Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday | Feb. 18 | Your News & Comments
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66 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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GANNETT is now worth
ReplyDelete$917,050,000.00
if there are still 40,000 employees,
the company is worth $22,925.00 PER WORKER.
If Gannett cuts 20-thousand more, the value of its work force will double. I think I'm ready for the 11th floor.
ReplyDeleteActually, previous post was sort of whack. Divide employees by revenue and the number should be revealing and likely quite positive.
Anybody who wants to make their money back in five years, offer $100 million for the Wisconsin papers and leave GCI the rest of the 'toxic assets'.
ReplyDeleteOuch!
ReplyDeleteFrom yesterday: The state of NJ is doing a mandatory 2 day fulough for it's state workers and saving 35 million. With all Gannett workers taking a week off without pay, one can get a good idea of how much they are saving; I bet it's alot more then the 35mil the state is saving.
ReplyDeleteAh, Grasshopper, that would be a smart notion if all those Gannett employees were making as much as a state worker. :)
Perhaps Gannett should follow GE's lead..."General Electric CEO Immelt will get no bonus for 2008, WSJ."
ReplyDeleteContinuing yesterday's late query.. If you could buy a Gannett paper (consider everything because you get the people, the press, the whole shebang), which would you buy? We have a Oshkosh, Arizona and Green Bay so far. Gannett's consolidations in many areas decrease the value of some papers that have good profit because you'd have to rebuild whole departments in some cases.
ReplyDeleteI just read the UFO comments from yesterday. Hilarious, truly hilarious. And to the dude who thinks we're missing our calling by not reporting on it: I took those calls for years at the APP, and 98 percent of them came on Friday nights from folks who were so drunk they could barely spell UFO. If you want to be taken seriously, go back to school and take some courses in basic English. I couldn't even follow what you were saying it was so disjointed.
ReplyDeleteTo my APP brethren: My heart aches for those of you still there every time I look at the website.
And to the Jersey bashers: It's not the papers that suck, it's the Gannettized management that sucks.
Stupid question time: With the stock price so low, how come some corporate raider (if there are corporate raiders anymore) doesn't swoop in, buy the company, and sell it for parts or scrap metal? I'm sure you could find local buyers for some of the papers and TV stations. If not, sell the buildings and parking spaces and all the rest. I need some smart business person to explain this to me. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSo we could all theoretically get what amounts to a modest car loan and buy the company. But do we want it?
ReplyDeleteI want to hear back from the April Fool poster who claims that "good people'' are "coming back'' to NJ. Is this just an April Fool's joke - if so, ha ha, stop posting it - or is there something real here? I can't see who would want to come back or why. Of course, everyone's definition of "good'' is decidedly different.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if we all bought stock and fired mangement we could save the company.
ReplyDeleteCome on and lay us off - I want to get one of those high paying bailout jobs.
ReplyDeleteAnd Google is worth $4.9 million per employee or 213 times what GCI is worth. Gannett would have to have just 200 employees to meet the same market cap per employee.
ReplyDeleteScott
Morning,
ReplyDeleteHere's some food for thought.
Will Gannett even be in the newspaper business in 5 years?
This is similar to what Thomson did when it sold all its papers and kept only the flagship, Globe and Mail of Toronto.
I would not be surprised at all if this is where the company is heading.
Think about it. Keep some Web sites and USAT plus a few major dailies like Phoenix and others in growth areas. Sell off the Ohio, Wisconsin, NY papers, etc.
Put that money toward USAT and the Web. Lots fewer employees and a more profitable bottom line.
A GCI exec told me a few years back the only thing that matters is the bottom line P&L.
Any thoughts from you good people on this? Thought it a good discussion topic on a rainy day here.
The next round of layoffs is upon us in Binghamton, Ithaca, and Elmira...last week the Graphics staff in Elmira and Ithaca were told that in April there would no longer be any graphic staff at either site. A couple positions will be added in Binghamton, where all production for the three sites will now take place...and those let go are free to interview for those positions.
ReplyDeleteAnd last night, the news staff in Elmira and Ithaca were informed of a major layoff that would leave just 5-6 people in the whole newsroom in Elmira (2 editors, 2 reporters, and photog); probably less in Ithaca.
Why don't they just put the three papers under one masthead already? The product in all three markets has become garbage...why not combine them and make it one big, ugly dumpster?
The slow death knell of the Ithaca Journal continues. Yesterday the entire copy desk was informed they would be cut, but not for a few weeks, while centralization to Binghamton gets "figured out." Included in the copy desk body count: dedicated worker of nearly 30 years. Heard same thing has happened in Elmira.
ReplyDelete7:46 NOT A STUPID QUESTION.
ReplyDeleteANSWER = because no corporate raider sees value. Look a Sam Zell's "prescient" analysis of TRIBUNE. In December-2007, he borrowed $10+ Billion to buy the company and make is "Employee Owned"; November-2008 (11 months later) TRIBUNE BANKRUPT.
GANNETT has no long-term value to an investor as currently configured & managed.
All I would do is wait until more printing plants and papers close down and offer minimal price....no other bidders want to risk what cash they have left after the economic implosion. Also keep in mind DEBT DESTRUCTION (via violent deleveraging) will continue for YEARS.
Who will lend to buy Gannett assets that have rapidly declining revenues? Would you rush to buy a rental property in Fort Meyers, Florida while there is 15+%unemployment and hundreds of foreclosures per month?
Maybe the plan is to dole out the next round site by site, not all at once to further avoid stuff leaking out ahead of time. In any case, reading about massive layoffs across all industries, it is unimaginable that more aren't coming at us fast.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, I know of at least two cases in Elmira and Ithaca in which employees on furlough were not contacted about the latest layoffs, even though they were directly affected. They had to find out through clandestine phone calls from friends. I realize the forced unpaid leave means you're not part of the company, but doesn't that seem a little wrong?
ReplyDeleteFrom yesterday: 2/17/2009 4:36 PM
ReplyDeleteGannett is negotiating with the National Association of Chiefs of Police about a new, mutually beneficial program. PD flacks would do writeups of all crime news and accident reports and Gannett papers would run them with minor editing. The move is part of an outsourcing program with a "Made in America" component that keeps the work from going to India, which bid on the project. If this pilot project succeeds, Gannett will seek similar arrangements with state and local government officials.
Well, we do that at our site all the time. It's called typing in a press release from the cops, even if it's only two paragraphs, and slam it on the Web. And with no editing and no phone calls to ask questions.
Who here thinks that maybe the furlough program is not to save money on a one time basis, but to find out those who are unnecessary? That is, those for whom it is not necessary to cover with OT. That way, they can target people for the next round of layoffs.
ReplyDeleteWell Bu Fox,
ReplyDeleteI want you to buy 115 Million Shares of Gannett at 15 Cents a Share, 18 Cents Tops.
Gordon Gekko
7:46, That's not a stupid question at all. I keep asking myself that. It's time to vacate Crystal Palace, trim more corporate fat, and spin off Broadcast, Newsquest and Captivate.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jim, for putting the stock widget at the top!
ReplyDelete"Who here thinks that maybe the furlough program is not to save money on a one time basis, but to find out those who are unnecessary?"
ReplyDeleteEmployees show them that the work can get done with less people (even though they're jumping through hoops to do it.) Gannett sees this and will accept nothing less from that point on. Gannett is looking for a short term fix... Long term effects? Employees blow themselves out and quit. Gannett's reaction? Hire someone fresh out of college for less pay at part-time. Institutional knowledge takes another hit and the downward spiral continues.
Re: People coming back in NJ.
ReplyDeleteEven if it was true, who do you think would be asked back first? The talented or the cronies?
http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20090218/NEWS0103/302180044
ReplyDeleteJury selection begins today in the murder trial of Enquirer ad sales rep Cheryl McCafferty, who has been on "furlough" since she killed her husband in June 2007.
The Enquirer publisher reportedly is undecided about which verdict would most benefit the Enquirer. On one hand, there is no compensation budgeted for McCafferty in 2009. On the other hand, the publisher believes McCafferty could make a major contribution if GCI mandates further "staff reductions" and is tempted to transfer McCafferty to Human Resources.
10:39 AM wrote: "The product in all three markets has become garbage...why not combine them and make it one big, ugly dumpster?"
ReplyDeleteGee, thanks.
"Will Gannett even be in the newspaper business in 5 years?"
ReplyDeleteDoubtful. It seems like the course right now is to downsize the newspapers to the point that they could be sold off to local markets (pretty much completing the full circle).
Many papers are still profitable, but they're running on slimmer margins. If you didn't have to send all the profits up to corporate, I bet some of 'em could keep current staff levels.
Dump the high paid Publishers and BS new media directors of this and that and sell 'em off!
I'm not a finance guy, but I have to think that good papers could still be profitable. Just axe all the managers who do no real work but are paid royally to "think great thoughts," get rid of expensive and time-consuming corporate directives and bring in people who are dedicated to news as a public service, rather than those who want mainly to line their own pockets while climbing the corporate ladder.
ReplyDeleteok, i may want to say God bless Mogulus, through which I am watching the opening ceremonies of the president's speech outside Phoenix, while the local Gannett-owned TV station (and others) are not cutting away from programming (Regis and Kelly in this case). (Of course, the mogulus feed gets disrupted, but at least it's there.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, only a Belo-owned station seems to plan live coverage when the president actually starts speaking... we'll see.
For those of you not familiar with Gannett's Phoenix operations, the company owns The Arizona Republic, the NBC affiliate (Channel 12) and those two jointly (more or less) operate azcentral.com, on which the mogulus feed is.
Obama appearance update, ok, channel 12 is breaking away for live coverage of the president - - funny how the newspaper did not promote TV coverage
ReplyDelete"ANSWER = because no corporate raider sees value."
ReplyDeleteBingo. Not when the stock is fluctuating with the market between 5 and 3.5, the forecast is grim for the industry as a whole, the stock is being downgraded each pass, and there's virtually no indication it will do nothing but go down in price.
Why buy at 3 when you can buy at .75 in a few months? At some point the whole will be purchased and the individual properties will be sold at a profit, but not until the stock really bottoms out, and the economy shows signs of turning around.
Anyone know if Dubow & co. have anything in their contracts that gives them a windfall should the company be purchased as a whole, or is this something that would be negotiated as part of a takeover or outright sale?
ReplyDeletedespite, in the last year, the Ithaca Journal winning best small paper in NY, multiple AP writing and design awards, and recent circ info that says our staff was improving on gannett's key numbers, the regionalization continues. The latest round of layoffs, coming the middle of furloughs, is just insulting to our intelligence.
ReplyDeleteOur paper, as a single unit under local ownership, would once again actually serve the community with a legitimate product while retaining adequate profit for owners, who would be hailed as heroes.
ReplyDeleteOurs is a paper that continues to pump tens of millions of dollars into GCI coffers, even as GCI guts it. Readers and advertisers would return and multiply if it were returned to its former status as a true full-service community newspaper, offsetting the relatively minor increased expenses involved.
It's amazing to me that the thrust of the whole company was, and has been, quantity over quality. The whole philosophy to attract customers to the new digital media was never focused on quality editorial content. Instead the company's bright idea was to become a portal, similar to the my_yahoo's and my_AOl pages of a by-gone era.
ReplyDeleteThe high speed access of today did away with the need for this kind of one-stop web shopping. Instead, savvy web surfers and bloggers get their news sources from a variety of excellent resources.
The key message here is in order to increase the number of people visiting sites and attracting local advertisers it is absolutely necessary to have well written, viable and pertinent content in a streamlined online product that's easily accessed, well laid out, easy to navigated, and most importantly, wholly supported by the editorial and news print products.
We had that 5 years ago until it became corporate's quest to adopt ancient cookie cutter philosophies and apply them to the new digital media in order to save expenses. Now we have lost editors and some damned fine editors and writers I might add. We have cut away at the very core of what it is that made people want to access our sites and buy our papers. When we should have been investing in excellence, we carved away at expenses and effectively killed what we once were. It's a shame to see what they've done to the papers and to online and it's no wonder the company is in crisis.
Sounds like Lee Enterprises may be going down for the count (Tucson JOA partner).
ReplyDeleteStaff there got paid a few days early and got some $$ for their shares of Lee stock. Guess they didn't make their Friday the 13th "get your house in order" deadline.
Most of the good talent is long gone from Gannett New Jersey.
ReplyDelete"It's amazing to me that the thrust of the whole company was, and has been, quantity over quality."
ReplyDeleteThis has been the thrust not only in Gannett but in many, many corporate-owned businesses. When's the last time you got really good customer service at a business? I can think of a handful of large companies that consistently provide good service, but not many more. Everything is bottom-line oriented, and it's only getting worse as the economy tightens. Welcome to the new America.
BREAKING NEWS--Media General Announces Furlough Program:
ReplyDeletehttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/Media-General-Announces-prnews-14402391.html
Time to lighten up:
ReplyDeletehttp://overheardinthenewsroom.com/
11:26
ReplyDeleteyou are sick!
Brad Van Pelt, star linebacker for Michigan State and the New York Giants, died of a heart attack yesterday. The LSJ covers MSU but what's the coverage out of Lansing? 4 grafs + "Check www.lsj.com for updates". You have to go to the NY Daily News for a full story.
ReplyDeleteThe good people that "could" come back to NJ are dead.
ReplyDelete3:40,
ReplyDeleteWhy not rip LSJ for not having the story predicting his death in Monday's paper?
Unless someone called the paper right after he died, how would they have gotten the news in time for today's paper? Deaths are reported by the family unless it's a car accident or something. You can't exactly just call everyone of interest every day to see if they unexpectingly died.
Grow up and stick to legit criticism.
Intelligent Question---Why are the horrid directors--vp-operations etc...still employed at the Journal News?!?!--Or Lo-Hud or whatever they are calling this garbage this week.
ReplyDeleteIf the state of New Jersey is doing a mandatory 2 day furlough for it's state workers and saving 35 million.
ReplyDeleteNow with all Gannett workers taking a week off with out pay,you now can get a good idea of how much they are saving? I bet it's alot more then the 35mil the state is saving
My apologies, Jim, if this is inappropriate, but does anyone know of a similar site or blog about GateHouse?
ReplyDelete5:11 pm: That's a perfectly appropriate question. The answer is, no -- as near as I can tell. Here's the only list I know about of blogs about newspapers and newspaper publishers: http://tinyurl.com/657krb
ReplyDelete4:16 -- You are right about sticking to legit criticisms when it comes to the LSJ. Frankly, there are SOOOO many things that newspaper does awfully these days that chiding them for simply falling behind on one freakin' news story is missing the point. When it comes to the absolutely horrid newsroom leadership, one can focus on grander criticisms. Oh boy, don't even get me started on that EE who has to call the help desk everytime someone sends him a text message or how he doesn't even know how to check his freakin' email at home! This is an executive who thinks facebook is a loose-leaf binder filled with mugshots of people. These are not exaggerations, either. Of course, people like the "tech-saavy" EE in Lansing are supposted to be leading Gannett into the digital age. Something tells me that it ain't gonna' work.
ReplyDeleteI often wondered what that EE ever did to have such a high-up job. Certainly, his ascension to that level wasn't based on logic or brains.
So friends, when it comes to Lansing, let's take 4:16's point and stick to all of the "big picture" stuff that they constantly screw up. No need to get nitpicky. So what if they screwed up the launch of a state workers salary database and lost an eventual 10,000 subscriptions as a result and even more money in the advertising from those lost subscribers. So what.
6:36:
ReplyDeleteI agree there's plenty to critique about Lansing, but the state salary database was worthy of showcasing.
People have a right to know how much of their tax dollars are going to pay the salaries of police officers, public school teachers and the like.
It's taxpayers' money, that should be transparent and it's up the paper to make it accessible.
4:16
Asheville routinely lifts "news releases" from the APD, seldom talking to cops on the scene or investigators. And that's for the daily, not just the website.
ReplyDelete6:36:
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest about something like salary data bases: They're not about governmental transparency, they're about hoping for voyueristic web hits with people who know people wanting to know what they make. This isn't to say that some data bases like these aren't legitimate: Overtime costs for government, etc., but you'll never convince me a data base with all government salaries is put online for a purely First Amendment rationale. The same goes for pistol permit data bases. We do it in hopes lots of people will look at it, not because they should but because they can.
I apologize: My last comment should have been directed at 6:53, not 6:36
ReplyDelete7:01
ReplyDeleteYou should really have shared that the APD's public relations person is a former asheville citizen-times reporter who was very highly regarded by her peers
Twin spin in the New Jersey group ...
ReplyDeleteProgram on dental hygiene "will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26 ..."
Church screening a movie "that was shown in treaters nationwide ..."
These were from separate news blips on the Community News page of the C-N today.
If they keep having a bunch of or very long furlough, over time they may be desperate and hoping people will get financially desperate and quit and find another job so they won't have to "can" them and pay their unemployment....boy that would be a desperate day.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this should be named the Gannett New Jersey blog...what a load of negative energy...or perhaps it is three or four posters.
ReplyDelete3:22 PM -- lol, thanks! Needed that.
ReplyDelete8:25 AM----- Don't you get it? NJ PAPERS SUCK! There would be nothing to come back to at any of the locations. Both morale and morals are very low. Has Craig Dubow ever been to NJ? It just could not have become this screwed up without HIM.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot easier to whine and cry when you don't have specific examples to come up with.
ReplyDeleteAnon@416P, Anon@636P: Stories that break during the day mean online coverage. As of this moment Lansing has NOT updated its story on Brad Van Pelt. Even the Gannett-owned Detroit Free Press was able to come up with more detail.
Anon@939P: Missed stories, pimping for cronies, obvious mistakes getting into print ... it's all inside.
Thanks, Jim!
ReplyDeletethis site is great even for non-gannetters; we're all in similar boats.
-the anonymous formerly known as 5:11 p.m.
It's a Wrap Rap
ReplyDeleteTossed to the ground
Like so much trash
By a golfing boss
With a lazy ass
He don't care
What pain he cause
Cuz he got game
Past menopause
(chorus)
He da man
The Gannett man
A corporate clueless
Wanna be
Don't give a damn
Bout you and me
He da man
The Gannet man
A corporate clueless
Souless scam
We got kids
We got homes
We got dogs
And we got loans
We gonna join
The welfare state
Cuz big corporate man
Is filled with hate
Obama this and
Obama that
Gave us hope for
Another at bat
But with Gannett boss
Closin' us down
Got no choice cept
To go way down
Thud and thwop,
That's us fallin'
Some livin in our cars
'Til a job come callin'
Will work for food
Or whatever ya got
Cuz just right now
I don't have a lot
Bitter?
Me?
Never say dat.
I'm a reporter
F*** all that
Trim corporate fat. That's hillarious. They'd need to hire a floor full or two to get some fat.
ReplyDelete