What do you do when a blogger becomes the chief source of information about what’s going on inside your company for employees of that company? That’s the conundrum that’s facing Gannett these days, as Jim Hopkins’ independent Gannett Blog has apparently gone viral. Hopkins reveals some recent traffic statistics: 91,000 visits and 189,000 page views in the last 30 days. That’s serious blog traffic, folks. What’s more, the site is being swarmed by Gannett employees. It’s become the virtual watercooler for a company of 46,000 people
The conundrum for Gannett is what to do about Hopkins. So far, it’s chosen a strategy of benign neglect, which is a huge mistake. Hopkins remarks that Tara Connell, Gannett’s chief spokesman (and interestingly, a former managing editor at USA Today) has gone almost silent recently as rumors have swirled about layoffs and cutbacks. Meanwhile, check out the volume of comments on each post on the blog. Gannett’s strategy (and we suspect this isn’t Connell’s decision) is about as wrong-headed as it could be. It is allowing a brush fire to grow out of control. What’s worse is that it’s failing to address an important channel to its own employees, who are the most valuable spokespeople it has.
One of the great ironies of watching the newspaper industry collapse has been to see the same media icons that have long scolded institutions for their insularity become reclusive and inwardly focused when the spotlight is turned on them. Gannet Blog is exhibit A in how not to handle a new influencer.
Jim is a talented blogger and I'm glad he is doing well.
2 comments:
A belated thank you!
The Gannett Blog just adds to the misery we are all experiencing. It's really a depressing site.
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