PERSONALLY I THINK THE SELF SERVICE OBITUARIES ARE WONDERFUL! IT SEEMS FOR THE MOST PART ALL FUNERAL HOMES LIKE IT. ITS QUICK AND EASY AND THEY CAN SEE EVERYTHING THEY HAVE CREATED AND CAN MODIFY THEM ALSO. THEY ALSO CAN MONITOR THEIR OWN BILLING ETC. THEY DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE OBIT TO GET BULDT AND THEN SHOW THE FAMILY. ITS REAL TIME AND READY TO GO.

Gannett continues to move closer to having all sites use an automated obituary service.

In a memo sent today, Gannett Digital's director of deployment, Jeff Book, said more than 30 sites are already using Legacy.com and others will when they launch the use of Wave 2.

READ THE MEMO AT www.Gannettoid.com/legacy010710.html

There has been little discussion on this from Corporate, other than at some sites the rate review is holding up the process. Some sites have been delayed by another three weeks as some of the little pieces are put into place for the transition.

This is one project that really needs to have a point person in front of it. Else, the reputation of the paper is endangered. Forget the revenue, that's secondary to the public perception problem that is going to surface.

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InTheDark wrote:My site was to launch this week.......and we do'nt knot a single thing about it.

Great, we launch in 2 weeks and guess what? We haven't heard chit!

Something tells me this is going to be another 2AdPro, RTC, COE, CAP.

My site was to launch this week.......and we do'nt knot a single thing about it.

What paper. Be more specific- probably TJN. New Ad VP is ruthless and clueless. But then again she does not like to give a person notice of a layoff. In the last round she only gave people a few hours to get out.

Was told at our paper on the East coast that anyone who does the obits has six months and then they are gone.

An updated to this has been posted at www.Gannettoid.com/obits1001.html

Someone wrote: "When the obits moved from newsrooms to advertising." When did that happen?

At MY newspaper, although obits are paid advertising, the NEWSROOM staff types them up, places them in the paper, does the faxing to funeral homes - the newsroom does ALL the work, INCLUDING sending pricing and billing info.

Obit clerk? What the heck is that?? You Gannett folks are sooooo spoiled!

Anyway, I agree that this will be a disaster, since obviously no one who dreamed up this "automated" mess has ever really had to actually deal with a funeral home - including those that DO NOT email or fax - period.

Not every newspaper is a metro - that is Gannett's problem - it forgets that many of its papers are in smaller communities. Not that gannett has ever CARED about these newspapers.

The obits can only be posted by authenticated funeral homes - just as they currently are. Get your facts right, people.

exgannettoid wrote:If you'll read some of my posts in other forums, you'll see you're right -- I loved what I did for a living and the thrill of putting a newspaper together each day. It was so much fun.

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This is the underlying message from former Gannett employees, at least from me. I loved reporting and had fun interacting with the community. It was not just a job. People I wrote about would ask, "When's it going to be in the paper?" and, when the story(ies) appeared, thanked me for bringing their messages to the readers.

AN UPDATE ON THIS HAS BEEN POSTED AT www.Gannettoid.com/obits0921.html

Believe me, all, there is no offense taken to any comment.

If you'll read some of my posts in other forums, you'll see you're right -- I loved what I did for a living and the thrill of putting a newspaper together each day. It was so much fun.

The obit process is evolving as the vendor makes some adjustments and plans along the way. The newspapers, too, will have to changes operations to make it work. This will not make things easy for anyone.

However, like the Gannett Production Centers, this is change that will happen. Wave2 is a solid platform, and the company has a great deal of experience installing at newspapers. However, with the last year's RIFs, there just aren't that many talented newspaper people left in the field.

Time will tell, but this, like the GPC, will be interesting.

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It was I who was posting to exgannettoid, and yes I too appreciate the input. I'm just a bit of a cynic these days. I'm truly sorry.

ExGannettoid,

We have your back and appreciate your input.

What is sad to me is that I can tell by your posts that your heart
is still with your old job. It shows how much you truly cared.
Lots of well wishes going your way.

Trust me, I am no longer with GCI ...
Operational plans are still being developed, however, the plan is for the newspaper to call the MOC for help when it's warranted. Extensive training will be provided, but the MOC will in all likelihood be the first tier of support.

As for proofing ... PDF to an e-mail account.

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If I'm reading this correctly, then there will be a human/s in Maryland to help a customer if there is a problem with the system?

Would the process be like say...customers cut and paste from a word document? What is the proofing protocol?

Exgannettoid...are you sure you are no longer with the company? You seem to know a lot about how everything is going down with up to the minute information.

Details of the self-service project are forthcoming ...

Each site is being asked to create a communication plan to its customers. The website will be housed at the Maryland Operations Center, so bandwidth should not be a problem. Locally, in every paper I visited, the system slowness (DPS was mentioned) was due to either network bottlenecks or lack of the local staff to maintain the system.

With the centrally-housed Wave2 application, this should not be a problem as the normal data flow is pretty minimal. However, selects back and forth to get customer information and applicable rates could cause problems.

The MOC staff is aware of the requirements and will make necessary adjustments to the available bandwidth.

At least we hope ...

Will Gannett place an additional fee for this "service" on the bill for the funeral homes to offset the cost of the technology? Is this cost saved in payroll reduction because human hands don't touch it? How will the process work exactly? Secured website, I can see, but what about times when there is high traffic and the system clogs up like DPS Adtracker? Missed deadlines? How do they plan to proof them?

Many Funeral Homes are also Retail Advertisers, so how would the ad rep explain this to their customer? I'm no longer with the company but these are legitimate questions non-the-less.

All online obit revenue and print obit revenues will fall directly to corporate in a separate bucket. Local sites will be responsible for making up the difference. Legal notices will be next, same process.