One year later, how's it going?

Sue Clark-Johnson's recent speech reminds us that it's been a year since Gannett's publishers and editors were summoned to corporate headquarters (above) for what amounted to a come-to-Jesus meeting. They were told to start reorganizing their newsrooms around the newly created "seven desks" model, one they were told had been tested with promising results at a relative handful of Gannett papers. (Weeks later, CEO Craig Dubow made details of the plan public in this memo.)

So, how do things look a year later? Not so good:

• Stock. Gannett shares have fallen 19% at a time when the S&P-500 Index, which measures the broader stock market, climbed 14.6%.
• Revenue. Wall Street analysts expect GCI to report $1.82 billion in sales for the current quarter when it releases earnings Oct. 17. That's 5.1% less than the comparable quarter last year. Analysts are even more pessimistic about the fourth quarter: They forecast $2.01 billion in revenue, down 8.9% from last year.
• Earnings. Analysts expect earnings-per-share (EPS) of 99 cents for the current quarter -- nearly 11% less than a year ago. For the fourth quarter, they expect EPS of $1.30, down nearly 14% from last year.

As always, I welcome your comments.