May's revenue plunged 10.9%, to $536 million, Gannett said in its monthly statistical report. It was the worst monthly performance this year, hinting at an acceleration in GCI's deteriorating finances -- and threatening more job cuts ahead. The results followed GCI's stunning announcement last week that it is freezing the pension plan.
Across board, May sales worsen
As this chart shows, results were even weaker than in April. May's newspaper publishing ad revenue -- Gannett's No. 1 source of sales -- fell 14.3% from a year ago, to $347 million, the report says.Classified ad revenue plunged 18.8%. "Real estate revenues declined 30.9%, employment revenues were 23.9% lower and automotive revenues were down 13.1%,'' the report said.
At USA Today, the only newspaper Gannett breaks out, ad revenue dropped 18.4%, on just 260 advertising pages vs. 324 in May 2007.
In the broadcasting division, which includes elevator advertising service Captivate Network, sales fell 5.9%.
As bad as it was, Gannett's May report was much better than that of McClatchy Co., publisher of The Miami Herald, The Charlotte Observer and 28 other dailies. Monday, McClatchy said its revenue last month declined 15.1% -- prompting the company to announce a 10% cut in its workforce.
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What will all these greedy chains do when there are just five reporters and one editor left at each newspaper? Newspapers are committing suicide, self-destructing by cutting staffs during tough economic times. Less doesn't equate to more, either in quality, circulation or the bottom line. Nothing in means nothing out.
ReplyDeleteI'm a reporter at a Gannett paper stuck doing increasing amounts of work, often off the clock, so I should be the first to gripe about the greedy chain. But I guess I don't see what else Gannett, McClatchy, and the rest ilk are supposed to do but cut staff and shrink the product. Give the world a mediocre product, advertising declines. Give the world a world-class product, like the NYT, advertising declines. We make buggy whips and people are buying cars now.
ReplyDeleteThe answer is obviously a new business model in which our primary product, news, is actually a value-added product that people pay for, rather than a give-away enticement to attract attention to ads.
ReplyDeleteThat worked in print, but news gathering is too expensive to be sustained in the low-rent world of the Internet. We can't produce a page of news as cheaply as a competing site fills its screen with user-generated content -- or stolen digests of what the newspaper world produced at great expense.
The era of the general-interest newspaper delivered to your home for 50 cents a day is probably over.
What lies ahead is scary -- but inevitable.
There was a fast-track executive recruiting effort during the Watson term. Marketing types usually were more likely to be groomed for the publisher role.
ReplyDeleteBut then the drain on human capital. Steve Bernard, named this week as Corporate VP of Advertising for McClatchy, was one of those former Gannettoids. He and Stinson didn't get along or some similar type of horseshit.
It never paid to raise ones voice and be too independent. Witness the vacant open positions, Tucson, and other places.
They can't keep up with the drain.
The talent was muted years ago.
CEO's need to calm the markets with honest, direct, and soothing remarks. No comment, pay the price.
ReplyDeleteDown $1 per share this morning.
OMG, we're all gonna die, Gannett's gonna lay us all off, the sky is falling, yadda yadda yadda. OK. So, things change and sh*t happens. There is NO lifestime employment, for anyone. Even Ed mcCMahon is losing his home. So, cinch up your shorts Chickens Little, and figure out what yer gonna do.
ReplyDeleteI found $40 in an old pair of jeans, should I buy two shares of CGI at the end of the day or blow it on lottery tickets?
ReplyDeletePowerball. Better chance of winning than turning this ship around. The dirty tricks of Gannett can't help when the business is gone.
ReplyDeleteRetire Moon. Fire Martore. Cut all executive pay by 10%. Cut back from 7 days a week to 5. And then hire great journalists.
ReplyDeleteOut of control. The water has breached the levees. And they just sit there and watch. Pull the plug and put the company up for sale.
ReplyDeleteThe rise and fall of USA Today seemingly happened in the blink of an eye. From the inside, I can tell you that the nation's newspaper is still a country club for some, but more and more newsroom folks are seeing that the end is near. Horrible dark cloud hanging over the glass empire, making it a tough place to spend one's work week. Workload is almost inhumane, not to mention overflowing with confusion as positions go unfilled. Most everyone I know is looking to get out, but in these times, midlife career changes aren't easy. A real tough dilemma.
ReplyDeleteTime to FIRE Jeff Webber!!! A good friend tells me he is on his way out.
ReplyDeleteAll: I believe @6:12 p.m.'s "Jeff Webber" reference is to USA Today's head of advertising sales. Please see: http://tinyurl.com/4d8q6j
ReplyDeleteI agree. Webber needs to go. What a bureaucrat! I heard that Craig Moon was replacing him too.
ReplyDeleteWe need Jackie Kelley back.
Awful lot of bitchin' from the newspaper side, but I don't hear it from the broadcast side. What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteThe last thing USA Today needs is Jackie Kelley back! She might have been very good at sales, but she had no strategy or vision.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain how Leslie Giallombardo still has a job?
ReplyDeleteHow? Read Carl Icahn's new blog, The Icahn Report: http://www.icahnreport.com/
ReplyDeleteAs a corporate raider, he should know.