Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday | March 26 | Your News & Comments
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52 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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Blogging may be light today and Friday, because I've assigned myself a new project!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Opinion/Content?oid=oid:123668
ReplyDeleteGetting high on haight jimbo? Prepping for mad season?
ReplyDeleteThis blog is DEAD! Good bye! Man dip my ass. What a boring blog.
ReplyDeleteHave a good two days Jim. We will miss you.
ReplyDeleteAnother day, of wimping,by Gannett's people who have no idea how easy they have it> If any of you had to go threw one tenth of the God Damm Bullshit, I have to go threw you would crack in a minute.
ReplyDeleteThe business office staff must be really dying this week with Rita and Theresa out on furlough...The two pieces of meat in the dept who do almost nothing at all except complain and rant about everyone else...oh yeah and kiss up big time to the publisher and controller
ReplyDeleteGuys, I read a lot of post talking about our stock price. Most were very negative. I know many of you are selling your match shares as soon as you get them. That’s fine, but I think many of you should take a closer look. The stock is insanely undervalued. Yes times are bad but how bad. We have made the necessary reductions in expenses and the numbers are starting to shift back. Think of the assets that we own. Now, with all that in mind, do you really think we are only a 2.40 stock? I have my answer. Yes, we are not a 90,80,70, ect. share anymore but 2.40? I think its safe to say that we should be around 5 to 10 before the year is out. I know that is still low in your eyes but think of what you return if your investing in at 2.40. I know that I will get some angry responses with my post here but it is what it is. What do I know anyway? I am just a Koolaid drinker.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, everyone try to stay positive. Things are turning around, I promise you.
A Republican blog in Iowa accuses Gannett of engineering a "secret taxpayer bailout" since furloughed Des Moines Register employees are allowed to collect benefits:
ReplyDeletehttp://theiowarepublican.com/home/2009/03/25/the-secret-taxpayer-bailout-of-the-des-moines-register/
After this batch of furloughs are completed by the Community Publishing Division, Gannett will have saved nearly $50 million dollars in payroll ... Jim can you ascertain as to whether that merely falls to bottom line, pays down debt, or is re-invested?
ReplyDeleteAccording to our "friends" at YBR...the list of those eligible for the Cobra subsidy does not have to be ready until April 15th. Sometime between now and then, letters will begin to go out to those who are eligible, explaining the program and containing the forms you need to fill out.
ReplyDeleteIf you feel you fall within the guidelines and don't hear anything by then, I would suggest you start to call them. Keep a log of who you speak to, the date and the (sure to be), myriad of excuses as to why you haven't been notified.
Remember, it's NOT just your Cobra premium that counts! It's any dependent that was insured through you and couldn't get healthcare from another source after you were terminated.
Our circulation head (don't know what monicker they have now-a-days) has once again said he "doesn't care about single copy. Home delivery is paid for so they get precedence". (third party quote). Another year with this guy (2 actually) in charge of single copy and there won't be any single copy. Any thoughts on what can be done? I can't believe Gannett signs off on this, even with what you all say about how Gannett runs things. The one over him said the other day "we're still in business to sell papers", yet he too signs off on this. This one has been quoted as saying he wished there never was a single copy. How dumb is that.
ReplyDeleteIf any of you Gannett people actually read this, Brevard needs help. This paper is being run right into the ground.
JIM your the best. keep up the good work.
ReplyDeletePut your money where your mouth is, Gannett malcontents! On today's business page there's a story about frustrated European workers holding 3M factory manager Luc Rousselet hostage in his office demanding better severance packages and better working conditions for those who weren't laid off. Follow their lead! Storm the Crystal Palace, the glass icon on the hill. Throw rocks! Block the doors. Get the attention of the nation and air your grievances. Charge!
ReplyDelete7:56 -- Please call Employee Assistance, if it still exists. You sound like you need a hug. Or a sedative.
ReplyDelete8:33 is right about the stock price. Selling your match shares as soon as you get them may make you feel good, but there's a much bigger upside and very little downside. Selling shares you bought long ago would be suicidal. You'd be losing $50 to 70 dollars a share, in many cases. Keep the stock, and the worst you can do is lose another $2.40. Given that everybody in Gannett ('cept the Board!) gets shares as the 401k match, the constant selling by Gannett employees may in fact put downward pressure on the stock price. With Gannett still turning a profit at most papers, the declining stock price has to play a part in putting our jobs at risk. So you'd figure a rising stock price might relieve some of the pressure. Take issue with this if you want, but try to do it without name-calling. I'm just a working stiff.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteTara Connell is expected to announce her resignation and Jennifer Carroll is taking over Content One!
ReplyDeleteActually, single-copy is a GREAT thing!
ReplyDeleteUnlike home delivery, single-copy generates almost 100% of cover price! It is the most profitable paper sold. Home delivery revenue per paper is MUCH lower than buying full-price at a box. Even in the stores where the dealer gets a cut, that copy is a bigger profit than any paper delivered at home by a carrier because of the delivery cost and the subscriber discount.
The drawback? The home delivery is guaranteed 7 days a week. Single-copy is up and down... somewhat.
But at my paper, single-copy is treasured just because of the profit it makes. We are about 80% home delivery - 20% single-copy. We maintain that radio most of the time!
Any circ manager who hates single-copy has no clue about revenue. He or she is an idiot.
Of course, I don't work for a Gannett newspaper....
http://gannett.com/go/newswatch/2009/mar/nw0326-1.htm
ReplyDeleteOMG.
Boomers, I believe, can spot it when journalists create content instead of reporting the news. Wow. Now Gannett is going to reward content creation! How sick is that.
Gannett is making this way too difficult.
8:33 -- You're probably right about the stock price being undervalued. But many, many companies out there have undervalued stock right now. I think the reason most of us are dropping Gannett stock is that we know the company is mismanaged and the debt load far exceeds the total value of the company (based on stock prices).
ReplyDeleteBasically, I would rather invest in some of the other undervalued companies that have been hammered by the economy but still have a functioning business model.
Even before the economy tanked newspapers were in trouble and I don't see massive circulation gains and double digit increases in Internet profit in the near future. I could be wrong, of course, but the stock market is based on long-term speculation and I don't see great things in our future.
Many serious investors don't go anywhere near newspapers, as they don't even see them as valid alternatives.
So has anything been happening with the web site that was announced a few weeks back--the one where ad designers were to send in their best work? Anybody doing this?
ReplyDelete11:09
ReplyDeleteWhat time is it in India where the designers are?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIf any at the top cared about saving the company and were actually interested in selling papers, they would reduce the price.
ReplyDeleteIf you took the S/C price back down to .25, the increase in readership would more than offset the revenue loss. Circ revenue is such a small part of total revenue anyway. Why not reduce it and increase volume?
The reason this is not done is that the company does not want to print paper. Get rid of the papers and no more print cost.
Jim: You might want to link to or post this item from Poynter about the upcoming changes in Detroit:
ReplyDeleteDetroit Papers Face Three Tests with Delivery Cuts, Digital Editions
On Monday, all eyes in the journalism world shift to Detroit, where the Free Press and The News will cut home delivery to just Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Free Press publisher Dave Hunke, who also heads the JOA with The News, says he'll measure success three ways:
* Replacing steep losses with positive cash flow
* Converting customer disruption to customer satisfaction
* Discovering a digital platform that that attracts the paid loyalty of a mass market
"If we do all of that stuff," Hunke said in a telephone interview Wednesday, "then I am going to be a very happy person."
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As radical as the cutbacks sounded when Hunke announced them Dec. 16, several more dramatic developments have hit the newspaper business in the three months since. They include the death of Denver's Rocky Mountain News, the conversion of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to online-only and this week's announcement that The Ann Arbor News will dissolve its current operations in favor of a new AnnArbor.com this summer.
But the Detroit moves are still critical because they represent the sort of hybrid approach that more and more news organizations are considering. And no one has done it before.
"We're doing some things in Detroit that are going to be stunning," Hunke said, "and we know we're going to be watched."
I confess to more than professional interest in what happens. I worked for the Free Press for nearly 20 years until 1992, and a relative has spoken out about his dismay about the delivery cutbacks.
Key to the plan's success, Hunke suggested on the Lehrer News Hour last week, will be shifting the Detroit story from cutbacks in print delivery to the exploration of new ways of putting journalism in front of readers.
"You can't negatively market your way into anything," he said. "But by mere fact of some scarcity and I guess you could call it deprivation, "We think there is a hybrid business solution to this."
- Detroit Media Partnership CEO Dave HunkeI think we're going to find out a lot very quickly about the mass market's adaptability to digital delivery of edited, written -- meaning with a beginning and end -- news content.
"And our goal is very much to stay in the newspaper business. We think there is a hybrid business solution to this. I think the public will begin giving us feedback about information they're willing to pay for and how might we deliver it to them."
Beginning March 30, the newspapers will print smaller editions on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday and will distribute only to 18,000 vendors and newspaper boxes -- no home subscribers. The idea is to cut costs on those days and to maximize revenue on the days most popular with advertisers and readers: Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
On non-home-delivery days, the papers plan to print about 200,000 copies, down from the current press run of nearly 500,000. He said he's not sure how The News and Free Press will divide the press run. Currently, the Free Press accounts for about 60 percent of daily sales, but he said the new arrangement will mean that "the best newspaper will win every day."
Hunke said he has become such a believer in the hybrid delivery plan that he wishes he "would have done it a year ago." He said the plan required extraordinary collaboration among the organization's 2,000 employees: "Barriers in this place have never been down as much as they are now. And it's paid off."
As part of an arrangement with the Teamsters union, the papers have agreed they will no longer be involved in the business of distribution on those days. But Hunke added: "I'm not naive. I could easily see somebody buying 10 papers at a gas station -- or more -- and distributing them to their neighbors."
Hunke has told colleagues that The News and the Free Press must achieve positive cash flow by the end of 2009.
"I’m going to begin to eliminate news print, gasoline, manufacturing and infrastructure costs, and we are going to preserve our news, our marketing, our finance functions."
-Detroit Media Partnership CEO Dave Hunke"If we are not a viable business, carrying our own weight, we will have proved nothing," Hunke said Wednesday. "It might have been better to have risked nothing and hide behind Michigan’s economy."
Hunke said advertising is sold out for the first two weeks of the scaled-back editions, which will include 32 pages in a single section for the Free Press. The News plans a two-section paper.
The papers have committed to a 50-50 split of news and advertising on the non-delivery days, compared to a share that now approaches 60 percent advertising. That, along with fewer pages and cheaper ad rates, may yield the kind of scarcity the papers hope will intensify demand among advertisers.
Sounding a bit like public official seeking sacrifice in hard times, he suggested that achieving customer satisfaction will require readers to accept a "shared burden" of getting the news delivered. He added: "We are going to disrupt one of the most traditional, good-morning parts of anybody's life and I need readers to tell me, 'You know, in the end, this works for me.'"
The public is beginning to understand, that "traditional newspapers may be in very serious trouble," he said. "People are far more ready to talk about different and more flexible and exciting forms of delivery of our content."
Since announcing the plans, the paper has heard from more than 30,000 readers, most of them by phone, according to Hunke.
"In the very beginning it was a mix of anger, sadness -- then it began to move quickly to, 'What about my bill?'" and other logistics questions, he said.
The most popular delivery option has been the $12-per-month combo that provides Thursday, Friday and Sunday delivery and access to a special digital edition (separate from the papers' Web sites) all seven days.
Many staffers argued that the papers have an obligation to serve longtime readers who are not comfortable with digital delivery. As a result, 200 senior centers were added to the list of drop-off spots on non-delivery days.
He said he was surprised that about 6,000 people have opted for a $31.13-per-month deal that involves postal delivery four days a week. He doubts the long-term viability of such delivery, guessing that it might involve a lot of "adult children buying subscriptions for elderly parents."
Hunke described the third test facing his plan as the "need to see some very concrete evidence that a mass market ... begins to show tremendous appetite to transact news and information in some form of digital platform. And I mean different from our Web sites that are free."
He acknowledged that the four-day switch from print to digital delivery is a long way from achieving wholesale acceptance, with about 20,000 subscribers opting out of getting the digital edition so far.
Hunke said he will make a major announcement Monday about the paper's new e-reader, an 8 1/2-by-11-inch device produced by Plastic Logic. He estimated the papers have about 100 of the e-readers but added, "we haven't decided how we're going to roll this out." A blog item posted Monday to a New Jersey newspaper's site includes photos of the device and a YouTube video describing its use.
Readers who do manage to track down a print edition on Monday will discover a significantly redesigned newspaper. Among other things, the reduced news hole has prompted a "no-jumps" rule for the Free Press -- not only on non-delivery days but throughout the week.
"The Free Press has viewed itself as a writers' newspaper," he said, "but if you sit in front of any group of readers you're going to hear them say you've simply got to get me to the point as fast as you can." He said he expects the newsroom will figure a way to "fudge" the rule one way or another as needed.
The Free Press has won several awards for its investigation of recently-released-from-jail former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and Hunke insisted investigative coverage would not suffer. "We will find a way to fit it into these formats."
Acknowledging that no one knows how the Detroit experiment will turn out and that other newspapers are trying other approaches. "I see Atlanta today announced massive layoffs as a way of climbing that mountain. My speech has been I'm going to begin to eliminate newsprint, gasoline, manufacturing and infrastructure costs, and we are going to preserve our news, our marketing, our finance functions.
"We will sell our way out of this, but our principles of maintaining our journalism and our ability to produce intensely local content is going to be what we are fighting for. And I’ll see whether that becomes a good business model shortly."
Guys ,hello, please don't look at our stock negatively . I think it is underappreciated! I would like you to invest in the stock because soon it will rebound to 10.00 or so dollars and would enjoy all of you furlough taking workers to invest in the stock. OOps sorry, my mind of absolute power is starting to show. I need to stop thinking aloud. So, you really should invest in the stock becuase when the economy turns up so will the stock my friend. I really need you to invest, today! I need to have all of you furloughed workers prop of the stock value because I need to dump alot of my stock because it is worthless.....thats why I took 800,000 plus bonus instead of stock! Oh sorry co-workers thinking aloud again. Bad craigie......oops. Hey look inside your hearts while you are taking these furloughs and realize the stock is underappreciated and come back and take a cold long gulp of this brand new flavorfull drink! MMMMM, taste good doen't it! Well, remember that we do care about every single employee and say hi to the children, we care..............damn where are my golf clubs? Did I leave them in the bahamas or on the company jet?
ReplyDeleteI want to hear more about this supposed change for Content 13!
ReplyDelete10:45 I agree. People leave home delivery for various reasons and start buying out of racks or stores...not the other way around. I still can't figure out whether this is a Gannett thing since these guys still run things or just this particular paper. Our numbers are shrinking as everyone's but most of it is caused in house. Nobody wants to do anything about it so us low people on the totem pole have to suffer and do the best with what we're given to work with. Frustrating to say the least.
ReplyDeleteSAVE THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY... What do you think would save the industry?
ReplyDeleteGoogle was asked: http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/07/technology/lashinsky_google.fortune/
What do you think about this Newspaper Revitalization Act:
http://www.examiner.com/x-3588-Detroit-Independent-Examiner~y2009m3d25-Senator-seeks-to-save-newspapers
ABOUT THIS (from 3/26/2009 10:57 AM)
ReplyDelete"Anonymous said...
http://gannett.com/go/newswatch/2009/mar/nw0326-1.htm
OMG.
Boomers, I believe, can spot it when journalists create content instead of reporting the news. Wow. Now Gannett is going to reward content creation! How sick is that.
Gannett is making this way too difficult."
Just read the news release.
She left out a line.
"Winners will be allowed to keep their present full-time workloads, at 20 hours per week, and will be notified between furloughs."
Yes 12:59, I agree that much of the loss comes from in house problems. And that in house loss is CONTENT. IF I'm going to even bother to read a newspaper, I ant to READ something with some balls! An example was the Drug Fair mess last week in NJ. The Star Ledger trumped us EVERYTIME. They had quotes, facts, store locations...everything. We buried it in the back and then spent a day or two forgetting it completely.
ReplyDeleteHow TWISTED is it when you are headed home (after a 13 hour Gannett day), and you are grabbing the competitions paper at the 7-11? This was BIG news in our parts. Many of us use this pharmacy chain and it employ(ed) friends and relatives. Yet we don't think it's top news. We'd rather write about some car fire that happened near our HQ.
Hell, I don't read our paper! WHY would I expect other people to? And anyone ignoring single copy is going to ignore himself out of his job...
When I fled from Gannett a few years back... selling my stock by the way!!!.... I went to a smaller chain of newspapers...
ReplyDeleteThe difference was incredible.
This company encouraged people to take risks, come up with ideas on our own.. then just do them!!!!!!
This company is very hands off, and each of us papers have a lot of independence - no cookie cutter attitude. Frankly, my company ony cares that we are local, in touch with the local community, and that we make money. That's it!!
Oh, and our websites are updated at our own papers....
This company really shuns "consolidating" and centralizing - because they know it really doesn't save money! and takes away local control.
No, we're not perfect, and our resources are limited... but damn.. it is so nice to have hands off from corp!!!
too bad Gannett never understood the idea of local control and autonomy.
Would anyone like to comment on hitting the lowest paid people in the organization. The independent contractors or carriers as we know them. It does seem that the bean counters are not counting the revenue they loose from single copy.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard the story about the home delivery managers who volunteered to go from employees to independent contractors to help the company in this time of dire need thinking the Vice President would reward them for their loyalty by giving them a per paper compensation that would allow them to make 90-100K per year?
ReplyDeleteLots of long faces after they where told their compensation.
NYT announces 5% pay cut plus 10 additional personal days.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete3:38, if your new company is so wonderful, please share the name so we can learn. No need to hide it, unless you're just making it all up.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteLet me get this straight Craig duh-bow made 18 million total in the last three years and 3 million last year counting his 800,000 plus bonus and salray and options.............and we have to take furloughs? NOw he wants us to buy more stock too?
ReplyDeleteHey buddy thats not counting the countless millions made by the rest of the "golden cows" below him!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhere have you been “My boss said”? We need your insight. What is going on with inside sales of classified and career builder? When will the next round of layoffs be?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your help.
I don't know if I'm more angry or sad when read about the compensation packages of top executives. Corporate greed is so wide spread. How anyone can care so little about his fellow man that he or she can accept such outrageous compensation at the expense of another person. Do you sleep well at night knowing that your employees are losing their homes, that they can't afford to send their children to local community colleges, that many are struggling to pay for medicine that keep them healthy enough to go to work everyday, only to find out they're going to lose another weeks pay, and pay freezes are in place as well. What was that you said monday about thanking us for our hard work, dedication and loyalty? And doing whatever we can to keep Gannett strong? You may think I'm a disgruntled employee, but your wrong, disallusioned yes!..I believe in Gannett, I believe this company can survive, that the newspaper business is not a thing of the past...but to do this we must ALL make some sacrifices, I believe Gannett can be a leader in showing corporate America how to turn things around.
ReplyDeleteBut it has too be visible and come from the top.
Has it occurred to anyone that laying off people leads to less advertising, less revenue. When is enough, enough?
Come on Gannett,show IBM, AIG, and all the other big companies that your employees and the health of the company are more important than company jets, country club memberships, and big expensive vacation homes. Show US some dedication and loyalty.
WASHINGTON — All or part of unemployment benefits received in 2009 will be tax free for many unemployed workers, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
ReplyDelete“This morning we learned that a record 5.6 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the middle of March. This underscores the need for the relief provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which includes making the first $2,400 of unemployment insurance exempt from tax,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “I urge all unemployed workers to take this special tax break into account as they plan their tax withholding and quarterly estimated tax payments for the year. This change offers a helping hand to millions of Americans who are out of work and struggling to make ends meet.”
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, enacted last month, every person who receives unemployment benefits during 2009 is eligible to exclude the first $2,400 of these benefits when they file their tax return next year. For a married couple, the exclusion applies to each spouse, separately. Thus, if both spouses receive unemployment benefits during 2009, each may exclude from income the first $2,400 of benefits they receive.
The new law doesn’t affect the return taxpayers are filling out now. Unemployment benefits received in 2008 and prior years remain fully taxable
I am wondering if anyone had heard about layoffs. The furloughs seem to be in lieu of layoffs, right?
ReplyDeleteSo does anyone know if the rumor is true... The publishers recieved a bonus in March of around 6 figures?
ReplyDeleteIt's a wander why ad revenue is going down. Has anybody ever looked at the managment of the ad reps. They don't know how to manage sales people. They don't even know what it takes to run a small business. Most managers know how to run a business or sale by what they read in a book or told by Corporate.
BLM
I hope you'll post this Jim, b/c I refuse to throw down the gauntlet to the person(s) attacking USAT/Corp last night and having their facts wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere IS a light at Jones Branch & Westpark. Granted, it is not that long, but it is a traffic light. You should be able to see it on a Google Earth satellite photo.
That is unless there is a cut through somewhere around Sunrise or the Hilton??? If so, I wave the white flag and ask for you to post where to turn so I can skip sitting at that light.
My solution to this entire mess...
ReplyDeleteBreak. Up. Gannett.
Gannett is way too big and owns way too much in way too many places.
1. Spin off Newsquest. Why does an American company own a UK publisher?
2. Spin off all papers under 200,000 circulation. Ideally Gannett should keep USA Today, Cincinnati and Indianapolis and stick to being an East Coast company. Everything else spin off. The smaller papers would flourish under local ownership responsive to their own communities.
3. Spin off the TV stations.
4. Sell Phoenix, Detroit and Des Moines to current on-site management.
Good plan? Why or why not?
9:03 PM
ReplyDeleteThe only layoffs I've heard about through the grapevine are supposedly happening very soon at the AZ Republic and involve several departments including marketing/circulation. Hopefully, they'll retain the field worker bees and purge some of the lame long timers who work in downtown circ, have the personality of a rock and haven't had an original idea since they started.
Yes, maybe I should have said in my earlier post the chain I'm now with, BUT...
ReplyDeleteThere is a downside I don't think most Gannett or even ex-Gannett folks could take - the papers don't pay worth a damn.... I mean, really low - reporters start at about $17-18,000 a year. Many MEs make $27,000-$28,000 a year. Newsrooms are lean .. equipment is old.
Really sucks... so yes, we have autonomy, but we also have spartan buildings, no 401K and no bonuses.
THAT is the downside of my company..... most Gannetters would never work for that little, despite the independence at these "smaller" hometown papers ... because the pay is too low.
9.44 I love that idea ...........plus fire the board and "CEO"
ReplyDeleteThere will be layoffs before Q2 ends.
ReplyDelete