Thursday, August 14, 2008

Layoff campaign powers GCI stock up almost 11%

Updated at 4:40 p.m. ET: Buoyed by news of Gannett's plans to whack 1,000 newspaper jobs -- including 600 through layoffs -- investors bid up GCI's stock today: Shares closed at $21.31, up $2.05, or 10.6%. That far exceeds the S&P-500 Index's gain of less than 1%, Google Finance says. In late trading, however, shares fell 3.3%.

73 comments:

  1. Stock was at $20.79 as of 2:20 PM. Will I ever see $70 again?

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  2. Makes those $84 options we got a few years ago just a little less worthless. : )

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  3. Attention Stockholders:
    When there are no more editors and reporters in the information center, who do you suppose will provide the news copy that is snaked around the advertisements in Gannett newspapers?
    Celebrate that ...

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  4. From The Courier-Post (land of Poopgate)....

    Today, employees were advised of upcoming layoffs at this Cherry Hill, New Jersey property to be announced sometime next week.

    Everyone is pretty certain that the only reason there has been anything coming down to the employees is because the Gannett layoff plans are all over the electronic media locally and nationally including Fox Business News (on cable TV).

    The survivors of this upcoming action are hopeful that publisher Walt Lafferty, his clueless EE and AD will go about the same time.

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  5. Rush Limbaugh also mentioned the new layoffs on his show today. Ok, now you know Gannett news has hit the big time. Lol.

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  6. We just got an e-mail moments ago from our pub. I guess the news already out there forced their hand a day earlier. Tough. We're looking at "up to" three employees. Surprising, since we're practically at bare bones now.

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  7. You can all rest assured that the ONLY reason the local management has taken time from their afternoon nap to communicate with the employees is because the word is out all over the real media. As we all know, this is Gannett and they don't give a damn now or ever about the employees or their families. Dubow and company are probably planning a major party tonight because the stock rose while the employees suffer. A thought: the Board will probably vote Craig another bonus because he got rid of so many people and got the stock to rally a bit.

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  8. Anon 3:52pm: Unfortunately, we don't need you anymore. Have you been on the internet lately and have seen bloggers, citizen journalists, other cost effective ways for us to get the news? The days of a traditional journalism are numbered. As a former journalist for over 20 years (8 years with Gannett) I am proud to see the "people" report the news and tell the stories. As a business, Gannett should look at this cheaper alternative. This is your competition.

    Now as a shareholder of Gannett, I applaud Mr. Dubow for this heroic effort and would like to see him cut even more employees. The future is here and we need to act accordingly.

    I am sad for my fellow NEA members, but as a retired scribe, I use the web as my daily "paper". I never thought I would say that AND believe it, but it is true and sad.

    Please step outside of your daily job (bubble) and watch the behavior of the next generation and tell me with a straight face they will be buying newspapers when they are 40, 50, 60, 70 years old? I might not be around to witness it, but I would bet my small savings account that in the next 10 years, the "paper" is gone and a journalist is as needed as the milkman.

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  9. OK, let's have more citizen journalists. And while we're at it, more citizen brain surgeons and airline pilots. We all know that anybody off the street can perform a job as well as a trained professional.

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  10. By my math if we layoff 100% of the emplyees the stock will go up 3000%. Wonder if anyone is thinkin of that?

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  11. Give me a break Anon 4:53pm. You wish right now you were a brain surgeon or a pilot. You keep living in that Journalism is a Higher Order Bubble of yours and let me know how you feel looking for a job as a "newspaper" journalist!

    Good luck!

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  12. Gannett is sending a strong message today, IF WE OFFER YOU A BUYOUT, TAKE IT! OR ELSE YOU WILL BE LET GO WITH NOTHING. Some of the employees in Westchester that were fired today were offered a buyout in December and did not take it. Now they are cut with nothing. But some incompetent managers that were offered the buyout last December survived thIs round of cuts, the chosen few are still protected.

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  13. Dolan has Cablevision and Newsday, he should buy Westchester or start a competing newspaper up there and run that horrible rag of town. The resources are already in place with Newsdays printing facility and News 12 Westchesters long time resources to local news.

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  14. In addition to the stock bump, the volume was 10.3 million shares, more than double the Gannett average. Must be Dubow, Gracia, the board, etc. were buying big today.

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  15. to 4:59
    I never said it was a higher order necessarily. I just don't think citizen journalists are the answer.

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  16. Anon 4:45 if you read this weeks's BARONS (You can read article off GCI yahoo stock site). Douglas C. Lane whose $2 Bil fund has beaten the S&P last few 10 years handily bought GCI stock. Lane thinks Gannett will survive and betting his funds money on it. As an employee who most likely will not lose job in this layoff round. I can tell you I bought 3000 shares of GCI stock Monday & Tuesday combined in my 401K. So sorry say I made in paper around $7500 today on the layoff news. BTW poster above mentioned high volume on GCI stock. GCI has a 8.1 short ratio. It take 8 trading days at average volume for all the shorts in GCI stock to cover there short positions. That is why the huge volume and why GCI up 10%. Shorts are covering and a short squeeze could be in play. My target on GCI is $25 if short squeeze continues... Douglas Lane thinks GCI will survive. Read the BARONS article and see his reasons. I would also like to add the blaring headlines about GCI profit from last qtr compared to last year's qtr being down 36% are WRONG! GCI sold several newspapers last year and recorded the profit in 2nd qtr. Those profits inflated earnings and should not have been used as a comparison. GCI profit was actually down 18% excluding the paper sales. A big profit downturn but not as bad as 36%. GCI also actually met it's earnings numbers. Am I defending GCI management? NO but I am arguing that this newspapers are all dead scenario prediction is overplayed and that Lane fellow invested in GCI because he is not buying the story either.

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  17. Even Eric Schmidt of Google in a speech at the Madison and Vine conference this week expressed his concern for finding a way to monetize Journalism, now that the newspaper industry has been so brutally diminished.
    Real journalists are critical to democracy. Unfortuantley, maybe in another medium besides the daily metros (print) for the masses of tomorrow.However, USAT, WSJ and NYT may be able to hold their place.

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  18. Mr. Dubow and his pals knew this big layoff announcement was coming today. Did they also buy large amounts of GCI earlier when it was low knowing they controlled todays announcement and sharp rise in stock. Did these dirt bags make even more money off the misfortune of employees. And if so, is this a form of Insider Trading?

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  19. Yes 4:53, it is such good business to treat your employees like so much dirt...

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  20. These layoffs are akin to losing weight by amputating a limb

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  21. they have not mentioned one word about layoffs at my sc paper. i'm sure there are some around the corner. they have a tendency to wait until one has worked all day to inform him of his pending unemployment. if they really want to cut the fat they need to start from the top down. those at the top make more money and contribute less to the products.

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  22. Will this round of layoffs make Gannett newspaper(s) more attractive to a potential buyer ?

    There was talk some time ago of Gannett strategy of having "clusters" of newspapers in various regions of the country ie Ohio, New Jersey, etc., and casting off others.

    i haven't heard much about this plan in past several months. Anyone else know of this ?

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  23. curious about a couple things,

    what is the highest level of newsroom employee being laid off?

    have any employees blogged about this stuff at their gannett blogs?:

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  24. also, on your mugshot, one other question: why is there a naked lady reflected in your shades ? didn't that happen to dick cheney?

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  25. After this round of layoffs, what is the ratio of full-time newsroom personnel compared to circulation at, say , cherry hill ? IE I've heard that a standard ratio at many papers is ONE full-time newsroom position per every 1,000 readers ...

    is that the same ratio at other newspapers across gannett ?

    do you think management is considering this equation, or is this just a fun measurement to considers ?

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  26. What ever happened to NEWSMAIT ?? (this blog sometimes reminds me of that site)

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  27. Some have been critical of this blog's occasional excesses (too many one-source rumors and things such as that), but it must also be said that without this blog I cannot imagine how the Gannett workforce would have any idea what is going on.

    I don't buy the shrill us vs. them tone of most of my colleagues who post here, but the facts do speak for themselves that something is happening on a company-wide basis, and without this blog we'd have only fragments of reports here and there.

    Good work, Jim.

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  28. RE: "I've heard that a standard ratio at many papers is ONE full-time newsroom position per every 1,000 readers."

    That used to be the standard rule of thumb, but it is going away fast. Tribune properties are at or headed to about .7 journalists per 1K circ. Others are a little below that already.

    If ad revenue doesn't pick up pretty substantially, I'm going to guess we'll soon see .5 journalists per 1K readers becoming a common standard. Maybe less. So far, digital media have made money largely by keeping their labor costs miniscule. And you can bet that GCI has noticed.

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  29. Consider this for a moment: most of Gannett's newspapers have shed six inches in the past six or seven years. That is a LOT less paper and a LOT less newshole. However most Gannett sites still have the same number of copy editors as they did back then. What gives? Especially now with fewer ads and a reduced paper footprint, why on earth is the company still paying for overbloated copy desks at most of its sites?

    Secondly, why hasn't GCI realized that it can trim a lot of fat by exclusively using USAToday as its only wire service?

    I understand that drastic decisions like these are tough for people to embrace, but business is business. I'd rather see a cut in wire services as opposed to a fellow colleague.

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  30. Up until just a few weeks ago, Cherry Hill had 105 FTEs in the newsroom, er, information center. And I dont have to tell you that we don't have 105K circulation, so let's stop calling attention to that equation, shall we, before someone notices.

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  31. Gannett copy desks are overbloated? I suppose that's possible in some places, but I know some layoff-hit desks were threadbare to begin with.

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  32. They could take most of these hits in the accounting department. If there are "less beans to count", why do you need so many people in accounting???? Shreveport is a good example of that. Diminishing the ad dept makes it tough on those remaining reps as they have to drive extra miles to take the vacated territory into their current one. The mileage reimbursement is a joke at the price of today's gas. As a former AD (Gannett, Scripps, Landmark), I would think that some ad reps would be cut based on plummeting revenue. I'd probably look at adding "contract" sales reps for special projects (pay commission only, non-employee) so some new revenue could be garnered. Since I also have circulation experience, I just can't see cutting people there cause the good DM's and route folks consistently put it 18 hour days and have already given up their souls to keep a decent job. I'm glad to say that I am not in the mainstream newspaper business. I do not believe our future is in print at all. One has only to visit schools to know this.

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  33. Yeah, I'm not quite sure why 8:54 is going after copy desks, of all things. Newshole is shrinking, yes -- that's everywhere. But desks are being asked to do more with less every day (like everyone, yes).

    Of course, I'm a copy editor. And my workload has NEVER gotten smaller. At my last Gannett paper -- I've been gone a couple of years -- I busted my ass and got yelled at a lot, and got zero credit from reporters. Seems to me you have to be pretty dedicated to stick with it.

    "Overbloated" desks? 8:54, you've clearly never spent five minutes with a copy editor in your life.

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  34. Someone above asked what was the highest level to get cut today. The Journal News in Rockland, which is part of Westchester, fired the managing editor today. So they did go after some management but they got rid of the wrong manager, this guy was one of the last true newsmen left. Maybe if he had his own blog like some managers in Westchester his job could of been saved.

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  35. This 3 percent is all papers. Publisher Lee Webber told the staff of the Honolulu Advertiser they won't be affected since they just completed a 9 percent workforce reduction.

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  36. This 3 percent is all papers? Publisher Lee Webber told the staff of the Honolulu Advertiser they won't be affected since they just completed a 9 percent workforce reduction.

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  37. It is not 3 percent at all papers. Each paper got a dollar amount to lose through payroll and at my NJ paper it comes out to more than 3 percent, but below 5 percent. Your property's revenue was factored in. Or so we were told.

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  38. So how long have these cuts been in the works - how long have the individual newspapers been working on deciding who gets the ax?

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  39. Anyone know what kind of numbers they're looking to cut in East Brunswick and Bridgewater??

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  40. What we have heard about GNJ is:

    Cherry Hill 35
    EB/Bridgewater 13
    Neptune (that's Asbury for you out-of-staters) 50
    Vineland 4
    Morristown ???

    For the record Wilmington, De: 12

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  41. bloated copy desks my ass. when gannett bought us, 12 or 13 people did less than what 8 or 9 do now. we had 2 "products" then. now we have more. we also do more page design than we did then. furthermore, the shorter the average story has to be, the harder it is to edit. all the facts, plus the stuff aimed at the "target demographic," have to be crammed into less space than ever before. urls have to be confirmed, as do unusual spellings and obscure facts. 20 years ago, we couldn't check many such things because they weren't in even the best reference books. now everything is available online, so we are expected to check it -- but also to be careful to get our info only from reliable sites. much of what we must edit now isn't even written by staff reporters. if we're lucky, it's by freelancers. if we're unlucky, it's by totally untrained people submitting crap about their club or business or school. but if there's an error anywhere, it's the copy editor who's blamed. and almost no one in mgmt ever worked very long on a copy desk and thus has no clue

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  42. 10:30, based on BS flying around my site, the big bosses have known "something" for sure about this round for about a month. And probably back into June, based on some staffing discussions I have been involved with. All the while, lies by omission continued. Meetings were canceled, the corners took more "vacation" to avoid questions and any confrontation. All vacations seemed strangely timed to odd "events" that then reared their heads. And just today, I had a senior editor lie to my face about staffing - and then, boom, word of layoff after layoff after layoff starts to trickle in from various sites. I know who and what I work for now. I hope that manager and the others who continue to pretend everything is OK get their beauty sleep tonight so they can think up more creative ways to avoid addressing that there are some folks regularly putting in close to 20-hour days to cover for others who aren't doing their jobs or these positions they aren't filling.

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  43. Oh puh-lease. I have worked on Gannett copy desks or right next to them as night city editor in six different newsrooms over more than 20 years. At EVERY location they were bloated. Worse, at EVERY location about 30 percent of the copy editors were deficient performers cast upon the news editor because that was easier than termination. Oddly, in several cases the news edtior was a woman who did her damnedest to "nurture" the misfits along (in one case even covering for a drunk). I'm in a location now that has HALF the reporters it had a decade ago, but it has MORE copy editors. Absolute insanity.

    PS: @10:45 pm: How long have you worked for Gannett? How could you NOT know the senior leaders, ahem, omit the truth?

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  44. @11:09: You must really be working for the dregs of Gannett. Honestly, I can't even believe that the desks you're talking about really exist ... sounds to me like you're a bitter ex-reporter who didn't like having their stuff changed by copy editors who knew better than you.

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  45. 11:09, wow, nice sexism there. Copy editors are the unsung heroes of industry.

    The fact of senior editors lying isn't new to me -- I have plenty of experience with this company. The trouble is, I'm a fellow editor who has been privvy to staffing conversations. So, the question is, why lie to me? And yes, I still have my job.

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  46. It's amazing that NJ can still cut more FTE after years of suffering through the slash and burn mismanagement publisher styles of douche bags like Collins, Ghandi, Frisby, Ziomek...

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  47. Does the time length of a month of pre-knowledge by the newspaper publishers of the upcoming cuts ring true with anyone else?

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  48. searching for news in the mainstream press & stumbled on a shocking figure: Lee Webber, Honolulu paper’s publisher, tried to put the job cuts in context, saying that about 4,500 posts have been cut at U.S. newspapers over the past seven months.

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  49. the attacks on copy editors above are a bit shocking to me... here's what i'm wondering ---- with all of the emphasis on online news, are copy editors editing the online news briefs being posted in this 24/7 environ? Or are these items being posted without any copy-editing ??

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  50. Here in Nashville, our managers have kept us in the dark about the layoffs to come. Instead, there's a short story on the Business cover of Friday's edition that will actually be their first words on the matter. I'm stunned that my co-workers and I will have to read The Tennessean on Friday to see what our bosses are saying about our job status.

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  51. in response to a question about, about "when there are no more editors around, what happens then ..."

    a prediction (dire as it may be):

    "With web sites needing updates around the clock, a copy desk needs to work 24/7.... The offshore team is trained thoroughly to become familiar with the client publication and the region. Confidentiality is maintained throughout."

    http://www.mindworksglobal.com

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  52. Hah! Online news in Reno is just blasted up there, copy-editing be damned. Headline errors are common, errors in the stories or briefs themselves are pretty much normal. What is seen on the website would never be tolerated in print. credibility is being flushed down the toilet.

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  53. maybe if we get the boot from gannett, we could find work in India ?

    Mindworks "expects plenty more business as the cost-cutting in U.S. and European print media grinds on....

    "More media outsourcing business will flow to India -- and to Mindworks. "The issue is, how quickly can they scale up?" says Agarwal. Joseph is confident he can stay ahead. "Our processes are not easy to replicate," he says.

    -- Business Week

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  54. any multi-media people included in layoffs ?

    if "information center" model is being thrown out (or backed away from) are the jobs now being eliminated reflect that ?

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  55. In Reno, "credibility is being flushed down the toilet."

    Royal flush ?

    INdeed, this is rolling the dice, a gamble that not guilty doesn't show up online as "guilty" !

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  56. It's been FOUR HOURS now since Hopkins was questioned about the naked lady reflected in his shades, and he has yet to respond! He's proven that he can stay up all night to post shit, so any excuse about not posting during the night-time would be bullshit

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  57. someone pointed out to me today some pictures one of our photographers took on a trip to india.... They're plastered up on our walls in Louisville. I know there's no connection between that and outsourcing... but just thought it ironic to walk through the halls and see 30+ pics of Indian people... Couldn't help but think of the "Save the Children" where when you sponsor a child you get a photo of them... Wonder if any of the photos on the wall will be doing our job....

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  58. 8:54 asks: "Why on earth is the company still paying for overbloated copy desks?"

    For one thing, to catch redundancies. Here's a copy editor to tell you that "bloated" is enough to convey the meaning of overstaffed.

    That said, 8:54, I'd be surprised to find that "most Gannett sites still have the same number of copy editors as they did back then," six or seven years ago.

    I rejoined the desk six years ago, and while my memory may fail me on the full 2002 roster, my arrival made at least 13 full-timers and maybe 2 part-timers on the news copy desk at the Courier-Post. Today, I count 8.5. Can't speak for the other 7.5, but my workday is fuller with today's demands of the Web than with yesterday's bigger print newshole.

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  59. In Fort Collins we are looking at four actual layoffs and a number of positions left dark. Four layoffs is the smallest number of cuts we have made in the past two years, but trying to find four people to cut is going to be hard when we are down to bare bones as it is.

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  60. any union jobs included in this latest round of cuts?

    "Those are union drivers waitin' out there, mister!"
    -- Glenn Close

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  61. "Here's a copy editor to tell you that "bloated" is enough to convey the meaning of overstaffed."


    Bangladesh would have caught that one

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  62. Got a memo stating 50 people will be laid off from the Asbury group in NJ. Last May a meeting was called for production staff in the NJ group, and all were told that layoffs that had been planned for June 1 would be delayed due to problems with 2adpro. Exactly 8 days later, 66 employees were laid off from the NJ group - at least 9 of them production employees. So much for truth! Like I expected it anyway.
    Our memo says that we'll have a meeting in about 2 weeks to discuss these "staff reductions". That's gonna be a little late since those being "reduced" will be notified by Wed., Aug. 20th. Not that it even matters cuz they do nothing but LIEin the meetings anyway. When T. Donovan came to us, he started off with "You can never slash your way to profitability". Well, he sure as hell seems to be trying it out anyway!

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  63. To Anonymous 4:45:
    If we decide to use citizen journalists, who is going to ensure that they know the basic tenets of newswriting, A.P. style, ethics, fairness in reporting -
    everything reporters learn in J school? Oh yeah... citizen journalists need that. Are newspapers editors going to take the time to teach them that - no way! Reporters have to hit the ground running when they start.

    The way you talk - you couldn't have been a reporter. Now you're just a Gannett shareholder who only cares about how his stock performs, not the industry.

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  64. Gannet top people are just using and abusing the lower people that are hoping the stock is going to go up.................the paper bizz is trashed because of the econmy and if you belive becAUSE SOME PEOPLE ANOUNCE THAT THEY ARE LAYING PEOPLE OFF THAT THE STOCK IS GOING BACK TO 70.00 a share I have some penny stocks to sell you.......Insider trading under the Republican Bush administration.............surprise you? Why are the commen people getting poorer...............guess I am the only smuck! Eveyone is taking thier cut............its the republican way!!

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  65. Actually I would wish that "george bush" could be president for four more years or the corrupt oil person cheney so the american people relly feel the influx of getting screwed instead of in increments! to think they voted for "BUSH" twice really does place the scare tactics of "911" and terrorism to fleecing our wallets and outsourcing to all time high!!Shame on the freedom of the press and the monguls that employ the sevants!!

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  66. @1:18AM: In Cherry Hill, I'm not sure ANY editor looks at briefs before they're posted to the Web.
    Then again, our editors are too busy in meetings all day to give content more than a passing glance.

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  67. When did the "undated memo" revealing to all the newspaper publishers that cuts would be required actually go out?

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  68. Look forward to this corporate mandate in 2011 (maybe 2010):

    In an attempt to offer a more reader friendly product, Gannett has cut all staffs to five editors and one reporter. But if 25 percent profit margains are not maintained, more cuts are anticipated to reporting staffs. We are certain, however, that Gannett will continue to offer readers the same quality local coverage they have come to expect in the past.

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  69. Anon at 7:47 AM ... LOL!

    In addition, the newspaper will be running on a 36" web, which will make the product much cleaner and handier for our readers to use.

    Advertising? None to speak of, but those house ads built by 2AdPro sure look nice. (Please disregard all of the misspellings.)

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  70. Annon 8/14/08 @ 6:21 PM: Congratulations on your investing prowess, but more importantly, for Gannett’s inability to grasp weeks ago what this news would do for you once announced, or did they?

    Let’s hope that you, and others like you, are not in official positions to know about the global changes – especially given your transaction dates, else your on-paper profits and much more will easily be stripped by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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  71. To ANON at 1:54 AM: Why would Gannett get rid of multimedia and web people? Maybe you haven't noticed, but the future isn't in pen and ink, folks. As goofy a campaign as it was, the Info Center model of "online first" is exactly what every paper needs to be doing to stay relevant.

    At my paper, we online folks were told we will have absolutely nothing to worry about. In fact, we're probably going to hire more online people. Good thing I left reporting for online a few years back...

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  72. Here's hoping that someone also pokes you in the eye, 11:03, when you get shown the door. You're a fool to think it won't happen.

    You guys are the ones left behind to "find the solutions," as Ellen Leifeld told Tennessean staffers today. Who do you think is on the chopping block now?

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  73. Dubow and Matore’s next act of prestidigitation will be in explaining to investors how they are going to pay for all of this.

    No doubt a special one-time hit to earnings will be announced, a number that will also help hide dismal revenue numbers. But, with corporate land sold and these latest rounds of dismissals, it seems that the two of them are running out of room to run.

    And, given that they've been touting a plan that was really never going to deliver the goods in the near-term in the first place, they should.

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