Digital First pursuing Gannett

Already done in Tennessee, New Jersey, and Wisconsin... probably everywhere Gannett has a critical mass of papers.

 

Well at least Digital First might put Gannett's epically bad website and mobile experience front-and-center, since, you know, they are digital first.

For the life of me I can't figure out why G's digital team can't manage to fix their browser viewing experience.

 

I've thought the same for years. It's just plain stupid.

 

At one time DFI was going to be a digital first company. They had a guy named John Paton as CEO and he was going to conquer the digital world. When that did not work out DFI adopted the blood sucking strategy. I think the most chilling part of the DFI takeover is that they have already asked the Gannett board to stop digital investments.

 

Is Gannett down to only one sports reporter in towns without pro teams or Division One schools in their smaller papers in those states?

 

That's absolutely the case in central Pennsylvania, Lancey, where we have 4-5 of those affiliates. My old hometown paper, where they had a 5-person full-time staff and 4 good part-timers at one point, now has no sports editor and one reporter who writes roughly one local sports story every two weeks. The area's only source for local prep sports is a startup website by the former sports editor.

 

I know of a least one newspaper where there IS a Division I team and there is only one sports reporter.

 

Gannett is said to be assembling a bid to buy Gizmodo. Gannett’s pursuit of Gizmodo gets sidetracked by surprise takeover offer

 

My point was not to defend Gannett, which is inept. But if a media company is not going to at least try to invest in digital then it is only a matter of a few years until the doors will be closed. I don't see DFI putting much money into improving websites.

 

I remember how Gannett railed against jumps because, to quote loyal Gannett soldier and editor Stu Shinkse, "readers hate them."

As a reader, there's little I hate more than having to jump over links, ads and other obstacles reading a story on their digital platform.

 

Print readers do hate jumps. Still. But your point is very well-taken. Between that and the calls-to-action to subscribe, the news industry's user experience is generally awful.