Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Amazing what happens when Gannett "executives" and their buzzwords don't corrupt the copy ...

 

That video summarizes everything about Gannett on so many levels. How many senior managers saw that, signed off on it and then agreed to be in it? And these are the people tasked with "selling" the company. The tone deafness is bad enough, not understanding the song, but the execution isn't even good. Cheaply made, performed half-heartedly.
Not sure there would be a market for a book, but the descent of Gannett should be taught in business school.

 

They are fucking idiots. Plain and simple.

 

What's the story of that video? I'm speechless. Me no likey.

 

The video alone is almost worthy of an oral history.
"I thought it was kind of a funny idea at first - didn't figure it to go viral or anything. Just something to cap off our annual meeting with our local managers."
"Someone from marketing came in to help us with it, and one of our news crews shot it. It took like 20 minutes. And I forgot about it."
"We showed it at the meeting and I thought people took it in the spirit we shot it - just kind of a goofy way to end the weekend and leave things on a high note."
"A few days later I got a call from Jerry saying it was on Poynter and had something like 400,000 views on YouTube."
"Then I read the comments...."
"I hadn't even seen the Lego Movie when we shot it - and apparently nobody else had either. Big mistake."
"Jerry retired three months later, I ended up getting laid off six months later when they split the company - I think the marketing person is now working for MySpace."

 

Gannett layoffs underway at combined new company - Poynter

 

The Naples Daily News had a "social justice" reporter? What kind of beat is that? I'm sure management saw that as the first one to go. Naples is notoriously old and white, and I'm sure that's not a line of coverage people in that particular area are interested in reading.

 

Knowing Naples, I also found that hilarious. I am sure they will get subscription cancellations in droves.
Not the social justice reporter!! Anyone but him/her/zhe!!

 

The combined companies now own about 260 newspapers. Digital circulation revenues are about 51 million dollars a year or about $200,000 a paper. And digital advertising revenues declined slightly in 2019. I don't think the digital transformation is going particularly well.

 

When news orgs that began on digital are cutting - I don't see much hope for newspapers. A big part of it is accountability - unlike a newspaper - a company can find out how many sets of eyes actually made contact with their ad, with page views, pop-ups and video ads. Always thought the best page to advertise on in a paper was the one they never sell advertising on - the comics and puzzle pages. You do a puzzle, you will notice an ad - maybe even use the white space in it to try out answers for the jumble.

 

That's one thing our paper actually does right. The Sudoku puzzle has a sponsor, whose ad runs next to it, and yes, you can write numbers in the ad's empty spaces.

 

I never worked for a Gannett paper, but I did work for a TEGNA (TV offshoot of Gannett) television station. The stuff I saw go on there...

There were new 'initiatives' seemingly every month where the managers would shove the latest corporate catchphrase down your throat. One meeting, someone brought kool-aid for us to drink as a metaphor...I wish I was kidding. Favoritism was rampant, and it definitely was not a meritocracy. A weird, strange dynamic. I totally get how that 'everything is awesome' video happened.

Managers routinely used intimidation and fear tactics to get what they wanted and get you in line. I was looking at their Glassdoor reviews the other day and one review suggested they pay for positive reviews on there. Some of them seemed REALLY obvious that they were being written by a corporate crony/yes-man type.