June traffic: Gannett makes news; what's next?

So much for my prediction of a summer news slowdown: Gannett rolled its pension plan into the deep freeze. USA Today announced a big management shake-up in its advertising sales. GCI stock plunged as May's revenue collapsed. The Detroit Free Press' corporate parent sought 150 buyouts. Then, just last Friday, newspaper division chief Bob Dickey squeezed out two powerful female publishers as he reorganized Gannett's most important, yet most troubled division.

Now, as the second quarter winds down to a close today, Gannett watchers nervously look ahead to July 16 -- two weeks from Wednesday -- when the company issues its next round of earnings, in a report expected to be less than cheery.

Reflecting Gannett's newsy month, traffic here rose in June -- defying my forecast to the contrary, according to a new report by Google Analytics. The number of unique visitors jumped 19% over May, to 14,474, as we scored nearly 55,000 visits. Plus, for the first time in a single month, Gannett Blog recorded more than 100,000 pageviews. (For context, Gannett employs about 46,000. And industry-leading blogger Jim Romenesko nabs 100,000 individual visitors a day.)

I deeply appreciate your support. As I plan my next career, I look forward to helping employees organize and inform themselves, as the nation's biggest newspaper company lurches forward.

Google Analytics has the data, available in a free report I make available to anyone. Want one? E-mail me confidentially, using this link from a non-work computer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Image: Google Analytics]