Posts Tagged ‘Gannett’

Gannett announced the addition of former ShortTail Media co-founder, president, and CEO David A. Payne as senior vice president and chief digital officer.

Payne, who will also join the company’s management committee, was senior VP and general manager of CNN.com from 2004-08, and also held other positions with CNN parent Turner Broadcasting System, as well as stints as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.; an associate of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington; and a producer and weekend assignment editor at KUTV in Salt Lake City.

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The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the hiring of Michael Maness (pictured) as vice president of its journalism and media innovation program and the promotion of journalism program VP Eric Newton to the new post of senior advisor to the president.

Maness had been VP of innovation and design at Gannett, and he will succeed Newton. He has been a member of the Knight Foundation’s journalism advisory committee for the past four years.

Newton has been VP of the journalism program since 2006. In his new role, he will help pursue strategic partnerships and new ideas.

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Ongo, a new subscription based news service backed by the Washington Post, Gannett, and the New York Times, is betting that users will pay $6.99 a month for ad free online news.

Founder Alex Kazim, an eBay alum, received $12 million in funding from the three publishing giants back in September.

Ongo, which promises a “fundamentally new way” of reading news, aggregates news from multiple sources, and includes full content from the Washington Post, and Gannett’s USA Today, as well as selected content from the New York Times and the Financial Times.

News aggregation online has been around for a while, but Ongo also maintains an editorial staff to cherrypick and promote important or interesting stories.

“Our smart tools ensure that readers get the news they need while our editorial team spotlights the interesting, informative and entertaining stories that shouldn’t be missed,” said Kazim in a statement.

News from other papers such as the Charlotte Observer, Detroit Free Press, and Kansas City Star must be added a la carte style, starting at 99 cents.

With newspaper subscription revenue on the decline, and a slew of news content available for free online, publishers have been scrambling to come up with a new way to make money. The Financial Times currently restricts online news stories behind a pay wall, and the New York Times is expected to follow suit.

Whether users will subscribe to what amounts to a paid version of Google News remains to be seen, but Ongo is hoping that built-in article sharing incentives, free “day passes,” and free one month trial subscriptions will bring them in the door.

USA Today named two staffers to new social-media positions, as reported by Brad Wellen of sister blog FishbowlNY: Michelle Kessler (top) is the Gannett-owned national newspaper’s new social-media editor, and Glenna DeRoy was named social-media analyst.

Kessler had been a tech reporter and editor, and she will oversee social-media projects, social.usatoday.com, and the USA Today Twitter account, according to FishbowlNY, while DeRoy will analyze the success of the newspaper’s social-media efforts.

USA Today also plans to name a social-media manager, FishbowlNY reported.

Gannett held its third-quarter earnings call Friday, and paidContent reported on the publisher’s digital-related announcements.

According to paidContent, digital revenues were up 10.2 percent compared with the year-earlier period for its community publishing unit, which includes its 80 local newspapers, while USA Today saw digital ad revenues rise 35.1 percent.

Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow also mentioned that the USA Today iPad app has passed the 1 million-download mark, according to paidContent. During Gannett’s second-quarter conference call, he said the app would remain free-of-charge at least through the third quarter.