Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Wednesday | Feb. 4 | Your News & Comments

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133 comments:

  1. The chronicles of mismanagement and venality at GCI continue....

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  2. If they are giving cars away in Asbury you can bet directors etc. are receiving bonus.

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  3. I have heard of a director at another GCI location working on plans for a big spending spree. Don't these people understand prudence and fiscal responsibility?

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  4. How about this for a Question of the Day? How many of you are current Gannett employees and how many are former? I'm current and 50+ in age.

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  5. Current...50

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  6. Current . . . 24 (but I'm in the process of getting some education so I can join Freddy Mercury and "break free")

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  7. Here's a perfect example of why this whole story comment thing is absolutely a travesty.

    http://www.app.com/article/20090203/NEWS/90203025

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  8. You know, the whole company is going to hell and this whole blog is mired in infantile Asbury Park Press crap.

    If you folks don't like, or can't, work there, how about leaving and giving the rest of us who also have worries a damn break. This is bigger than the Jersey shore, OK?

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  9. And now for a bit of good news. The free USA TODAY application available on Iphone/Itouch is getting kudos from users. It's among the top 5 free downloadable apps.
    FINALLY someone is doing something right.
    Now if they could just get rid of the contract for retired CFO consultant for life Larry Miller, that would free up $300K a year for more projects to attract readers and potential advertisers.

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  10. 11:14 pm: There should be no comment allowed on these kinds of stories. Every time we run one of them, we get inundated with those kind of moronic comments.

    11:19 pm: What's your problem? There's plenty of room for everyone. If you don't want to read about the APP's "infantile crap," skip those posts.

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  11. 55, current

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  12. Hey Jim, Wednesday is February 4th, not February 3rd. Oops!

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  13. I am former, right after the last round of layoffs, I put out my resume and was quickly offered more money and benifits. I took it, but I cant help to look back as the ship slides under the waves. Also i am 34.

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  14. Current (but not for long) 59

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  15. Someone must have looked at that APP story. There were no "reactions" on the page whn I viewed it.

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  16. here in honolulu we are looking at taking a 10 percent pay cut and reporters and photographers will be doing the same work. terms of our negotiated settlement are up for a vote on sunday.

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  17. Did anyone notice in the article in USAT on Tuesday about the brothers who won the super bowl ad contest for the Doritos ad, it was mentioned that USAT had nothing to do with the contest? Strange this came after the posts on here Monday where several people thought USAT paid the prize money, I guess someone in McClean was reading the blog!

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  18. Maybe one of the financial savvy people out there can respond to this question(s) I have.

    What if GCI stock totally tanks and becomes worthless....so what.

    The company still has good cash flow.

    What if the dividend gets suspended..so what

    The company still has good cash flow.

    My point being...the company is still selling papers, selling ads and making many millions in bottom line profit.so if these "bad" things happen what difference does it make?

    The company does not need to keep selling stock to stay alive and I think all these armageddon worries are way over blown.

    Who out there can accurately answer these questions?

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  19. I hear a lot of "Gannett Bashing" going on here, and you need to take a look around.

    For all it's ills, Gannett is stronger and better managed than the vast majority of media companies.

    It's still a big company, and will suffer because of it's size. Like the industry wide problems that it is dealing EVERY newspaper in the country a blow.

    Like Kodak when their market went away, Newspapers underestimated how quickly the decline would occur.

    When things stabilize at a lower level, as they will, Gannett will be one of the last men standing.

    That, my friends, is a testament to the financial discipline and management talent that is constantly derided in this blog.

    If you're employed, count your lucky stars. If you're employed with Gannett, and are not eliminated in 2009, consider yourself blessed. You're working for one hell of a company.... warts and all.

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  20. JUST A WORD TO THE WISE.....if you are put in a layoff situation, take the lump sum.

    Tribune; which is going through bankruptcy since Mid-December had a ruling by the court to canceled all severance payments to former employees that were let go in 2007 & 2008 but today they had a revision on severance to future layoffs which are planned at Tribune in 2009 but will not help the others which agreed to the severance in the past.

    Just a FYI to Gannett future employees that may be in a layoff situation TAKE THE LUMP SUM !

    The Ganner

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  21. 11:19pm

    Shut the F up and blog; we love to hear what's going on around the country and not just in our microcosm. Don't be so small.

    Sincerely,
    The Jersey Shore

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  22. Former - 49

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  23. Any news on Cherry Hill lay offs ?.
    And the big three at the Daily news.

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  24. 11:54, Prufe rheeder is on furlo :)

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  25. Gannett Stock Hits All-Time Low

    By Mark Fitzgerald

    Published: February 03, 2009 6:50 PM ET
    CHICAGO Shares of Gannett Co. Inc. fell to their lowest level ever Tuesday on heavy trading.

    Gannett (NYSE: GCI) closed at $4.96, the first time its share price has gone below $5 in its more than 23 years as a publicly traded company. Gannett declined 35 cents a share, or 6.59%, in Tuesday's session.

    More than 14.3 million shares -- including a trade of 1.19 million shares minutes before the closing bell -- traded hands Tuesday, nearly three times the average volume of the past three months.

    Investors have had plenty of bad news about Gannett in recent days. In addition to reporting declining revenue for the fourth quarter of 2008, Gannett said last Friday that it would take an impairment charge on declining goodwill that could be as high as $5.9 billion.

    Two major credit ratings agencies also warned they may downgrade the USA Today publisher's debt below investment grade, an action that could make its cost of borrowing higher and would shut it out of certain sources of financing.

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  26. Ganett is like area 51,so many strang things happen there.Did you see that light in the sky?what was that? No there was nothing there at all!Wow if wee could only hear what thoes alians are thinking,yes alians,because that is what the board is all the little grays running around trying to save the mothership Gannett,and all they want to do is take the best and leave us all behind to be disected.Wow the smoke is getting thick in hear thanks for the no pay day off

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  27. Former,(happily), 50

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  28. David Yepsen, Des Moines Register political columnist, is fleeing the sinking ship: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090203/NEWS/90203065/1001/NEWS

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  29. Any news on Cherry Hill lay offs ?.
    How about big three at the daily news ?.

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  30. 45, current.

    I really am so worried because I'm one of those reporters who has been doing it for years and years. I never wanted to go up the ladder, though it was offered many times. I'm fine working on my beat. If this gig ends, it's the end of the road for me. I'll never work as a reporter again.

    If anybody gets updates on layoffs in Detroit or elsewhere, please post.

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  31. The bad news for Gannett stock will likely continue today. Apparently some of our large institutional investors have decided to get on a lifeboat while there are still lifeboats left:

    http://www.fitzandjen.com/2009/02/after-the-bell-tuesday-gannett-hits-alltime-low.html

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  32. 56 - Ex metro and feeling good I left when I did. Used the skills I had and learnt new'ns to boot.

    What a neat way to match 401K's, stop the cash match and substitute inflated stock that began to slide and will be worth nothing in the end.

    Hey, anybody need a mint Teleram P=1800?

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  33. With Gannett shares having fallen from $90 to $5 in five years, GCI execs have to wonder about their careers and their marketability if Gannett goes down or is broken up. A 45-year-old VP with 15 to 20 years of career ahead of her will look pretty bad being part of a management team that made one bad decision after another in the face of a declining industry. Of course, they weren't highly sought after in the first place, otherwise they wouldn't have ended up at Gannett. Now their fate is sealed, and they're going to hang around to milk the company of all the golf tournaments, college scholarships, pay and benefits they can get until they're physically shoved out of the building.

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  34. 77, retired; worried about pension.

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  35. Hey - The Courier Post has a new cost savings idea - don't deliver the paper if it snows an inch. It's called a SNOW Day. Right Walt!

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  36. that's right!! if you don't want to read about APP go to your worthless managers meeting.

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  37. Detroit Media Partnership has started layoffs in non-union employees today

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  38. I just heard a hot news tip that they're going to start selling Gannett stock in the break room vending machines. Has anyone heard anything to confirm this?

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  39. 3:50 am wrote:
    "Who out there can accurately answer these questions?"

    I've been looking at the GCI stock portfolios and recommendations from a bunch of different financial sources both online and at my brokers, ie: Smith Barney. None of what you're indicating is supported by any of their positions. I actually thought about buying at 4.95/share but even at that price, they are not recommending a buy. With the company's performance, the recent downgrade in the ability to obtain short term credit, the stock is just too risky.

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  40. When will Gannett stock be worth just a cup of coffee?

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  41. yeah break room vending machines. I think I'd rather buy a bag of stale chips

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  42. vending machines to funny!!!!

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  43. 56, former and I got my 401K and pension out before all the funny business started..Lucky me. If you can find something else, do it. You'll enjoy the freedom.

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  44. Moody's downgrades Gannett, citing revenue slump

    updated 4:25 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 2, 2009
    NEW YORK - Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit ratings of Gannett Co., publisher of USA Today, on Monday, concerned by an ongoing slide in advertising revenue.

    The ratings agency said the downgrade was prompted by Gannett's falling revenue and the agency's expectation that 2009 "will be incrementally challenging for the company's newspaper and broadcast operations."

    Moody's cut Gannett's senior unsecured rating one notch to a still-investment grade "Baa3" from "Baa2" and lowered its rating on commercial paper — a type of short term loan companies use to fund day-to-day operations — to "Prime-3" from "Prime-2."

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  45. Pretend like you're 18 again. You wake up and what do you do - go online to check your email, check your text messages, check your voicemail. See what your friends did last night. Etc. etc. etc. Aside from checking people.com or tmz.com, are you looking for any news?

    And yet, our marketing efforts to sell our product - and our product is our AUDIENCE, people - concentrate on moms, 25-34, and the dying print loyalists. The Monday NAA ad said more people read the newspaper than watched the Superbowl - AND WE RAN IT IN FRONT OF NEWSPAPER READERS!

    Everybody's advertising dollars suck right now. Wouldn't it make more sense to put that message on cheap billboards/tv/radio and tell our NON-readers that we're still relevant? That we pull in more readers each day and don't charge a million bucks an ad?

    Granted, we all laid off our marketing people - they always get it first. But they're working for broadcast now, might as well have them promote us while doing their new jobs!

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  46. I nearly had a heart attack (in a good way) when I checked the stock price and it said $29. Fix the ticker, Jim, it's displayed Yahoo!'s stock price.

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  47. I know Corporate reads this blog, and I also know that layoffs are under way again because January's ad revenue reports were so horribly dismal. So here is my two bits: get rid of the bloated and well-salaried vice presidents who are doing absolutely nothing. It is ridiculous to pay these quarter million dollar salaries to people who have devised a business plan that has performed so badly. Clean house at the upper levels this time around, and thin out the bureaucracy root and branch. This company needs new ideas.

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  48. 54 - laid off

    While buying the dailies this morning, I overheard the clerk and another customer talking about the APP.

    (Full disclosure: I have avoided looking at the paper since I was laid off.)

    The clerk was talking about how the APP was outselling the Star-Ledger when the Ledger raised its price. But now that the APP has raised it's price the Ledger is selling a lot more copies.

    Sure enough, the cost for the daily APP is now 75 cents, same as the Ledger.

    I hefted both.

    The APP is about one-third to one-fourth the size.

    Someone explain to Donovan and Sirmons about "perceived value."

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  49. Here's a first-ever blog from a 60-plus newspaper veteran recently thrown under the unemployment bus by Gannett. I've always been a glass half full person, yet Gannett's insensitivity to the staff it is shedding is making that viewpoint hard to hold onto.

    The big frustration is the inability to get specific information about picking up on COBRA. for those of us with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other chronic heealth issues, keeping insurance going is of high priority. my severance is up and despite three phone calls in the month prior to that to get info on COBRA procedure and the cost, I get no help.
    Just vague information that I'll be getting information in the mail after severance is up, within a month, and although "technically" I'll be without insurance, I can tell the insurer that I'll be picking up COBRA and they'll cover it retroactively.
    I broke down on the phone to the benefits corporate staffer and said my father was a diabetic who died after both his legs were amputated, my mother died of diabetes heart disease complications and I'm just supposed to wait and it'll get picked up retro, sometime, and will hear about the cost sometime?
    Hope my unemployment is enough to pay for my insurance and that of my partner, who otherwise will be uninsured because I was forced to let the insurance lapse waiting for info.
    Anyone else had this problem?
    Anonymous in Florida

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  50. Current, 33

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  51. 11:24 - I started selling GANNETT MATCH Every Payday since November-2003, because I saw the Dougie McCorkindale borrowed like a late-night informercial real estate speculator to overpay for every newspaper he could get his hands on. I've invested my 401K in the self-directed brokerage account and had a 2008 return of over 20%, 2009 year-to-date I'm up 4.3%. I tell you this not to be boastful, but to show you that you can take control of your investment destiny.

    Please consider this; ALL the Analysts' recommendations of HOLD & BUY wer in effect when the stock passed through $70...$60...$50...$40...$30...$20...$10...now they say sell at $5!! Tell me it's going to $5 when it's at $50....That's insight.


    DON'T RELY on someone else's opinion, use common sense and learn to analyze your investments....IT'S YOUR MONEY - LEARN HOW TO GROW IT like a farmer grows food. Good Luck

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  52. Fear not APP, Super K to the rescue.

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  53. 9:58 AM - Holy crap! I haven't heard the word Teleram in at least 20 years! :)

    Does it still work?

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  54. Re: Cobra.

    I really can sympathize with your situation, unfortunately it's been my experience that Cobra is not at all affordable, usually about equal to (at best) sate unemployment compensation.

    You might want to check to see if there's a state-wide health plan you qualify for based on your income.

    Best of luck.

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  55. Former,(happily), 36

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  56. The Greenville/Asheville consolidation continues down the path of failure. We have now lost another commercial printing customer, that's five customers so far. Poor print quality and strong arm tactics are driving customers away.

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  57. former 46 lovin it

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  58. I can't believe our exec's aren't checking email on furlough. what a lie! I walked past an exec's office and saw them on the "blog"

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  59. 56, former -- took a buyout 13 months ago. Sad then, glad now. Very, very lucky, all things considered.

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  60. When is Laffertys' furlough? He'll shit on his own floor if he doesn't know what's going on.

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  61. Any word on Gannett's plan to lift its leg and Rip One?

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  62. The last 2 weeks we here have shoved single copy to the back burner, getting them out after almost all home delivery. 3-4-5 am starts for the carriers in most cases. Is this the prevelant thinking of Gannett papers or just this particular one? Seems papers would try to SELL everything they can, and the way papers are curtailing HD you'd think we'd do everything we could to build up single copy. any thoughts from here?

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  63. Re Cobra, you are looking at either $400 a month for single coverage, or $580 for partner as well.

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  64. whats the word on gannett ditching
    2adpro and going with american
    outsourcing services?

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  65. 1:13

    Maybe Greenville/Asheville is losing print customers because an ex publisher went to work for a competitor.

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  66. 43 - former - left in 2004.

    I could not agree more 12:14pm.

    To 6:06am - you're in what's called the denial stage.

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  67. Gannett laid me off, so I am Former. 32 years old.

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  68. Wow Gannett stock dropped to $4.82 today as of 2:30 pm ET. Anyone want to take a crack at what it will be come this Friday at close of business???

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  69. GCI is headed towards a sub $1 billion market cap. That should catch someone's eyes, if not McLean's.

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  70. Just an interesting observation. Most of our directors and pub are smokers. Since smoking was banned on the property, these folks take "breaks" every hour, or two, for at least 20 mins - 1/2 hr each time. Seems like a ridiculous waste of time, considering the issues/challenges at hand. Wow. Add this time up, and it's significant. It is also a morale killer for the worker bees watching these folks spending their time in this manner, many of whom don't even take lunch breaks! Seems like a silly thing to mention, but it's another example of double standards, and double talk.

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  71. current (soon to be layed off) 52 yo

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  72. 55 ex-Gannett PR director in government, never been happier

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  73. To the person who talked about smoking breaks, you should see Westchester.

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  74. Current employee, for almost 10 years.

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  75. current, 42

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  76. INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY is no longer including Gannett in it's stock tables.....Amazing. I.B.D. does not post stocks less than $5 or $10.

    The stock is collapsing like a dying star collapsing into a Black Hole. The "gravitational pull" of this implosion might not allow any monetary value escape into investors' bank accounts.

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  77. 44, Former employee saw the wrecking ball coming in early 2008 after 7 years there...

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  78. stock settled at $4.75

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  79. Closed at the low for the day.

    The only real way this company is going to survive is to cut the bloat at the top, hold back the dividend, cut the meaty bonuses for people who obviously haven't earned them.

    The board needs to fire Gracia and Craig. No perks, no severance, as the grounds would be clear their acts and decisions were willfully detrimental to the well being of the company.

    JMHO

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  80. Any word on when "ASBURY PARK PRESS" will fall into the hands of P.C.F. delivery services.I know someone knows the takeover date .I just want to have some time to say goodbye to my delivery customers before i retire my service as a carrier.

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  81. Why doesn't Gannett just do a reverse split on there stock?

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  82. What say, yee institutional investors? Your group controls 95%of the o/s shares.

    I think back to the forced sale of KRI and wonder who is pushing any buttons at the GCI board level. Too quiet on the surface considering the free-fall in the stock price going on.

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  83. I think GCI has bitten the big Wazoo---Figures when you continue to have shit running Westchester---you get shit in return--WAKE UP CORPORATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  84. WestChester you think you have shit? Take a look at CH.

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  85. Gannett’s real problem lies within its culture.

    Knowingly tolerating abusive managers to roam freely for so long, and allowing them and this company to falsely believe that they are the brightest in the industry has done more damage than any economic downturn could create.

    And, history will increasingly prove that true.

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  86. Former - almost 44

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  87. 4:29. If you go on P.C.F.'s website (www.pcfcorp.com), you'll see in their "Clients" papge the Morristown Daily Record (Nov-2007 takeover), The Courier News (Jan-2008) and The Home News Tribune (Feb-23-2009). It's funny that they listed the Home News BEFORE the actual takeover date. We'll probably see it there before we hear from Neptune.

    All P.C.F. carriers were told their contracts will be terminated on March 31st, 2009; they were told by their managers that something "Big" was going to happen and not to worry. Combine all this with the conversion of all carrier collect customers to pay by mail by March and I think a resonable projection would be April or May.

    Maybe I'm wrong, but if you look at a map the enemy troops have gone from Morristown to Sommerville to East Brunswick in 3-1/2 months.

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  88. Will Gannett anoint DiSanto with yet another president’s ring for his efforts in outsourcing to P.C.F?

    If they do, that would speak volumes.

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  89. Interesting read - who can save the newspapers?

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-02-03/will-google-save-the-news/full/

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  90. 6:06 p.m. - in reference to the so-called "Gannett Bashing" going on here....maybe it's just me, but I call it (mostly) "Gannett Truthing."

    Why is it that other media companies haven't spawned such a widely-posted and followed blog?

    There's something binding us together, as current and former Gannetters, that has evolved from a common, shall we say, "suffering" not apparently experienced to the same degree of intensity as at other media conglomerates.

    The phrase, "You're working for one hell of a company.... warts and all" is, at best, wishful thinking.

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  91. When the obituary is wrtten (soon, I hope) for this miserable company, it will say that its demise was brought on in part because it drove out all the best and brightest managers, all those with knowledge and risk-taking abilities, all the innovators and daring thinkers.

    Why? Because Gannett hates people like that.

    Look at what idiots are running the Ohio community papers, for example. From the plunging circulation and quality of the dreadful Mansfield to the "hated by their community" papers in Newark, Chillicothe and Lancaster... all those at the top are good ol' boy idiots and gannett stooges.

    And they have been a drain on Gannett for years.

    One top editor routinely berates his staff when ever they don't win awards, another hides out in his office all day. Most live nowhere near their towns. They are clueless.

    Gannett obituary is so easy to write.

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  92. yea 1:13, that's it.... or another excuse could be,
    it was a "perfect storm".

    It's not that complex. we treat them bad, we sell them crap, and they leave.

    You can't fix a problem until you identify it. Or maybe you would rather blame it on someone else...

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  93. In my crystal ball (snow glode) I see a reverse stock split in our near future

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  94. 6:06 p.m. - You could not have said it any better!

    Sadly, gannett culture was - and is - one of fear.

    Hardly a day went by when I didn't fear that today was the day I was going to be fired - no matter how good a job I was doing! We all lived in constant fear.

    I am glad I quit this awful company. Sadly, it has ruined the careers of too many good journalists.

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  95. Obama's guy said don't waste a perfectly good crisis.

    Now's the time to kill the dividend and fix our debt and stock picture while preserving the tools for future growth.

    We have nothing left of value to cut, unless some moron decides that selling all our property and leasing it back is a good idea - especially in this market.

    At that point, our certificates wouldn't be a good substitute for Charmin.

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  96. I've listened and heard what many people are saying on these posts. I know there is truth. I remember what it was like working for Gannett when it was good. It was dynamic!! The honest hard working dedicated Exec's who would fight right along side you, because they believed in you. The passion energy and integrity was apparent. Next time in your office look around. Ask yourself does the person I report too have integrity? Do they work to energize or demoralize people? Or lastly do they even care?
    And to all the "manager wannabes" that have been writing regarding winers posting here. You don't have a clue what it's like working for a company that not only can get a job done, make money but employees people that know how. It's obvious you're at the wrong place in time.

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  97. Oh my God, someone here mentioned Gary DiSanto. He's another one of the crowd who was at one time at the Courier-Post and is pals with Mark Frisby and Jim Gregory both of whom are now at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. Wonder why Gary didn't join them over in Philly since they're all from the same mindset.

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  98. Gary couldn't make it. His blind coiffeur was doing his hair.

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  99. Calling out the nitwit who thinks buying Gannett stock means he sold Gannett a loan with guaranteed "interest" in continuing dividends:

    Did you hear President Obama's reality check today?

    How do you like stocks now?

    You lost your shirt. Get used to that poor-man's air conditioner.

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  100. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/iowa-political-columnist-leaves-journalism/?emc=eta1

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  101. Asheville apparently has begun sampling, with free papers delivered Wednesday to apartments and condos.
    Of course, since it's now printed in another state, the Citizen-Times had no coverage of UNC's basketball game against Maryland, which ended at 10 p.m.
    There's not much chance that 8 p.m. Major League Baseball games will make deadlines either.
    Why not just go ahead and convert to weekly publication?

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  102. Obama is right. People are angry at the salaries people are earning who didn't deserve them. It is time to bring Dubow, Gracia and the whole host of vice presidents to account, clean out the stables of failed executives, and start again renewed. This company is still strong enough to stand a wholesale purge of the whole wing of the Crystal Towers, and I am not sure it would be noticed by many. We need new thoughts, new leadership in this company. They have already lined their nests, so it would not really hurt.

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  103. Hi Dummies ! It's me JK to the rescue

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  104. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  105. 58 current 38yrs in

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  106. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  107. 28, former. Worked 6 years at 3 Gannett papers, then quit journalism altogether in 2007.

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  108. It's not the government's business in regards to how much money a CEO makes.
    I agree that it is too high. But Nationalizing business, like this new Straw-man Obama is doing nobody a favor.
    This is why the bailouts went to big business. To give Government an "in".
    This is really bad news

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  109. I think many of us here are missing the significance of the dividend fight. If Dubow is forced to ask the board of directors to lower or scrap the dividend, he will be committing suicide. This is a company that is so proud about the dividend it pays on its stock that it has increased the dividend for each year over the last 39 years through previous recessions and downturns. To be forced into changing that policy now is an unforgiveable breach of company policy, and an embarrassment that cannot be erased. We all wait to see what happens at the board of directors meeting and whether Dubow emerges from that session with the dividend intact, or he is gone. This is going to be one hell of a board of directors meeting.

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  110. 36-still here but not for long. Circulation and production being outsourced.

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  111. Why couldn't Hilton Hotels Corp. take over Crystal Palace?

    Real estate insiders have projected Park Place II, a new building in Tysons Corner built by B.F. Saul, as a likely destination for Hilton. The 312,897-square-foot, 11-story building, 7930 Jones Branch Drive , is near the McLean Hilton hotel and visible from the Beltway.

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  112. The caps on exec pay apply only to financial institutions that are asking for federal bailout money. Don't ask for money, don't face a pay cap. Losers who take taxpayer money to bail out their companies don't deserve multimillion-dollar salaries and bonuses.

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  113. The Miami Herald is reporting that GCI Board member Donna Shalala is emerging as a possible nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services after former Sen. Tom Daschle withdrew himself.

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  114. Jim Kroeze to the rescue

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  115. 12:33 p.m. I live in Florida, too. You've described it correctly. That was the same answer I got when I called my HR Dept. They told me that I should wait until about a week or so before my insurance ends, at which time COBRA will be sending me forms in the mail.

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  116. hey anybody know how ole GLW and SCJ are doing?? God I miss them...

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  117. Wow, Yepsen's gone. That's a bellwether. He's an Iowa institution, good at what he does and one of the few "brands" the once-kickass, Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read Register had left.

    Taking a job in academia wasn't his dream, no matter what PC quote he offered up for the Register's story announcing his departure.

    You can't tell me he didn't plan to live out his career at the Register. I don't believe it.

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  118. Corporations who own lots of non-manufacturing real estate have the opportunity to do triple-net leases, i.e. sell the building and lease it back. That way they get the proceeds of the sale but don't have to move. Don't know how much real estate a global company like Gannett owns but it must be worth billions even in a down market.

    Corporations have real estate departments to deal with this very thing. Anyone know anything about Gannett's?

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  119. Gary DiSanto was also one of the predators at the Courier News. When not romancing the female staff, made everyone else uncomfortable just by his attitude.

    We haven't had a poll of worst NJ Gannett newspapers lately, probably because they all suck; but the now Somerville Courier News is the worst. There have been incompetent employees before, but this is giving a new meaning to hostile working environment.
    With the exception of some boy reporters (who had better wake up and find real careers before it's too late) the paper simply stinks. The dude writing about Black History Month would be an embarrassment if he wrote for the old "Weekly Reader."

    BTW-- Current employee, age 97-- trying to find the HR person to put down her cigarettes and give me a pension figure.

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  120. 9:53 PM - GLW is hanging out in his condo on Cocoa Beach, down the road from Big Al.

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  121. Hey 97, most of dudes that came and went from the NJ Group thought they were living their life at the playboy mansion.
    Egomaniacal Hugh Hefner wannabes.

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  122. "UPDAE: School report cards released"
    That's a headline on the Mycentraljersey.com website of the HNT and CN tonight. Looks like this headline gets an F.

    Funny, my word verification was "readusat". I'm not even kidding, it really is "readusat"!

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  123. To those who can't wait for Gannett to bite the big one... Thanks, I'm one of the 35,000 or so that will be out of work.

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  124. Yeah, I can think of only one thing to say. I was in the same room with our leader a few months ago, his main goal was to get the hell out of there as fast as he could. Lets face it, he is probably a good enough person, but the peter principle has caught up like gang busters. Mr. Debow you just aren't the man for the job, board members, it is time to grab sack, admit you were mistaken and find a new leader. If you are too prideful to realize that, then you deserve what you get, the only problem is the rest of us suffer for your arrogance.

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  125. I hear The Greenville News is increasing single copy prices again(LOL). Information gathered says it will soon be .75/1.75

    Costs in new faceplates and other materials for two rate increases in 6 months? In excess of $9,000.

    We, as competitors outside GN NDM are in celebration!!!

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  126. I suspect Jim inserts some word verifications to amuse himself. I had one that I won't repeat but seemed to be mocking homophobes.

    PS. Thanks for all you do, Jim. I've gotten my $20 worth since I last paid you, so it's time to find another snail mail envelope.... Can I deduct being on here as a medical expense (mental disorder)?

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  127. HOPE SO I WANT ALL 35000 TO KNOW THE FEELING EVERY DAY.

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  128. To those who can't wait for Gannett to bite the big one... Thanks, I'm one of the 35,000 or so that will be out of work.

    2/04/2009 11:02 PM

    Many of us already are out of work, by no fault of our own due to the poor decisions of this company.

    It's not that we wish unemployment on you or others still working for the company. The "large and in charge" are the ones who have created the mess. They cut short many careers.

    Reap what thee sow...the Suits are finding that out, a day late and 5.9 billion dollars short.

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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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