The Marketing Technology Blog

With a many business applications running off of Microsoft, Mac is still a pain in the butt to run in the business setting. The newest Operating System upgrade from Apple offers some relief with BootCamp, an application that allow you to dual-boot an Intel-based Mac in either OSX or in Windows.

Dual booting, for the most part, is really like running two different computers off the same hardware, though. Bootcamp is fine, but switching back and forth is not an easy task. Parallels has solved the problem, though and merged the two worlds into a world that simply doesn’t seem right! I’ve been running Parallels (thanks to friend, Bill) since its earliest versions.

When coherence was introduced, that’s when crazy stuff started to happen… having a dock, task bar and apple’s bar all in the same window just seems all wrong! Even worse? Dragging and dropping from Windows applications to Mac applications and vice-versa. Wow! The Mac vs. PC argument is put to rest, isn’t it?

No longer does a graphic artist, a Web designer, or an application quality assurance technician need multiple pieces of hardware to do something as simple as test for Cross-browser compliance. They can all run seamlessly off of the same Mac - in my case a MacBookPro.

When Leopard came out, it seemed my happiness was over! I corrupted XP and simply couldn’t get my applications to work like they used to. I was peeved, even taking the opportunity to write some of the folks over at Parallels personally. They were good guys and assured me that help was on the way!

Parallels and Leopard

This week it came! The latest upgrades for Parallels added some more features along with full Leopard compatibility. If you’re looking for a great application for your Mac enthusiast - this may be it.

If you’re a PC person and just plain frightened by these cool Mac people - this is your chance to still have the glowing apple on your laptop but run your good ‘ol apps in Windows.

You’re probably seeing the news of the 30,000+ blacks that are protesting in Jena, Louisiana over the arrest of 6 young black men who beat up a white kid. The white kid, witnesses say, was taunting them racially.

The incident erupted after some black kids sat under a tree that was known to have been normally sat under by whites. Apparently, some white kids thought it was a joke and put some nooses under the tree.

Nooses are not a joke. Ever.

I’m sorry that I didn’t see any news on this event sooner. I’m glad that 30,000+ blacks thought enough of the incident that they traveled to Jena and had a peaceful march. I’m sorry that it wasn’t 30,000+ whites that traveled and marched, though. For 40+ years, the majority of whites have found racism despicable and would love to see it eradicated. We should have been there to send a message to the racists in Jena that we were and are ashamed of them.

I’m sorry that these 6 young black men had to take it upon themselves to beat this white kid senseless. I wish it had been 6 young white men that had beat this racist senseless as well as the other racists responsible for the nooses.

Now that would have sent the right message.

More: CNN, NPR, MSNBC, Huffington Post, Fox

Everyone has heard of the expression having your head up your butt. With Gannett, they really have brought the expression to reality, though. Ruth Holladay is a wickedly sarcastic blogger with a sharp tongue… and she’s dead-on, especially when it comes to Gannett and the Indianapolis Star.

We both used to work there, Ruth retiring from editorial and me getting escort when Gannett brought in a VP who cleared out an entire department of talent.

Gannett For Sale?

The recent rumors are that Gannett might be preparing for sale soon. I don’t really care. I sold my stock as soon as I left, recognizing that my departure was another symptom of Monsterus Corporititus, also known as having your head up your butt.

First some background - I worked for two Newspaper organizations - Landmark and Gannett. Although the two companies were similar in industry, they couldn’t be more different in management. While Landmark believed in autonomy for its properties and managers, Gannett believes in control.

As a Database Marketer at a Gannett newspaper, I had competition in the local region and in the company. It wasn’t outwardly obvious and I had great relationships with corporate - but the fact was that, in order for them to be successful, they had to put me out of business. The more the corporation could prove its worth by developing corporate strategies, the more staff they could eliminate from the local newspaper. Their livelihood, bonuses, and promotions depended on it. So, while I may have had more experience and been a better performer - that kind of information had to be downplayed out in McLean, Virginia.

Gannett does this throughout all departments, most critically in Editorial. The single largest competitive advantage any newspaper has over the Internet and other media resources is its local talent. These are the people who have created relationships in the community and know where the cracks and concerns are when it comes to our civic leadership. It’s also the department that seems to make the most sacrifices. The people I was friends with in Editorial worked their butts off day and night with tons of open positions that were never going to be filled. Many of them are gone now… a great loss for this city.

It’s Easy to See WHERE the Profits go:

The Indianapolis Star is now a mix of AP and advertisements with a sprinkling of local reporting in between. Industry experts will tell you that these cuts have been necessary because people are turning to the Web for their news and information.

I can’t put into words how upset that gets me. It’s like blaming Toyota for failed sales in domestic autos. Gannett Corporate Employees have no one to blame but themselves. They had the opportunity to leverage their solid standing in the community and leverage it for both advertising and editorial. Instead they made the local newspaper relinquish control to the corporation.

One look at The Indianapolis Star versus Gannett will provide the most obvious proof of how things work.

While Gannett won awards with one of the most incredible corporate headquarters in the country, The Indianapolis Star could be voted one of the ugliest in the city. I got to work in an attached building, the American Building… which was rumored to be inhabitable outside the first few floors. I realize that this isn’t the issue, it’s just a great visual of it.

It appears that profit margins are sustaining through attrition and circulation losses. Locally, the Star continues to supplement it’s editorial with photographs and blog posts from its readers. While I don’t disagree that this is a great business decision, it’s sad to see the savings being pushed to corporate instead of being invested in local talent.

IndyMoms: A LOCAL Success

IndyMoms is an example of how to do things right. IndyMoms’ General Manager is Jennifer Gombach, a fantastically talented woman that I had the pleasure to work with at The Star.

Jennifer is not just a talented marketer, writer and entrepreneur, she’s also a local and has been with the newspaper for a very long time (and was frequently overlooked). I would have loved the opportunity to work under Jennifer while I was there. She was a great mentor and a good friend.

What Gannett SHOULD Do

If Gannett really wishes to make a go of it, the layoffs need to start with their own corporate staff. I’ll apologize to my friends and colleagues there ahead of time, but this is where your problems lie.

Provide your local newspaper with the autonomy they need to sustain the business. Allow them to ‘invest’ in their businesses but hold them accountable. Investment needs to cut into the profit margins that they’ve grown to love at headquarters but it’s necessary. Begin promoting from within the newspapers instead of shuffling talent all over the country.

Take a look at what Jennifer has done with IndyMoms. It’s local, it’s personal, and it’s great. They’ve connected with readers and provided a perfect medium for local advertisers to connect with a specific local demographic. It’s the perfect recipe for success and could be repeated many times over.

Gannett needs to get its head out of its butt. Some folks say All politics is local! In the Newspaper Industry, All dollars are local! I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Gannett to fire itself, though.

Some of you that know my background understand that I worked in the Newspaper Industry for over a decade. Some of my greatest accomplishments were in the industry, both professionally and technically. It truly saddens me that newspapers are fading… but I don’t think it’s a death, it’s really a suicide.

Newspapers watched as classifieds walked to eBay and Craigslist. Arrogantly, they didn’t think to take some of their profits and invest in online auctions or classifieds. The amazing thing about this is that they held the ultimate card - geography. Had newspapers found a way to tap online classifieds into a regional solution, I think they could have held out. It’s too late now… every successful online classified system has a regional component to it.

So how might I still subscribe to a Newspaper?

If their publishers would stop pulling loads of AP crap, their Editors stopped editing, they stopped letting go of local talent, and they started to let their reporters run free. In other words - if they stopped being stupid about about enforcing ‘the bottom line’ and utilized the talent they have, I would be there for them.

Proof? Just read Ruth Holloday’s blog when you get the chance. I worked at the local newspaper for a few years, read the paper every day, and never really knew Ruth. But for the last year I’ve been reading her blog and it blows me away. Her integrity, honesty, bluntness, and absolute passion to get to the story is something I never recognized when she wrote for the Star. In fact, I didn’t even know who she was at the Star!

How did they keep talent like her from exploding I have no idea… I can only guess it was politics and editing. I read the articles at IndyStar now and most of them read like police reports or obituaries… no life in them whatsoever. It drives me insane that they can’t see this and do something about it.

I had a boss and mentor, Skip Warren, a long time ago. He said that employees would always surprise you if you gave them the opportunity to be successful. This is no different with newspapers. Monster corporations, politics, and middle management have destroyed the newspaper. Ruth’s blog will continue to build momentum… and anyone with a news reader will find these ex-newspaper journalists and begin reading their blogs!

Ruth doesn’t have an advertising budget to try to keep her on top like the Star does, but no worries - I think the Star’s site will kill enough of its internal talent that will push people to more informative sites like Ruth’s! I’ve heard from insiders that the areas of growth in the Star’s site have really centered around user-generated content, niche (local) news, and blogging. Huh! Imagine that!