USA Today has compiled a round-up of reactions to his death. Among these are comments from Gannett CEO Gracia Martore, Tom Brokaw and Larry King.

Martore said, “This is a great loss for all of us. Al was many things — a journalist, a leader, a serial entrepreneur, and a pioneer in advancing opportunities for women and minorities. But above all, he was an innovator with a unique sense of the public taste. The single greatest marker of those qualities is USA TODAY — built, as he said, to be a reader’s newspaper. That principle continues to guide our journalism today. I will miss his counsel, and I will miss the man. But as with all great people, what Al built will live on.”

“To the end of his life, he was a contrarian in how he tweaked the journalistic establishment, dressed in his flamboyant wardrobe,” said Brokaw. “Al often said (his early failure with a South Dakota sports newspaper) was a humbling and instructive experience, which he didn’t forget as he moved up the executive chain at Gannett and became a newspaper baron. It was a wonderful American life, from a poor family on the Great Plains to the infantry in World War II to the heights of American journalism.”

Read the article for the rest.

Neuharth was from South Dakota, where he co-founded a local sports newspaper early in his career. The paper went bankrupt within a year, but after that, he went on to the Miami Herald, climbed the ranks, and eventually went to the Detroit Free Press before later buying Gannett. He founded USA Today in 1982.

Image: USA Today

Dish Network issued the following statement regarding the situation: “We can confirm that DISH Network and Gannett have reached a long-term agreement regarding DISH Network’s continued retransmission of Gannett’s Stations.”

Gannett issues a similar statement, simply saying, “Gannett and DISH Network have reached an agreement regarding DISH Network’s continued retransmission of Gannett stations.”

The Wall Street Journal reports:

While TV networks and distributors frequently bicker over affiliate fees, the negotiations between Gannett and Dish were complicated by Auto Hop, a feature that Dish introduced in May on its latest digital video recorder. The feature, which makes it easier for Dish subscribers to skip commercials, has sparked protest from broadcasters worried that the service will make their content less valuable to advertisers.

Gannett said it had sought a “fair, market-based deal” with increased rates to help offset lost advertising revenue because of Auto Hop. Dish, meanwhile, said Gannett had asked for a 300% rate increase, even though its own offer was “more than 200% above current rates,” and in line with its “closest direct competitor.”

Losing Gannett channels could have been devastating for Dish Network, who has already upset a number of subscribers by losing AMC, which airs such popular shows as Breaking Bad, Mad Men and The Walking Dead, which is getting ready to begin its highly anticipated third season.

AMC, meanwhile, is taking every chance it can to remind fans that Dish does not carry AMC, suggesting that they change providers ahead of the upcoming Walking Dead season. AMC is even going so far as to offer the first episode of the season for free in an online stream for Dish Network customers.

The company’s publishing segment operating revenue was down 5.3% year-over-year to $1.01 billion for the quarter. Ad revenues were $670.7 million in the quarter compared to $722.3 million in the fourth quarter last year.

Digital revenues in the Publishing segment, however, were up 6.9% in the quarter.

Here’s the part of the report that pertains to Gannett’s digital business:

Digital segment operating revenues were 9.4 percent higher in the quarter and totaled $181.5 million due primarily to strong revenue growth at CareerBuilder. Digital Segment operating expenses increased 10.6 percent to $142.8 million reflecting significantly higher sales incentive and bonus costs associated with higher revenue levels for CareerBuilder. Due to substantially higher year-over-year revenue as the quarter progressed, a significant number of sales personnel exceeded their annual sales goals very late in the quarter, and were therefore entitled to incremental commissions and bonuses. There were also incremental costs for new initiatives and new product development by PointRoll and ShopLocal. These incremental costs for CareerBuilder, PointRoll and ShopLocal together totaled approximately $9 million for the quarter. Digital segment operating income was 5.3 percent higher on a reported basis and was up 2.5 percent on a non-GAAP basis. Operating cash flow was $46.6 million, an increase of 3.2 percent.

USATODAY.com is one of the most popular newspaper sites on the Web and the USA TODAY app is now a top news app with more than 11 million downloads including those across iPad, iPhone, Android and Windows. In December, Gannett’s consolidated domestic Internet audience share was 50.8 million unique visitors reaching 23.0 percent of the Internet audience, according to Comscore Media Metrix. Newsquest is also an Internet leader in the UK where its network of web sites attracted 66.3 million monthly page impressions from approximately 8.7 million unique users in December 2011. CareerBuilder’s unique visitors in the fourth quarter averaged 21.2 million.

The local advertising market is growing as the value of digital increases for local businesses. Lem Lloyd, the VP of North America Channel Sales at Yahoo, told us that because local advertisers are trying to make their ad dollars work smarter for them, they are shifting their spend from traditional advertising to digital.

“Their audiences are already online spending most of their time online, and they’re trying to match their ad spend with the amount of time that folks are spending now on the Web,” he said.

Through the expanded partnership, local advertisers will have more digital opportunities. They will be able to take advantage of Yahoo’s targeting capabilities as well as the company’s large inventory.

“If you’re a local business in one of Gannett’s markets… when you talk with your sales rep at the station, now they’ll be able to offer you access to all the 100s of 1,000,000s of users that are on Yahoo,” said Lloyd.

As local advertisers, how can you see this partnership benefiting your business? Let us know.

For Yahoo, the extended partnership will bring in advertisers that would not have previously been possible. This means that Yahoo’s reach will expand even further while also bringing in more revenue for the company.

“It’s a fabulous opportunity for us to get more demand from these 1,000s and 1,000,000s of local businesses across the United States,” Lloyd pointed out.

He went on to say that the companies hoped their expanded agreement would have the same success that their previous one has had. Yahoo is also excited to see what opportunities their new advertisers will bring.

“We hope to see lots of new types of advertisers on Yahoo that we weren’t seeing before,” said Lloyd.

The companies are expecting this expansion to be fully integrated into all of Gannett’s broadcast markets by February 2012.

Local advertisers will have access to Yahoo inventory and targeting capabilities. 

“The agreement further brings together Gannett’s powerful local media organization brands, sales solutions, and leading digital platforms with Yahoo’s market leading reach and display advertising leadership,” a spokesperson tells WebProNews.

“We’re focused on delivering strong results for our customers through unique marketing ideas and solutions,” said Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. “Gannett’s local advertising partnership with Yahoo! provides dynamic targeting based on geography, demographics, behaviors and interests, which enhances our ability to drive those results. Based on the success we have had to date in nine of our markets, we are expanding the Gannett Broadcasting and Yahoo! partnership to all 19 of our markets by early next year.”

“Yahoo! is committed to making sure local businesses reach high-quality target audiences,” said Lem Lloyd, Yahoo!’s vice president of North America channel sales. “By expanding our relationship with Gannett, we’re reinforcing our commitment to extend Yahoo!’s local offering, providing advertisers access to the technology and scale they need to effectively reach these audiences.”

In addition to nine of Gannett’s Broadcasting Division markets, all 81 of Gannett’s local publishing organizations offer Yahoo advertising. The publisher says its local media organizations typically reach 80% or more of the total digital audience in each of the markets that offer the Yahoo advertising partnership.

The partnership expands Yahoo’s Newspaper Consortium which includes more than 800 newspapers and has sold more than 40,000 local ad campaigns.

"Local advertising continues to be an important area of focus for us, and Yahoo is committed to helping local businesses reach high quality target audiences," said Hilary Schneider, executive vice president, Yahoo Americas.

"This partnership significantly expands our local offering and gives advertisers the technology and scale they need to reach online consumers."

As part of the deal, Gannett may also provide local content on Yahoo sites in the U. S., including the Yahoo homepage. A phased rollout will begin this quarter and will stretch into 2011.

"This partnership builds on the strength of Gannett’s growing digital business and powerful local brands," says Gracia Martore, president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Gannett.

"Working with Yahoo will allow us to offer targeted advertising messages with unmatched local audience reach."

Gannett’s properties include CareerBuilder, USA Today, and more than 80 local MomsLikeMe sites.

The e-edition will launch Monday August 3 and will be a replica of the print version of USA Today but will feature additional interactive content.

The e-edition will also include a Saturday-Sunday version called USA Today Extra, the first ever-regular weekend product from USA Today.

"USA TODAY is perfectly modeled to suit all the new and emerging technologies we are seeing in the marketplace," said Dave Hunke, president and publisher, USA Today.

Dave Hunke

"We’re very pleased to be able to bring the e-Edition to our readers and we will continue to look for new platforms to grow on."

Subscribers will receive an email notification each morning alerting them to their e-edition delivery. The e-edition may be read online or downloaded to be read later. The digital subscription will be provided as a companion to home and business subscribers of the print edition.

The e-edition is also available as a digital subscription only. A one-year digital subscription is available for $99 and an eight-week trial subscription is available for $9.95.

Features of the e-Edition include:

Daily "Editor’s Picks" – Highlighting the best of the day’s content across USA TODAY’s sections.

Table of Contents – A section by section table of contents, providing direct access to articles inside the newspaper.

Videos – Online videos embedded directly into the accompanying newspaper content.

Puzzles and Games – USA Today’s interactive puzzles and games including
Crossword, Don’t Quote Me, Sudoku, Mini Sudoku, Word Round Up and Up & Down Words.

Snapshots(R) – USA Today’s popular infographic, with an interactive bonus allowing readers to actively participate in quick polling results.

Featured Pages and Thumbnails – Quick scan option to review USA TODAY featured pages like weather, markets and TV listings. A thumbnail section for each page in the newspaper.

Search – The ability to text search content and advertisement in the day’s issue and through back issues

Back Issues – Easy access to all digital back issues, available from product launch.

Text to Speech – One-button text to speech capability, allowing subscribers to have the news provided in an audio format.

Multifunction display – Read content in the newspaper format, or simply as text. Other options allows subscribers to zoom, fit-to-page, print and email.

Connect to Internet – All links throughout content and advertisements will be clickable, allowing readers to access Web sites outside the digital reader environment.

"I can’t speak for the posting on Gannett Blog, but I can say that we at USA TODAY have been working extensively on our social networking efforts," says USA Today Communications Manager Alexandra Nicholson. "USA TODAY was the first national newspaper to offer reader comments, and we continue to expand our community tools by allowing readers to communicate with each other directly, add ‘friends’ through USATODAY.com and through social networking tools like Facebook Connect. Additionally USA TODAY has recently launched a series of moderated communities targeted specifically to our readers, this includes a recent MMA community launch.

Alexandra says that USA Today sees social networking as "a growing effort" on their part and one that they’re "taking on enthusiastically."

Incidentally, Alexandra found our article while doing routine "Twitter surveillance."

Original Article: The controversy never ends when it comes to newspapers and online news. It’s amazing how many debates there really are within this industry.

You’ve got the bloggers vs journalists debate, the fair use debate, and the should social media be used as a source debate to name a few. That last one is apparently even an internal debate within some news organizations.

Valleywag is pointing to a post from a blog (unofficial) about Gannett, publisher of USA Today. The post shares a memo from an editor with the company that is restricting access by employees to social networks. This example is not really about the legitimacy of social networks as credible sources. It’s more about social media in the workplace. The memo says:

It has come to my attention that some staff members are spending a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites during work hours. Also, some staff members apparently are spending work time on Fantasy baseball research and other personal recreation activities.

This is not appropriate. It is not part of the job. Occasionally it will be necessary for staff members to visit these sites for work purposes, but please reserve social networking and recreational pursuits for your private time.

Is the editor wrong? Probably not entirely. Unless employees are using fantasy baseball research for actual stories, there is probably some misuse going on. But is restricting access to social networks the way to go?

News breaks on Twitter all the time. How would a writer get to it without spending some time on Twitter (or using some kind of Twitter app)? Then there is the fact that social networks are a way to contact potential leads and sources. They’re often easier to get through to people than by phone or email.

"As one reporter put it, ‘Facebook is a modern day Rolodex,’" says VW’s Ryan Tate. "Exactly, and if those infernal tele-phones had never been given out like candy to individual reporters, maybe newspapers would be in better shape today!"

USA Today does have a Twitter account, but seems to be primarily following other USAToday/Gannett accounts. twitter.com/gannett on the other hand has not been updated once, but is being held on to by some guy named Mike Pratt who loves the outdoors:

So where do you stand on this debate? Do social networks have a place in the newsroom, or do the negatives outweigh the positives? How about in other workplace environments? Tell us what you think.

A Gannett memo published by Jim Hopkins explains that ContentOne is designed to "create additional readership, circulation sales and advertising sales activity by capitalizing on one of the most historic Inaugural events of our time, the Inauguration of the United States’ first African-American President, Barak [sic] Obama."

 

The digital side of this will come courtesy of a new microsite.  USA Today should supply it with a great deal of national content, and national advertising should feature prominently, too.  Then, local brands will be able to put in some regional content and advertising and present it to their readers as relevant.

Gannett expects the whole thing to be big.  Huge, really.  Even as the memo talks about a potential for 50 million uniques in one month, Hopkins writes, "Gannett’s combined unique visitors across all its properties in September was just half that number: 25.4 million, according to the third-quarter earnings statement."

So we’ll see what happens, bearing in mind that any success here would be a fantastic sign for the overall ad industry.  And a hat tip goes to David Kaplan.

Gannett got the ten percent chunk from Tribune Company, which is left owning 30.8 percent of the site.  The Tribune’s been having some problems lately, and breaking the 40.8-40.8 tie could also be seen as breaking a sort of piggy bank.

 Sam Zell

Still, Sam Zell, Tribune’s CEO and chairman, chose to emphasize something else when explaining the move.  "This transaction offers us an excellent opportunity to monetize some of the value CareerBuilder has built over the years, while enabling us to maintain a significant stake in a great online property," he stated.

And indeed, considering how shaky economic indicators have been lately, it seems that CareerBuilder might interest a lot of people who have either lost their jobs or are looking for something more secure.  Should things get worse, its popularity will grow.

Gannett isn’t going to go into "vulture mode" or in any other way drastically change CareerBuilder, though.  Even (potentially ironic) employee changeups appear not to be a possibility.