Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday | Feb. 15 | Your News & Comments
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37 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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This Sunday-dated post appears early, on Saturday night, because it's a pre-run!
ReplyDeleteIt's 12:01 a.m and Jersey is first again
ReplyDeleteOooh, I love pre-runs! Seems like that's 70 percent of what we do nowadays.
ReplyDeletebottom
ReplyDelete12:11 AM
ReplyDeleteYep... I love them also, that's what keeps production with J.O.B.
So, help me out. Our market capitalization is under a billion. We have four billion or so in debt. We've written off several billion in goodwill charges this past year. But we have all these facilities pretty much paid for all over the country.
ReplyDeleteHow much is the company actually worth?
Angela Phillips to the rescue!!! *Hot*
ReplyDeleteLook up in the sky--It's a bird--not it's a plane---No It's Krista Mueller to the rescue !!!
ReplyDeleteLove the new mug shot, Jim.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do mean "mug."
What I see on here are too many people saying how papers are going to fail. Ever think it's you kind of people making them fail? The best thing on here so far are the ones who want to charge for I-net use. Maybe that would chase some of them back to newspapers! Right on!
ReplyDeleteIf half of you who sit around saying "look at how we're failing" would try to come up with better solutions we wouldn't be failing.
In my neck of the woods Friday's and Saturday's paper sold 10% more at least, without trying, because people are looking for info on the Daytona race. People BUYING newspapers for expected news. What a concept!
I've been watching a lot of business and economic programs on cable lately.
ReplyDeleteIf the government keeps pouring money into "stimulus packages" like the one they just passed, there will be no need for newspapers.
You're looking at this from a narrow view. It's not the newspaper business that's in deep trouble, it's the once mighty U.S. economy.
If people don't have jobs and disposable incomes, they don't buy goods and services. With fewer people buying the advertising continues to slide and newspapers and other print and online media are in real trouble.
My next job is going to be in health care, unless it's socialized or nationalized health care. I don't want to work for the government.
Jim:
ReplyDeleteEven though your blog does do a great service by allowing info (wether it's accurate/true or not) to flow,So employees can be more informed then corporate wants.
I am starting to feel that the great amount of negativity projected on here is affecting the company thus affecting the stock value,Which in turn is hurting what's left of the worker bee's.
Somewhere among the kaos there has to be some positive news??
So it would be nice to see some silver lining is this Gray Cloud.
It can't be all bad ?????
Jim, what have you heard about Gannett doing away with employees' accrued sick time?
ReplyDeleteIn Asheville, employees under the old MultiMedia ownership got to "bank" hundreds of hours of sick time when Gannett bought the newspaper in 1997.
Now, like so many other banks, the sick time "bank" has gone under in Asheville, according to my sources.
Ash, I've been with Gannett for almost 20 years and worked at several different properties. Never have I been able to accrue sick time. Sounds like Ashville may just be catching up with the rest of Gannett. The folks there should be happy that they had the benefit for as long as they did.
ReplyDeleteTodd, your posts are tiresome and show your ignorance. You are obviously a bitter has-been that couldn't cut it in Westchester. What happened? Krista reject you?
ReplyDeletememo to ash:
ReplyDeleteaccrued sick days? Is ashville a government-owned operation???
If people would only stop talking about what’s wrong with Gannett here, things will improve? What a fantasy. Perhaps Gannett should eliminate its remaining scoundrels and its failed management practices first, thereby leaving far less for anyone to talk about negatively at all.
ReplyDelete5:26 the company's long-term value (like a home with a mortgage) is based on a simple accounting formula
ReplyDeleteASSETS (value-based on decline revenues- is DECLINING) MINUS DEBTS (which are fixed and have INTEREST PAYMENTS (which will increase when the debt is refinanced/rolled over to Higher Interest Rates because of Gannetts's low junk bond credit rating = EQUITY VALUE.
factor in
REVENUES (declining) MINUS EXPENSES (declining at a slower rate than revenues And Interest Expense actual projected to increase (assuming Gannett can refinance)) EQUALS = NET INCOME/PROFIT.
also factor in declining real estate and equipment values because of the global economic Depression and lack of financing for prospective buyers of Gannett's less valuable assets
and you get a long-term AFTER DEBT break-up value of (quoting Dean Wormer again) ZERO-POINT-ZERO.
I read some of the posts here and my jaw drops.
ReplyDeleteAccrued sick days? Huh? Janitors? Hah. Graphic artist? Nope.
Many of you need to walk a day in the life of those of us at smaller sites, who struggle just to get the darn newspaper out each day (and on the Web) against ever-increasing odds. Including editors who can't edit.
Louisville joined Gannett in 1986 -- we've never allowed sick days to accrue from year to year, nor can unused vacation days slide from one year to the next -- use it or lose it.
ReplyDeleteNow if there are furloughs in other quarters this year, I'm not sure how the company would be able to allow employees in some departments to use all their vacation time -- and get the paper out.
Gannett is actually worth about $30per share.
ReplyDelete2/14/2009 11:59 AM, who are you talking about? Inquiring minds want to know. And, depraved Gannettoid minds want to know too.
ReplyDeleteC'mon, dish the dirt about the HNT photogs.
Evan RaY to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteBill Albrect to the rescue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAccruing sick days and vacation days are something only government employees are allowed to do.
ReplyDeleteThen they cash them in during their last year of "public service" at their present rate of pay, which is higher than in the years from which the days were saved.
That, in turn, boosts their pensions, which are based on their last year's pay.
Oh, and by the way, government workers are about the only ones who still get defined-benefit pensions.
Re: Accrued Sick Time: Even at the accursed NJ Group, they allow you to carry over the miserably stingy five sicks days to the next year if you don't take them. This was a great benefit for our manager when we gave her a nervous breakdown and she never had to go on disability! Gannett gave it to her, and Gannett had enough banked sick days to cover it. What a wonderful group of human beings. Still and all........
ReplyDeleteNJ Newspapers Suck!
I work for the USPS and I get,13 sick days,5 weeks of vacation,13 paid holidays off,& Massive OT. I can bank my sick/vac days and get paid for then plus credits to my pension.
ReplyDeleteAnd now you see why your postage is going up again
I worked at two different GNJ papers and neither of them let you carry over your sick days. Oh, and at the CP we get 10 sick days, not 5. But if you don't use them, you just go back to 10. Using your sick days like additional days off is for people who don't deserve to be called journalists, especially in these times when it is such a tremendous burden on your coworkers.
ReplyDeletein indy, pre-gannett, our unused sick days accrued. we lost accrual in one of the contract negotiations, but kept our banked days. i was out 8 wks after knee surgery a few years ago, but when i retired via layoff in december (after 40+ years), i still had about 400 sick days banked. naturally, they were worth bupkes financially when i left.
ReplyDeletestill, i'm glad i was healthy enough to pile up all that time in case (like some colleagues) i'd suffered serious illness.
Wilmington doesn't allow banked sick, vacation or personal time in any way, shape or form.
ReplyDeleteAsheville should consider themselves damn lucky!
Bought a Gannett paper today, thinking, wow, this is pretty thick. Then I set it down at home and 3/4 of it slid on the floor in the form of advertising inserts. Within 15 minutes I'd read everything I was interested in.
ReplyDeleteWhat's going on?
Can't accure sick time but have excellent benefits....four weeks vacation, two weeks sick, one week personal and now a furlough. Not bad.
ReplyDeleteGannett papers and many have been slowly committing "suicide by internet."
ReplyDeleteIn order to survive, newspapers need to understand that advertisers want a high level of penetration by a newspaper in its market. That means print copies in homes.
By placing news content on free-access web sites, the newspapers are selling their souls.
Some have been charging to access to their web sites, but that is still counterproductive.
What is needed is this: the only way someone can access a paper's internet web site is by subscribing to the print edition. That keeps up circulation numbers and gives advertisers what they need: their print ad in homes.
This is so simple, but we have too many tekkies who can't wait to give away the only hook we have.
The gurus who predicted huge profits from the internet got their way, but there's one problem: they were wrong and there isn't adequate revenue there to support a comprehensive news product with an adequately staffed newsroom.
7:53.....AMEN
ReplyDeleteJoe Duffus to the rescue!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAccured sick time was grandfathered in to certain employees. New employees are not entitled to the same benefit.
ReplyDeletePlease lets stop being so negative, it's not good for the soul. Yes, we all know that things aren't great, but some are still working. While you are still working start sending out resumes, make a plan, whatever it is. Plan B should of already been made. We make our own destiny. We can sit around and wait — but why. That is being very foolish and naive. If there is something you have always wanted to do — now is the time to do it, while you still have a job. You may not get health insurance paid, four weeks vacation or 10 paid sick days, but this is your chance to do what you have always wanted to do rather than sit and wait for the axe to fall. This is your life, make the best of it. You only get one chance.
ReplyDelete