Mike Reed Sets Goals for New Gannett

[Batman]

Holy shirt.
Apparently this is the front of the weekend edition of USA Today. It's a four-page advertising wrap for, near as I can surmise, some Netflix show coming out soon. It has "Advertisement" at the top, but it is wrapped around the rest of the paper so that this looks like A1.
I haven't seen this myself in the wild. One of our carriers brought it in thinking it was real, and even I had to do a double take on it. God only knows who else will never pick up on it as an ad.

 

[Woody Long]

Holy shirt.
Apparently this is the front of the weekend edition of USA Today. It's a four-page advertising wrap for, near as I can surmise, some Netflix show coming out soon. It has "Advertisement" at the top, but it is wrapped around the rest of the paper so that this looks like A1.
I haven't seen this myself in the wild. One of our carriers brought it in thinking it was real, and even I had to do a double take on it. God only knows who else will never pick up on it as an ad.

View attachment 11194

Gotta pay the hedge funds their dividends...

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Holy shirt.
Apparently this is the front of the weekend edition of USA Today. It's a four-page advertising wrap for, near as I can surmise, some Netflix show coming out soon. It has "Advertisement" at the top, but it is wrapped around the rest of the paper so that this looks like A1.
I haven't seen this myself in the wild. One of our carriers brought it in thinking it was real, and even I had to do a double take on it. God only knows who else will never pick up on it as an ad.

View attachment 11194

I wonder if hyrbrid babies count for mainstreaming points for Gannett's Real Life, Real News 2021 contest for its Local Information Centers?

 

[Batman]

I wonder if hyrbrid babies count for mainstreaming points for Gannett's Real Life, Real News 2021 contest for its Local Information Centers?

Maybe this is Gannett's new employment initiative. Get rid of the rest of the paid newsroom staff and replace them with hybrid babies grown in Gannett labs.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Maybe this is Gannett's new employment initiative. Get rid of the rest of the paid newsroom staff and replace them with hybrid babies grown in Gannett labs.

Exciting times!

 

[Matt Stephens]

Am I the only one outraged by this? I've seen little to no reaction to this on journalism Twitter and I'm starting to question whether I'm overreacting here. To me, this is one of the most irresponsible acts of journalism I've seen in a long time. The ad label is way too small. When I first saw it this morning, I didn't look at the label until googling and not finding anything -- and I'm someone who usually pays enough attention to print labels that I get annoyed if ours aren't uniform. A four-page wrap around a weekend edition purposely designed to look like a real A1 story in the newspaper. Are you freaking kidding me? As public trust erodes in journalists, this is just pushing folks further over the edge.

And we are sure this actually ran, right? I've seen some public posts on Facebook when I searched, and seen some Tweets. I also went to six different places this morning looking for a USA Today and no one, from Walmart, to QuikTrip to CVS, carries it.

 

[Woody Long]

Am I the only one outraged by this? I've seen little to know reaction to this on journalism Twitter and I'm starting to question whether I'm overreacting here. To me, this is one of the most irresponsible acts of journalism I've seen in a long time. The ad label is way too small. When I first saw it this morning, I didn't look at the label until googling and not finding anything -- and I'm someone who usually pays enough attention to print labels that I get annoyed if ours aren't uniform. A four-page wrap around a weekend edition purposely designed to look like a real A1 story in the newspaper. Are you freaking kidding me? As public trust erodes in journalists, this is just pushing folks further over the edge.

And we are sure this actually ran, right? I've seen some public posts on Facebook when I searched, and seen some Tweets. I also went to six different places this morning looking for a USA Today and no one, from Walmart, to QuikTrip to CVS, carries it.

As a former Gannett employee, I'm outraged, but not surprised. And what am I going to do about it, anyway? I'm just another journo who was thrown away mid-career by Gannett. It's not like my voice really matters in the journalism world.

 

[playthrough]

Am I the only one outraged by this? I've seen little to know reaction to this on journalism Twitter and I'm starting to question whether I'm overreacting here. To me, this is one of the most irresponsible acts of journalism I've seen in a long time. The ad label is way too small. When I first saw it this morning, I didn't look at the label until googling and not finding anything -- and I'm someone who usually pays enough attention to print labels that I get annoyed if ours aren't uniform. A four-page wrap around a weekend edition purposely designed to look like a real A1 story in the newspaper. Are you freaking kidding me? As public trust erodes in journalists, this is just pushing folks further over the edge.

And we are sure this actually ran, right? I've seen some public posts on Facebook when I searched, and seen some Tweets. I also went to six different places this morning looking for a USA Today and no one, from Walmart, to QuikTrip to CVS, carries it.

You're certainly not the only one outraged, I think a lot of journos just can't muster public anger anymore. Just resignation that this is what the ship will look like as it's going down.

I remember when we'd have pages and pages of debate here over the one-inch high ads that ran across the bottom of A1 and whether or not that was the most intrusive and obnoxious stain on journalism. Those were the days.

 

[The Big Ragu]

You're certainly not the only one outraged, I think a lot of journos just can't muster public anger anymore. Just resignation that this is what the ship will look like as it's going down.

I remember when we'd have pages and pages of debate here over the one-inch high ads that ran across the bottom of A1 and whether or not that was the most intrusive and obnoxious stain on journalism. Those were the days.

It's going to get even worse if these publications continue on toward their last breaths. It's a morton's fork, of sorts. If you don't sell that ad, you are turning away revenue at a time that you are overrun with more and more debt to just try to keep things afloat. If you do sell the ad, it's just an embarrasment, and you are probably hastening the decline in readership, as @Matt Stephens said. So you feel like you are heading toward the same result either way.

I remember having these kinds of battles with a publisher at a magazine that was struggling, but was at least earning some money. When you are bleeding readers and are heavily in debt in an effort to keep things afloat? I don't know how you hold off the ad. It would frustrate the heck out of any editor.

 

[SoloFlyer]

Am I the only one outraged by this? I've seen little to know reaction to this on journalism Twitter and I'm starting to question whether I'm overreacting here. To me, this is one of the most irresponsible acts of journalism I've seen in a long time. The ad label is way too small. When I first saw it this morning, I didn't look at the label until googling and not finding anything -- and I'm someone who usually pays enough attention to print labels that I get annoyed if ours aren't uniform. A four-page wrap around a weekend edition purposely designed to look like a real A1 story in the newspaper. Are you freaking kidding me? As public trust erodes in journalists, this is just pushing folks further over the edge.

And we are sure this actually ran, right? I've seen some public posts on Facebook when I searched, and seen some Tweets. I also went to six different places this morning looking for a USA Today and no one, from Walmart, to QuikTrip to CVS, carries it.

It's real. I'm not sure if it was a wrap everywhere, but it's included as a special section even in the E-Edition.

It does not appear it was included in local Gannett papers, but it definitely ran in USA Today.

 

[Matt Stephens]

I wrote "little to know ..." Now I am outraged at myself.

 

[Batman]

It's real. I'm not sure if it was a wrap everywhere, but it's included as a special section even in the E-Edition.

It does not appear it was included in local Gannett papers, but it definitely ran in USA Today.

I picked up lunch at Kroger, in part just so I could check their news rack. It was wrapped around A1 on two copies of USA Today.