Gannett Regional Copy/Design desks

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/wisconsin-weighs-regional-copy-design.html

Apparantely this is under consideration in Wisconsin. If this takes hold, how long before the rest of the papers in Gannett follow.

For example, Gannett's Regional Toning Centers.

 

its practically standard procedure in Canada.

It's coming.

Thank the convenience of the internet

 

When I worked for Thomson back in the day, they tried to go this route ... what a freaking disaster. Can it be done? Sure. But man, there are a million ways to screw it up ... and Thomson found every one.

 

Technology has improved significantly since those disastrous earlier attempts. The harder part is managing the communication.

 

That was the biggest problem then, too. Another one was accountability. Some 23-year-old designer 45 miles away didn't really get all that heartbroken when she screwed up a headline or cutline. She would just shrug it off and move on. It's different when you live and work in the same community. There's a passion that's lost when you go from a newsroom environment to a page factory.

And I actually had high hopes when we started. I bought into the theory that a roomful of page designers would create this bastion of creativity, with each one pushing the other to improve his craft. Instead, they took on an assembly-line mentality. MUST MEET PAGE FLOW. MUST MEET PAGE FLOW.

And it completely stifled the creative juices between writer, editor, photographer and designer.

Producing a good newspaper is art, not merely high-volume production. The readers notice the difference ... and oh, do they hate when they call up to complain and hear, "Sorry, our page designer in (insert city an hour away) made that mistake. We apologize."

There are dozens of other issues, but not sure I want to relive all of those memories. I'll leave that to my friends in Gannett.

 

I live in Wisconsin and read just about every paper in this state, including some of these Gannett papers, but am glad to make the disclaimer that I do not work for them. Most of these smaller Gannett papers are already dogpile that have been run into the ground thanks to getting staff whacked to the bone by Gannett (a long-time typist is actually called the features "coordinator" at one paper that used to have a features editor and features reporter). Most of these papers were actually much better under Thomson's reign, if you can believe that. I know in central Wisconsin they handle desk production in Wausau for three other papers, and they consistently make headline boners, lead with the wrong story, etc., because half of them have never stepped foot in Stevens Point or Wisconsin Rapids and don't know jack about those towns and what makes them tick.

What a great idea. This business is doomed. GET OUT NOW.

 

Not saying much. Thomson could have screwed up 1+0=?.

 

The former Copley papers outside Chicago had a setup like this. One of the first things Hollinger, err, Sun-Times Media Group, did when they bought them back in 2001 or 2002 was largely blow apart that concept.