Hot Off the Press: Detroit Free Press

This is today's Detroit Free Press. Online, the paper's website is a rare sight within Gannett: Nicely organized with generous white space, easy to navigate, and relatively free of the jarring advertising that too many papers heap on their sites. Right away, I noticed the searchable database of home foreclosures in the Database Central section. (Let's hope it doesn't include any of the 110 Detroit staffers losing their jobs!) Another smart database: more than 2,000 Michigan taxpayers owed millions in undelivered IRS refunds.

I have two very insider-ish questions I hope someone can answer: Does Free Press Publisher David Hunke still report to Craig Moon, publisher of USA Today? Also, what is Free Press General Manager Susie Ellwood's role -- and who does she report to?

Quick update: A reader tells me that, yes, Hunke reports to Moon. Plus, Ellwood is executive vice president and general manager of the Detroit Media Partnership -- not the Free Press. The partnership is the JOA overseeing business operations of both the Free Press and the Detroit News. Gannett sold the News in 2005 to frequent business partner MediaNews Group. At the same time, GCI bought the Free Press from Knight Ridder.

Detroit employees: E-mail what you know, along with any link suggestions, tips, snarky letters, etc. See my Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Free Press at a glance:

• President, Publisher and CEO of Detroit Newspaper Partnership: David Hunke
• Editor: Paul Anger
• Founded: 1831
• Joined Gannett: 2005

[Image: Newseum]

Forecast: A new career for this weatherman

Yup: It's that hilarious weatherman-vs.-the-cockroach video that aired on a Florida TV station. But it's Friday. I need a laugh.

How crock pots may save daily newspapers

The little slow cooker is clicking at The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. I couldn't make up this News Watch article if I tried.

Gannett stock closes at new 10-year low

Ugh: $36.46 a share, down 41 cents. Today's was the lowest closing price since Jan. 10, 1997, when GCI finished the day at $36.44 a share, Google Finance says. That chart (above) shows the roller-coaster path Gannett shares took from Jan. 3, 1997, to date.

Corporate's staffing stays the same? Excellent!

As top Gannett executives at Corporate's offices tell everyone else to do more work with fewer people, I wondered if they, too, were doing more with less. After all, public documents show, employment across Gannett fell nearly 6% -- to 49,675 workers -- in the past year.

But those documents only disclosed Corporate's headcount as of 2005 -- 600 employees. Mysteriously, the company didn't give figures for 2006 or for this year. Surely, I thought, Corporate's staffing has fallen dramatically in the past two years, reflecting all the economizing CEO Craig Dubow has ordered.

And, of course, I was wrong. A tipster wrote yesterday: "There are currently 594 names in the corporate headquarters employee directory." Ouch! That's some serious belt-tightening!

So, wage slaves, back to work. The nuclear power plant -- err, Information Center -- hasn't had anything fresh on its website in four whole minutes!

[Image of evil Simpsons boss C. Montgomery Burns, Fox Broadcasting]

Does Gannett's News Division walk the walk?

The division's weekly newsletter, News Watch, can be a real snooze. (Look for the next issue today on this site.) Editors invited to showcase their newspaper's work too often seem determined to use every buzzword they've picked up during their last visit to Corporate.

Maybe the division's Virtual Campus website offers more lively stuff. I don't know, because it's behind the company's firewall, so I can't reach it. If I could, here's what I'd hope to find:

• Daily blogs by News Division chief Phil Currie, his lieutenant Jennifer Carroll, and other division honchos who tell Gannett editors how to do their jobs. (And sometimes tell them to quit whining about growing workloads.) Unlike News Watch, which is a one-way "conversation" (I can use buzzwords, too!), blogs allow editors to offer immediate feedback on the division's latest missives.
• Videos. Dozens of them -- personally shot, edited and uploaded by Currie and Carroll. Multimedia is critical to Gannett papers in the Seven Desk strategy. I'd like to think it's a big part of the new work assumed by the News Division, too.

E-mail link suggestions, tips, snarky letters, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Commentz Korner: USA Today first with 'hos'

It's entirely predictable that a story about O.J. Simpson's court hearing today would draw especially foul reader comments on a newspaper's website. And that's why you'd expect USA Today would be especially vigilant to patrol the story for objectionable comments, since the paper doesn't require editors to approve comments before they appear.

And yet. As I write this, the following comment from this frequent commenter has been sitting on the website of the nation's biggest-circulation newspaper for six hours and 40 minutes:

"That juice, he from a bad hood. sheeet. juice cut you up playa. whitey he just tryn get ta black man down. you no he be inocent. put a cople of black hos on da jury, sheet. he walk."

Nice. I can imagine USA Today's major advertisers wondering just how down-market the paper's demographics are heading. And I'm not sure how divisive shoutfests square with founder Al Neuharth's lofty wish: "USA TODAY hopes to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation."

Update on Dec. 1: I now see the following note on the commenter's profile page, which has been wiped clean, including all comments: "This community member's page is currently being reviewed by the editors."

Got a profane, racist or other crazy comment that made it past your Gannett site's filters? I'm collecting examples for Commentz Korner in hopes of shaming editors into action. Send-links to Gannett Blog -- or leave a note in the comments section, below. (But be forewarned: I personally read and approve all comments on this blog before they get published!)

Gannett stock at new low on reduced forecast

Shares traded as low as $36.18 today -- a new 10-year low -- after Banc of America cut its forecast for where the stock is headed. The investment bank issued a similarly negative outlook for shares of McClatchy, GateHouse Media and Lee Enterprises. And in its harshest assessment, it urged investors to dump New York Times Co.'s stock.

Cutlines Only: The Journal News

Ashley Robinson, an assistant professor at New York Medical College, holds a petrie dish containing the MRSA bacteria. Lower Hudson Valley school districts have stepped up disinfecting procedures and hygiene awareness after parental concerns about nearly 20 reported cases of MRSA, The Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., says today. Photo by Joe Larese, Journal News.

Got a Gannett website photo or graphic to showcase in my new Cutlines Only feature? E-mail suggested links here; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Buyouts a week away, USA Today staff abuzz

Estimates are starting to trickle in on the number of USA Today news staffers who have now committed to taking one of 45 buyouts. I'd like to get one more note from someone at the paper before I start passing on some of these numbers.

Quick update: I've just heard from someone else. It sounds like between 16 and 20 people have committed to buyouts so far. That means as many as 29 more volunteers are needed by next Wednesday's deadline.

Management warned layoffs would be possible if it doesn't get 45 volunteers for one of the biggest newsroom staff reductions underway in Gannett. The trims are equal to about 9% of the 500-employee news department at the nation's biggest-circulation daily.

"Guessing who's in or out has become one of the chief pastimes of the news staff,'' a tipster wrote yesterday. "Many people are still on the fence regarding their decisions, and we expect there to be a lot who won't decide till the last minute. Some are waiting on responses to feelers they put out about new jobs. For some people, especially those with 30 or more years in the company, it's been an easy decision."

USA Today employees: E-mail estimates that you're hearing -- and tell me where the numbers are coming from. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Image: The front page of this morning's USA Today, Newseum; click on the image for a bigger view]

Gannett in new online video distribution deal

GCI said today it had picked a Seattle company, thePlatform, as its new video publishing service. If I've got this right, thePlatform (what an awkward name!) will replace the Feed Room as the service that gathers, stores, distributes and publishes videos for all the company's websites.

Online video is looking increasingly like a source of big, fast ad revenue growth for the company; it could run millions of tiny paid advertisements in front of videos if it can produce more and get them on more websites. In a statement by thePlatform, Gannett Digital President Jack Williams said: "We needed a centralized, scaleable, and easy-to-use video management system as we expand our offerings and tie our sites together into a cohesive network."

But I was pretty confused when I went to five of the sites thePlatform listed as existing customers -- CNBC, Court TV, E!, Helio and the BBC. The video players on all five didn't include embeddable code. No code, no lucrative viral spread of videos across blogs and other websites.

Now, maybe those three companies all chose to keep the code private on purpose, though I don't know why they would. Can any of the IT readers or webmasters out there explain more? Please e-mail me. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Tech 101: The exciting embed code!
Actually, knowing what it looks like and how to use it isn't such a bad thing for a 21st century journalist. Check out the following screen shot of the flip side of a YouTube video player. The code is right there, below the word embed. You copy that code to the clipboard, then paste it onto your blog. Wham! Now your readers can watch one of, say, the Des Moines Register's politics videos -- including any paid ads -- without even being on the Register's site. And the Register gets ad revenue whenever, and wherever, those videos play.

N.J. governor raps Asbury Park over image

Gov. Jon Corzine's office is unhappy with the Asbury Park Press over a Sunday front page photo illustration (above) showing Corzine, in a hat and tweed coat, opening one side of his coat to reveal cars pinned to the inner lining, like a peddler offering trinkets, Editor & Publisher says today. It accompanied a story about the Democratic governor's controversial plan to borrow money against the state's toll roads, E&P says. Corzine's office said it made the governor look "sinister."

"We weren't attempting to show the governor in any kind of sinister light," Executive Editor Skip Hidlay told E&P. "We were looking for a way to illustrate a very complex problem that is difficult to show visually." (See the Press' Sunday front page in PDF here, at the Newseum's site.)

In print, the Press labeled the image a photo illustration. But that credit appeared at the bottom of the page, well away from the illustration. Seems to me the two should have been closer together to avoid any confusion. (Online today, the credit appears right under the image.) Gannett photo editors and page designers: What do you think? E-mail me, please; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Hat tip, Romenesko; image: Newseum]

Cutlines Only: The News-Press

Farm workers cross an irrigation ditch as they load just-picked cucumbers at Jamerson Farms in Lehigh Acres. The record drought is affecting farmers like Jamerson Farms, the Fort Myers News-Press says today. Photo by Andrew West, News-Press.

Got a Gannett website photo or graphic to showcase in my new Cutlines Only feature? E-mail suggested links here; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Hot Off the Press: Reno Gazette-Journal

This is today's Gazette-Journal. In its heyday, when Sue Clark-Johnson was publisher and Ward Bushee was editor, the Reno paper could do no wrong. Now, it's one of a growing number of Gannett papers shrinking its workforce. Through buyouts, the Gazette-Journal eliminated 10 jobs, including five in the newsroom, earlier this month. The paper has up to 450 employees; the figure in this story about the buyouts is much higher than on the paper's official company page.

Online, the paper's website rivals the Asbury Park Press' for being a big, jumbled, confusing mess. Is Reno in line for a website re-design like Asbury is getting? Come on, folks: Is it any wonder Gannett's online revenue growth is slowing at its U.S. newspapers when the company produces sites like these?

Reno employees: E-mail tips, snarky letters, suggested links, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Gazette-Journal at a glance:

• President and Publisher: Ted Power
• Executive Editor: Beryl Love
• Founded: 1870
• Joined Gannett: 1977
• Employees: 400

[Image: Newseum]

P-s-s-s-t: Pass the word about Gannett Blog!

If you like what you read on this blog, please consider e-mailing the address (gannettblog.blogspot.com) to some of your nearly 50,000 Gannett colleagues; I'm always looking for more readers! Can't remember the address? Just Google: Gannett Blog.

Reader: What about USA Today's other cuts?

Commenting on my post about Gannett buyouts and other job losses, a reader says: "I keep seeing the USA Today newsroom cuts mentioned, but nothing about the business-side cuts at the paper. Those people lost jobs too, and their 'parting gifts' were not as nice as the newsroom's..."

Can anyone supply details? E-mail me, please!; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Commentz Korner: Florida Today's racist ranter

From a story about the shooting early today of NFL player Sean Taylor. This comment by a Florida Today reader was posted at 12:08 p.m. local time. So, as I write this, it's now been sitting on the newspaper's website for eight hours:

"Probably one of the 'Bad Boy Bengals' shot him. Black people and guns go together like bee's on honey."

Hello? Hello? Any editors there? Please explain how unmoderated comments like this contribute to a better Information Center. (And, no, I don't buy your disclaimer: "The interactive nature of the Internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting." Costly, perhaps. But impracticable? Nope! You've just got to decide you don't want readers scrawling graffiti across your site!)

Update at 11:01 p.m.: Looks like the comment's now been edited to take out the racist language. Excellent!

Got a profane, racist or other crazy comment that made it past your Gannett site's filters? I'm collecting examples for my new Commentz Korner feature in hopes of shaming editors into action. Send-links to Gannett Blog -- or leave a note in the comments section, below. (But be forewarned: I personally read and approve all comments on this blog before they get published!)

Growing signs Gannett in broad job downsizing

With its revenue and stock slumping, the company is quietly engaged in a far-reaching round of buyouts and job cuts across the country, based on recent published news accounts and reader mail I've gotten. Absent a big change in advertising revenue, I suspect staff reductions will continue into next year and beyond. The intriguing question: Is Corporate's top brass at the gleaming Virginia headquarters (above) also taking a hit?

USA Today certainly has. Management just announced plans to reduce newsroom employment by 45 jobs -- nearly 9% -- in one of the bigger cuts I've seen at any newspaper. The situation is looking desperate when Gannett whacks employment that much at one of the few papers with growing circulation. Yet, USA Today is only the latest. Look at what's happening in Cincinnati; Reno; Detroit; Nashville; Indianapolis; Burlington, Vt., and Phoenix. (Got one I missed? Send me details with story and/or memo links.)

Senior executives told Wall Street last month that more severance expenses are likely by the end of this year, suggesting more job cutting. But they didn't give a precise number or say where the trims would fall. That may explain investors' growing impatience with GCI's efforts to boost earnings and its stock price.

CEO Craig Dubow was similarly vague when he told employees in September about the company's ongoing "transformation'' and the pain it would cause. "Will we be structured like we are now? I doubt it,'' Dubow wrote. "Will we have more or fewer newspapers and TV stations than we have now? That depends, but we're working on finding the right portfolio."

The nation's top newspaper publisher employed 49,675 people earlier this year, public documents show. (See chart, left; click on it for a bigger view.) This year's annual Form 10-K, filed March 1, showed overall employment fell nearly 6% in the previous 12 months. My hunch is that we'll see an even bigger drop when GCI files its next 10-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the spring. As that chart shows, Gannett's employment peaked at 53,400 workers in early 2001, reflecting acquisitions the previous year, including The Indianapolis Star. Still, even with last year's cuts, Gannett has many more employees than it did in 1994, the last year for which I could easily find 10-Ks disclosing employment levels.

One big mystery: What's happening at Corporate's offices? As well-paid executives there order everyone else to do more with less, are they also reducing Corporate's staffing and taking on more work themselves? Have they given up catered lunch on china for a soggy sandwich from the cafeteria? What about those six-figure bonuses and seven-figure goodbye kisses?

Corporate employed 600 people in early 2005 -- the last year GCI disclosed headcount at headquarters, based on my review of 10-Ks. Curiously, that figure wasn't provided in the two most recent filings.

Update: With the help of a Gannett Blog tipster, I was able to solve the mystery here.

[Data: SEC forms 10-K]

Top execs, directors feel your pain (sort of)

Retired Chairman Doug McCorkindale (left) owned the most stock among Gannett's top officers and directors last spring, when the company filed public documents showing ownership figures. And along with the rest in the group, McCorkindale has seen the value of his shares plummet since springtime.

Worry not. The executives and board members (click on table, above, for bigger view) aren't wearing barrels yet. McCorkindale's stock, assuming he hasn't sold a bunch, is worth $108.3 million, based on Friday's closing stock price. But that's down a bruising $65 million since March 2, when Gannett reported these figures in its annual proxy report to shareholders. Gannett shares closed at $60.37 on March 2. Friday's close: $37.72. Oooph!

CEO Craig Dubow, too, racked up a big paper loss since March: $12 million. But his stake, assuming it remained the same, is still worth a princely $20.2 million. Among the other board members, who ultimately determine Gannett's future, Donna Shalala (left) suffered the biggest paper loss: nearly $520,000. (Of course, the big cheeses have other sources of income, too!)

Note: Table does not reflect director Neal Shapiro, who joined the board last month, after Gannett filed its March proxy report.

[Data: Securities and Exchange Commission Form Def 14A]

[Photo of Shalala, University of Miami]

California, New York lead my readership

Nine states and the District of Columbia now account for about half of Gannett Blog's daily readership, a new analysis of my traffic shows. Those states are among the most populous ones or are home to lots of Gannett employees.

[Data: StatCounter]

Most in survey make under $75,000 a year

Results of a recent Gannett Blog survey, taken by 75 readers, that asked: How much is your annual Gannett pay?

• Less than $50,000: 29%
• $50,000 to $75,000: 30%
• $75,001 to $100,000: 16%
• $101,000 to $125,000: 8%
• More than $125,000: 16%

Figures don't total 100 because of rounding. Beware: self-reported pay, so use caution!

Hot Off the Press: Lansing State Journal

This is today's Lansing State Journal; click on the image for a bigger view. In print, the Journal is another newspaper suffering from front-page advertising creep. The Page 1 designer had to wrap a story around a Mercedes-Benz ad (left) at the bottom of the page. Makes me wonder what limits, if any, publishers place on the intrusiveness of front page ads.

Online, the Journal offers readers a big data storehouse. The paper's Data Connection includes about 40 documents and databases, some searchable. They range from restaurant inspection reports to the public-employee salary database that got the Journal in hot water this past July. Publishers love databases because they work 24/7, promise a long shelf-life -- and, unlike flesh-and-blood newsroom staffers, don't run up big employee medical costs.

Also online, I trolled through the Journal's Michigan community pages, where it looks like editors get briefs from readers or smaller publications. But you get what you barely pay for -- like a nearly week-old press release disguised as a story about an insurance agent completing a continuing education class. Is that the sort of "news" absent younger readers want? Nope.

Lansing employees: E-mail suggested links, tips, snarky letters, etc., to Gannett Blog; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Journal at a glance:

• President and Publisher: Richard Ramhoff
• Executive Editor: Mickey Hirten
• Founded: 1855
• Joined Gannett: 1971
• Employees: 475

[Image: Newseum]

Newspapers, merchants in make-or-break season

Gannett papers and TV stations are fighting for every holiday advertising dollar when competition from the Internet is greater than ever. Holiday consumer spending "is expected to be the weakest in five years because of rising energy prices, falling home values and a tight credit market,'' the New York Times says this morning. Gannett shares, meanwhile, traded modestly higher at markets' open.

Near Indianapolis, Hoosiers braved cold temperatures and long lines to snap up toys, clothes and electronics on Black Friday, the symbolic start of the holiday shopping season, the Indianapolis Star says. Regina Braun (above, left) chatted with Stephanie Mulkey as they waited in the checkout line today at a JCPenney at Hamilton Town Center mall.

In Indianapolis and in Phoenix, editors get bonus points for publishing shopping video already. The Star's was a bit hard to find; it's in this multimedia section. The Arizona Republic's was more prominent because the video player appears alongside this story. Like many in Gannett, the Star and the Republic are speeding coverage to the Web; in the past, papers didn't publish Black Friday stories until Saturday's editions.

The Star's front page today; click on the image for a bigger view:


Today's Republic; click on the image for a bigger view:

[Photo: Danese Kenon, Indianapolis Star; front pages, Newseum]

Analysis: Much of Gannett stock collapse recent

GCI's shares (chart, above) peaked at about $90 in April 2004, before starting a decline that's now cut their value by more than half. (For perspective, the blue arrow shows where Craig Dubow, left, became CEO: July 2005.)

On closer inspection, however, much of that decline came in the last six months, when shares plunged 38%. And it now appears Gannett's No. 1 shareholder may have lost more than $400 million on its stake during that period -- likely bringing more pressure on Dubow and the other directors.

Early June was a turning point. The accelerated fall could explain why Dubow warned employees in September about hard times ahead.

The broader stock market, as measured by the S&P-500 Index, didn't implode during those six months; that index is down less than 8% since early June. And while other newspaper publishers' stocks -- like the New York Times Co.'s -- tracked Gannett's post-June fall, GCI's plunge has been especially bad. (Among major publishers I track, only McClatchy Co. shares appear to have fallen harder during the period: 47%.)

The big question: Why the post-June collapse? The more urgent question: How long before top stockholder Brandes Investment Partners starts pushing Gannett's board to act -- assuming that hasn't already begun. Brandes owned about 20 million GCI shares as of June 30, when the stock was at $54.95. (I'm using the InsiderScore numbers from this post.) That stake was then worth about $1.09 billion, my numbers show. Assuming Brandes still owns those shares, it's now looking at a paper loss of $415.5 million. And that doesn't count any losses on the six million more Gannett shares it bought since June.

E-mail suggested links, tips, snarky letters, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Chart: Google Finance]

A peek inside the new Oklahoma call center

The Tulsa center, which could employ more than 500 workers, is part of Gannett's money-saving consolidation of more than 60 customer-service centers into three or four locations. Looks like there are two other big ones, in Greenville, S.C., and in Louisville, Ky.



Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Why citizen journalists can threaten big media

Bloggers like me enter publishing at virtually no cost. I use free-of-charge Blogger software to build and host Gannett Blog. And guess who owns Blogger -- advertising sales rival Google! Plus, Google provides virtually all my videos for free through its YouTube subsidiary. My only monthly costs are a $21 Internet access account and the combined $20 I pay web analytics firms StatCounter and Site Meter to help me examine my readership.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My blogging may be light today because I've got to cook...

Hot Off the Press: Asbury Park Press

This is today's Asbury Park Press; click on the image for a bigger view. Press reporter Margaret Bonafide is one of Gannett's growing number of mojos. Bonafide told News Watch she lives and dies by her Treo, a brand of smartphone. "The ultimate multi-tasker,'' she wrote in September. "I can make phone calls, take photos, send e-mails and connect my laptop to the Internet to transmit photos or video. The speed is about DSL quality."

Online, the Press' website may be the most jumbled, impossible-to-navigate site I've seen in Gannett so far. Attention editors: Run, don't walk, to launch that new much-easier-to-navigate version now in beta!

And about that new site: I've noticed that some Gannett newspapers are shifting to a new template -- the one being considered by the Press. Looks like the Des Moines Register and the Desert Sun both use it; how do you guys like it? More questions: Didn't all the papers already switch to a new design earlier this year, when reader commenting was added? Why are sites changing again? What's the timetable? And will this template be used companywide? E-mail tips, snarky letters, suggested links, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Press at a glance:

• Publisher: Thomas Donovan
• Executive Editor and Vice President/News: Skip Hidlay
• Founded: 1879
• Joined Gannett: 1997
• Employees: 1,492

[Image: Newseum]

Why GCI revenue decline may be even worse

And why this year's holiday ad revenue is more important than ever: Across the newspaper industry, inflation is masking the real severity of the downturn in newspaper print advertising, says Alan Mutter at Reflections of a Newsosaur.

"Based on the 8.6% sales decline in the first nine months of the year,'' Alan says, "it appears likely that print advertising for all of 2007 will total $42.7 billion, give or take. This will put revenues back to roughly the 1997 level, when sales were $41.3 billion." As bad as that sounds, Alan wrote yesterday, the industry actually is in much worse shape. Here's why.

Worth repeating: Gannett disappointed Wall Street when it reported third-quarter results last month. Revenue fell 4% during the quarter, to $1.81 billion from $1.88 billion last year. But analysts had expected $1.82 billion.

[Photo: A San Francisco shopper walks past a Macy's window; Associated Press. Tightening personal budgets may curtail some holiday spending this year, USA Today says this morning.]

GCI, other newspaper stocks sharply lower

This is a screen shot from Google Finance, taken moments ago. Gannett shares (GCI) have traded as low as $36.58 today -- another new 10-year-low -- amid a broad sell-off in newspaper stocks. Major stock indices are down as well.

Hot Off the Press: Democrat and Chronicle

This is today's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle; click on the image for a bigger view. I always thought it would be a pain to work here because so many top Gannett executives traced their roots to Rochester. It was Gannett's corporate hometown until GCI decided in 1986 to move headquarters south. The Democrat and Chronicle was still their paper long after they decamped for Virginia's greener pastures, so I figured they always gave it an extra-critical read. ("What crap! It was a real newspaper when I worked there!")

On today's front page, editors wisely direct readers to the website with several "story chat'' graphs (see example, left). And, sure enough, the big ambulance story had drawn 10 reader comments this morning when I checked the site.

Online, I like the RocMen site launched earlier this year. It looks smart: a separate site for a niche audience -- men, 25 to 54 years old. Editors hatched the idea with feedback ("plenty of photos") from potential readers, according to this issue of News Watch. Check out the YouTube picks by "Mark the intern." (It's pretty edgy for a family paper to feature a pile of turds as the button for voting down one of his picks. Did that go all the way to Corporate for a final OK?) Here's Mark's choice today: "Japanese Spa Prank. Leave it to the Japanese to find more embarassing and extremely dangerous pranks to pull on people." Watch:


Rochester employees: I don't know anyone at your paper; help! E-mail tips, snarky letters, suggested links, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Democrat and Chronicle at a glance:

• Publisher: Michael Kane
• Vice President/News and editor: Karen Magnuson
• Founded: 1833
• Joined Gannett: 1928
• Employees: 975
• Circulation: 167,851 morning; 225,092 Sunday

[Image: Newseum]

Gannett shares stabilize after sell-off

But not before they traded at yet another new 10-year low: $36.90 a share in the middle of the afternoon. GCI eventually closed today at $37.73, up 24 cents from Monday's steep decline.

McClatchy losses echo GCI woes in Calif., Fla.

The struggling company, which owns the Miami Herald and 30 other dailies, said October revenue dropped 9.9%, partly because of declining real estate and automotive ad sales. "Particularly in the California and Florida newspapers, which have been affected by the downturn in real estate," McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt (left) said today. McClatchy's troubles in those two states mirror a similar trend reported by Gannett executives when they released third-quarter results last month.

[Photo: McClatchy]

GCI online ad growth still trails industry

Online ad revenue at newspapers climbed 21% in the third quarter from a year ago, to $773 million, the Newspaper Association of America trade group said today. Gannett's third-quarter growth, disclosed earlier, was a much smaller 11% at its U.S. newspapers. That's not good, when online is supposed to be a major engine of revenue growth to replace losses in print.

For the industry, the third-quarter average reported by the NAA was an improvement over the 19.3% gain in the second quarter, the Associated Press says here. But it trailed the 25.3% increase in overall online advertising during the same period, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Hot Off the Press: The Courier-Journal

This is today's Courier-Journal; click on the image for a bigger view. The newspaper was the jewel in the crown of the Bingham family's glittering media empire in Louisville, Ky. Then Gannett CEO Al Neuharth made an offer in 1986 that feuding family members couldn't refuse. It holds 10 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other Gannett newspaper. (It is 10, isn't it? This official page is missing the most recent: Nick Anderson's in 2005 for editorial cartooning.)

Update: A reader, citing this Wikipedia entry, says the Des Moines Register has won 15 Pulitzers. Now, that must be the most of any GCI paper, no?

When Corporate told publishers they were free to sell ads on the front page, the Courier went whole-hog. (Love that local autonomy!) The banner ad along the bottom rises up into the far-right news column; now that's advertising creep. The newspaper's website, like a growing number in Gannett, has even more jarring advertising.

Louisville employees: How's work under Publisher Denise Ivey? Please E-mail Gannett Blog; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Courier-Journal at a glance:

• Publisher: Denise Ivey
• Executive Editor and Vice President/News: Bennie Ivory
• Founded: 1868
• Joined Gannett: 1986
• Employees: 1,100
• Circulation: 211,616 morning; 275,015 Sunday

[Image: Newseum]

Please tell co-workers about Gannett Blog

As they say on PBS: It's pledge time! I'm always looking for more readers. So, if you like what you read on Gannett Blog, please consider e-mailing the address (gannettblog.blogspot.com) to some of your nearly 50,000 Gannett colleagues! Can't remember the address? Just "Google" Gannett Blog.

Three reasons why Gannett is hot for video

Start with the fact that CEO Craig Dubow ran Gannett's television division before he landed GCI's top job. You think he doesn't have a soft spot for the medium that got him those big paychecks?

Gannett's rapidly growing appetite for video goes way beyond Dubow's resume. GCI sees more signs daily that advertising dollars and profits are converging on the newest, increasingly mobile "platforms.'' They're ideal for videos -- and the profitable commercials they attract:

• Facebook, MySpace and other social networks. News Corp.'s MySpace already streams video. So does Facebook, the latest Web 2.0 bottle rocket. How soon before those two companies make you watch a paid commercial to see videos like this?
• Cellphones and other mobile devices. Marketers are looking to wireless gadgets from iPhones (above) to BlackBerries as a place to advertise for new customers through commercials. Meanwhile, Google is rushing to stake a claim to the software used to power cellphones because it wants to be where future advertising goes.
• Video-sharing websites. They're everywhere because of the enormous success of YouTube. Major broadcasters are setting up their own video site, too, because they're seeing their own TV commercials migrate to the Web. And Google is here, too: The company paid $1.7 billion for YouTube in 2006 -- barely a year after that site got started. Now, YouTube is experimenting with running short TV commercials before its videos. Can you imagine how much more money Google will make off the millions of commercials that could someday be broadcast on YouTube?

E-mail suggested links, tips, snarky letters, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Photo: Apple]

Wednesday | Nov. 19 | Got news, or a question?

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

GCI shares slammed by TV revenue warning

Gannett's stock plunged a whopping 5.2% today, closing at a new 10-year low -- $37.49 a share -- after the company warned fourth-quarter TV revenue would lag results from a year ago. The company's market cap (its ballpark value to a buyer) sank below the crucial $9 billion mark for the first time in years. Gannett's warning spread across the newspaper sector, dragging down shares of other publishers as well. It was a brutal day.

[Image: Google Finance]

Breaking: Gannett's market cap dips below $9B

GCI shares plunged anew this morning, trading at a new 10-year low and sending the company's market value below $9 billion, a critical threshold. Gannett's stock sold as low as $38.38 a share in early trading on a day when broader stock market indices fell as well. Stocks of other newspaper publishers also declined.

Gannett's fall came as the company reported that monthly advertising revenue fell in October from a year ago, continuing a trend of lower ad revenues seen during much of the year.

October ad revenue down on weak real estate

Gannett's newspaper advertising revenue fell 5.3% last month from a year ago, the company said today, on continuing sharp declines in real estate and job-related ads.

The overall decline represented an acceleration over the 4.8% fall in September. At USA Today, the only individual paper for which Gannett breaks out results, ad revenue fell 6.3%.

Gannett's community newspapers were hurt again by the loss of classified advertising to Craigslist, Monster and other online rivals, the company's statement shows. Classified ad revenue fell 9.7%. Within that category, real estate ad revenue plunged 13.5%, employment revenue fell 10.4%, and auto-related declined 13.4%.

This chart shows the monthly change in ad revenue from the year-before period. Crummy way to start the week, eh?

Blogger: Cincinnati to trim eight news staffers...

. . . or cut the newsroom budget by $500,000, Newsache says, describing the "Hobson's Choice" faced by the Cincinnati Enquirer's newsroom: "It appears that the bulk of the savings will come from the elimination of the Friday Life section, which will be folded into the Weekend section, which itself will be shrunk by a reduction in the size of the calendar."

Cincinnati employees: Send more details, including suggested links, tips, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Image: Sunday's Enquirer, Newseum]

Separated at birth? Murdoch vs. Burns

Keith Rupert Murdoch, evil overlord of rapacious media empire News Corp., and Charles Montgomery Burns, evil overlord of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant on News Corp.'s The Simpsons.

Gannett still absent as Yahoo group grows

Internet giant Yahoo has added 17 more newspapers to its group of online publishing partners, The Associated Press says, "giving the group added heft as it approaches its one-year anniversary." But the group, while growing, still has several conspicuous absences, including No. 1 publisher Gannett. Separately, GCI and its frequent business partner MediaNews Group, along with Tribune and other publishers are also considering forming a joint ad-sales firm to sell bundles of advertising to big marketers, the A.P. says.

Traffic -- and your host -- reach dizzying heights

Earlier: More Gannett Blog TV episodes on my YouTube channel

10% Layoff Central: Your news, comments, here!

This open forum is for layoff-related comments: news, memos, etc., about the planned 10% workforce reduction set for early December. (Earlier editions.)

USA Today's 'big elephant' in the newsroom

A Gannett Blog reader writes from USA Today:

One of the big elephants in the room amid the 45 buyouts at USA Today is the longstanding animosity between many print and online staff at The Nation's Newspaper. And it's not going away, especially since the buyout plan exempts anyone with five or more years with the online operation.

Although we're supposed to be "one," USA Today really has two newsrooms. One is a collection of aging print veterans who barely knew what e-mail and the Web were when the staff was issued personal computers in the late 1990s -- and still don't understand the Web revolution, much less Web 2.0. The other is a collection of younger upstarts with lots of enthusiasm and HTML skills but little experience in or appreciation of the basic things that journalists do -- interviewing, writing, editing, etc. Many print people (who are at the top of their game) don't consider the online staff journalists at all (which angers the online people mightily). Many in the online staff (who have the forward-thinking vision we need) regard the print people as dinosaurs who really ought to take the buyout and head off to the retirement village asap.

Management has tried many ways to bring the groups together, including moving the staffs into the same office areas, holding cross-training sessions, and so on. But there's far too much of the entrenched thinking on both sides.

Unless management can bring these groups together, the company cannot move ahead in a meaningful way. My fear is that the buyouts and budget issues that created them will prevent us from really re-making the staff in the way it needs to be.

Do you see this same tension between print and online at your place?; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.