Hello again ya'll, here with some journalism questions

So god it's been a looooooong time since I've posted anything on here.

Maybe some of ya'll remember me, it looks like there's still a lot of long-time posters here.
I used to post under the name Brain of J...or....gosh, I don't even remember what my other one was. Jakewriter82, maybe?

Anyhow, I just wanted to say hi again, and that I feel a bit embarrassed that I've gone so long without posting or communicating here.

But, alas, I'm back, and if people don't mind I'd like to ask some questions...

Has anyone here had much experience with News Gate at Gannett? Does it get any better?

We just rolled it out at my shop here recently, and it's been a nightmare. It's just...awful.

I'm trying to be optimistic, but it really seems like this program that's been unloaded on us has taken the creativity out of our shop, made our copy editors and editors insane with worry, doubt, and frustration...and all and all just isn't productive at all.

Is this a standard belief around at other places? Anyone have anything encouraging they might want to add?

Thanks folks!!!

 

Y'all.

This is a basic contraction. You put the apostrophe in the place of the missing letters.

 

Beat me to it Liesl.

 

you should moonlight as an editor.

 

Be easy on him TP. He's a newbie. LOL

 

Jake, we use a version of NewsGate, and it definitely has its share of frustrations, but give it time. Every new system sucks until you learn the tricks and until things become second nature. If you've just rolled it out, I would wait a couple of months before you judge it. Hopefully you have some experts or people who will learn more quickly and pass along some tips. Even if it does really suck, you'll still get used to it.
Oh, and fetch me a beer, newb. Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, please.

 

Jake, my shop rolled out NewsGate a couple of years ago. Yes, it was a nightmare for a long time, and at times still is. But it does get better. Our problem was it hadn't been debugged, so the techies were basically making up fixes and workarounds as they went along. It seemed like every day we were getting new directives.

Then there was the maddening urge to "enhance" functions, which usually meant adding 8 more steps or clicks to accomplish the same task we had been doing much more simply before. Of course, our protests were met with, "But this is an enhancement!" We think enhancement was code for "Better think up some new codes, or management will lay our ass off." Of course, they still did.

 

Actually, enhancement was probably coade for "cheaper." And NewsGate is still a pain in the ass, but like I said, you get used to it. We've been using it for several years, and we got a new version a couple of years ago that is actually LESS user-friendly than the old version. Now, that makes a hell of a lot of sense.

 

I think we were one of the originals to get CCI and then the Newsgate "upgrade."
Somewhere along the way, they forgot that computers are supposed to make our jobs easier, not harder and more complex.
And I can't tell how many times I've told the computer guys, "We don't want a workaround, we want it fixed."