-known marketers like Dior (top); noirish fashion shots (cover image, inset); celebrity Q&As (Margaret Cho), and editorial spreads (bottom) on fancy food, like individual princess wedding cakes, $30-$50 each, from local French baker Miette.

Need story ideas? Try reader databases
I wrote about news photographers becoming wedding paparazzi-for-hire in a 2001 USA Today story, "Wedding photos, hold the cheese." I got the concept while mining an online database of thousands of readers; I built it for my beat, entrepreneurs. These databases are invaluable for newsrooms of all sizes. [More: my News Watch article]

Your thoughts, in the comments section, below. Use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

We've trained a million -- no, a billion on video!

Turns out that even Corporate is having trouble staying on message about the online video program that's caused so much comment on this blog in recent days, here and here.

Consider these dueling figures on the number of journalists who've become videographers -- one from CEO Craig Dubow, the other from news division Senior Vice President Phil Currie:

• Dubow, 2007 Annual Report, Feb. 28: "More than 800 journalists are shooting video for their newspaper websites."
• Currie, News Watch, Feb. 21: "in the past two years we at Gannett have provided equipment and trained more than 600 newspaper journalists -- reporters, photographers, editors -- to shoot and edit video."

Don't these guys work near each other? Couldn't they have just flipped a coin? Use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Photo: Dr. Evil, who couldn't keep his numbers straight, either]

Editor to editors: Video is 'time-consuming'

Herald-Dispatch Executive Editor Ed Dawson offered an "editor's view" on video training in August 2006, when Corporate rolled out its video-training program in a series of News Watch articles. From Dawson's piece: "Video can be time-consuming, so editors will need to make sure that staffers have time to do the projects and hone their skills."

That message didn't seem to get to every editor, based on all the comments rolling in on recent Gannett Blog posts about video production challenges -- here, here and here.

But maybe Dawson's advice is moot? Nine months after he wrote that, Gannett sold the Herald-Dispatch to GateHouse Media. (Was it something Dawson said?) Then, after just three months' ownership, Gatehouse sold the paper, to commercial printer and office supplies maker Champion Industries. Are your heads still spinning, former Gannettoids in Huntington, W. Va.?

Tallahassee's Gabordi: Spend -- don't cut back

Golly! It's sure interesting to see Senior Vice President Phil Currie apparently authorizing a reprint of Tallahassee Democrat Executive Editor Bob Gabordi's remarks on further newspaper cutbacks.

Here's Gabordi in the just out-issue of News Watch, the weekly company newsletter to newsrooms: "This is the right time, in my opinion, for investment in our business, not cutbacks. You cannot sustain a business model that relies on cutting over the long haul. You have to figure out new revenue streams and be willing to try new things. Some will work, some won’t, but you have to try."

Has Currie cut back on the Kool-Aid?

[Image: this morning's Democrat, Newseum]

Gannett announces major local-news revamp ;)

More than ever, the new plan emphasizes local news in a bid to recover readers frustrated by newspapers that have lost their relevance. "The news is delivered where they want it, how they want it, when they want it," Gannett says.

Sounds like the Information Center model announced in fall 2006, right? Guess again! That was actually Senior Vice President Phil Currie announcing the then-new program -- Real Life, Real News -- in September 2003. Is it any wonder we're cynical about the latest flavor-of-the-moment initiative dreamed up at Corporate?

There! I've gotten all that in my First Five Graphs and I've hit every one of the 10 blocks in the News 2000 pyramid. Plus, I'm gay, which means I get points for diversity and mainstreaming!

Use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Image: more Back to the Future here.]

Crowdsource this: GCI's total news employment

I think Gannett employs around 5,000 journalists at its 85 dailies and 23 TV stations. But I'm not sure -- and company spokeswoman Tara Connell just told me the company won't disclose that figure.

Update at 10:34 a.m. PT: News Watch said in December 2001 that the total number of Gannett journalists increased to 5,614 from 4,636 following the acquisition of daily newspapers in 2000. I'm still looking for a more current total, however.

Does anyone out there in Gannettland have the current total? (Even better: the figure today vs. a year ago!) Use this link to e-mail the answer. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Currie: Sound journalism over 'shouting matches'

Newspaper Division Senior Vice President Phil Currie could have been talking about unmoderated comments and other such reader-generated content when he wrote today about political punditry run amok in the just-out issue of News Watch:

"If the responsible operations can't change the current process -- and it is doubtful that all of this is going away -- then they must work hard to help the public see the difference between shouting matches and sound journalism, and underscore that the second version -- while perhaps not quite as visually or viscerally entertaining -- in the long run is far more informative and important to us all."

Use this link to e-mail feedback, tips, snarky letters, etc. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Image: this morning's Detroit Free Press. Two days after the Michigan presidential primary, the paper says: "Even though seven out of 10 African Americans did not vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton in Michigan's Democratic presidential primary, analysts and black voters don't see it as a sign of irreversible trouble for Clinton if she becomes the party's nominee."]