So, please post details -- including text from the earnings statement itself -- in the comments section, below. And don't be shy about flagging the most interesting stuff you find; that'll give me a running start. (Yes, it's crowdsourcing!)
I'm pretty sure Gannett will move the statement on PR Newswire. You might also check Business Wire. Eventually, it will show up in the online investor relations section.
Wall Street has forecast sharp declines for the quarter. If Gannett doesn't at least meet these already marked-down third-quarter figures, the company's beleaguered stock could fall further:
- Profit: 75 cents a share vs. $1.01 a year ago
- Sales: $1.62 billion vs. $1.81 billion
In a comment, a reader warned today's teleconference with Wall Street analysts could be "absolutely brutal. It's certainly not coincidental that the note announcing Corporate buyouts came out the day before."
I plan to monitor that 10 a.m. ET listen-only conference call, where top GCI executives will answer questions from media stock analysts. The call will be webcast, and is open to the public, although only analysts get to pose questions. (Webcast details.)
I plan to monitor that 10 a.m. ET listen-only conference call, where top GCI executives will answer questions from media stock analysts. The call will be webcast, and is open to the public, although only analysts get to pose questions. (Webcast details.)
Oh crap. $.69 cents a share profit.
ReplyDeleteplace your bets...what's the over/under on stock price by noon
ReplyDeleteNo one will notice. Today, caring about this earnings report will be like thinking about improving the gutters on your house while a 50-foot tidal wave is moving in your direction from a few miles away.
ReplyDeleteThis wave will wash out all but the strongest and it will have little to do with the relative merits of a company.
It's here:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/5upmm5
Excerpts:
MCLEAN, Va., Oct 24, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI: Gannett Co., Inc (GCI 9.64, +0.33, +3.5%) reported today that 2008 third quarter earnings per diluted share from continuing operations were $0.69 compared with $1.01 per share in the third quarter of 2007. The results for the quarter include $23.0 million in pre-tax severance expenses ($14.4 million after tax or $0.07 per share) related to reductions in force and efficiency efforts in the U.S. and the UK. Absent severance expenses in the quarter, the company would have earned $0.76 per share.....
Total reported operating revenues for the company were $1.64 billion in the third quarter compared to $1.80 billion in the same quarter a year ago.....
Reported operating expenses declined 2.2 percent in the quarter to $1.38 billion from $1.41 billion in the third quarter of 2007. ... On a pro forma basis and excluding severance costs, operating expenses declined 5.3 percent for the quarter. Corporate expenses were $14.3 million, 19.2 percent lower than the year ago quarter driven by cost control efforts offset slightly by buyout expenses. Operating cash flow (defined as operating income plus depreciation and amortization) was $324.0 million. Net income in the quarter was $158.1 million.....
I'll guess the price at noon will be $8.04.
ReplyDeleteWow! These guys are working overtime to put a "positive spin" in a disastrous 32% loss third quarter! Here is Reuters:
ReplyDelete"Shares of Gannett, one of the most stable of a group of increasingly ailing newspaper publishers, have lost more than three quarters of their value in the past 12 months. Despite that slide, analysts and investors have cheered the company's stringent cost-cutting measures.
That has not always resonated well with employees, a thousand of whom earlier this summer were marked for dismissal as part of those efforts to trim expenses."
Stringent? How about calling them insane! Anyway, AP is also caught in the Gannett trap of spinning this aweful report into something "expected" so no big deal, right? Gawd!
No one reported losses this extreme until Gannett today!
$7.68
ReplyDelete9:29 - I dunno about gannett being the biggest loss yet, wachovia posted a 23 billion dollar loss in the 3rd quarter.
ReplyDeleteHere's the A.P. version via USA Today
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/earnings/2007-10-17-gannett_N.htm
@9:29 - you are an idiot. You said, "No one reported losses this extreme until Gannett today." Gannett reported a profit not a loss.
ReplyDelete10:15..that link is a year old
ReplyDeleteMaybe we'd be doing better if some of you were working instead of goofing off, reading this blog, and whining all the damn time. The company is making money, cutting costs to survive the downturn and trying to make this work. If you don't like working here, then quit! Please. We beg you whiners, complainers and downers to quit your jobs so that we can hire people who WANT to work here. Please, please, please leave the damn company. Otherwise, get back to work, innovate, come up with some good ideas and try to improve the situation. Anyone notice we never hear any new ideas here, any solutions, just complaining and whining from those who feel entitled to their jobs rather than feeling obligated to earn their pay.
ReplyDeleteYou are the whiner, 10:27. Just re-read your post.
ReplyDelete10:27
ReplyDeleteI here that word Innovate one more time. What a load of garbage. Gannett wants there underpaid, sometime hourly employees to come up with ground braking ideas. Get real. If any of Gannett's employees come up with an idea they will quit and use it for there on financial gain. I won't innovate just so you can keep your job and inflated salary.
I actually did what I described above. Instead of sharing my idea with a company that would screw it up I went out and staked my own claim to fame.
How bout them apples.
Ideas get shot down.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the company I had an idea that would have saved the company tens of thousands of dollars a year in carrier subsidy but would result in a loss of 300 subscribers.
Cant lose that 1% of volume, sorry. Keep spending that 35k to deliver them. And by the way, subsidize that one route with 49 customers $749 every two weeks.
Yea, makes sense to innovate and create new methods. Just doesnt happen like that.
Excuse the spelling. Still getting used to thE IPHONE.
ReplyDelete10:27 AM - Just tried to innovate this week. I suggested an idea, which may or may not fly... It got shot down so fast I could not believe it. No discussion. So, screw it, I'll keep my mouth shut in the future.
ReplyDelete10:27, first, you are a major jerk. Second, one of the primary reasons a lot of good people are frustrated is because our ideas are not welcome by our bosses. The bosses think they have all the answers, are too insecure to surround themselves with confident, smart people so they promote a bunch of yes-men and yes-women who do nothing other than smile and agree.
ReplyDeleteThere are some very bright people with lots of integrity within the company, but they are buried by the powers that be. They have a right to whine on occasion!
As for you 10:27, judging from your simplistic post, I suspect you haven't had a truly innovative or creative idea ever. You conform to mediocrity. People like you need to quit, or more approriately, be fired.
Wow 10:27.... such attitude. You must be a Gannett manager. Fact is, I quit Gannett 5 years ago, and of course shortly before sold all my stock - at about $80 a share!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, what a happy day that was. I quit and never looked back. Gannett deserves what it is getting. So 10:27, you may return to work, snap to it, salute the Big Blue Ball, and for heavan's sake, don't make waves...
10:54 - I am a manager. We try to get ideas from employees. This week we held a meeting to discuss possibly changing the paper and all the employees did was complain about changing. They don't want to do anything different. They offered no solutions. Many seem content to watch their co-workers walk out the door than realize change needs to happen in order to stay viable. I'm not suggesting every non-manager is that way. But is frustrating when you open up the discussion and hit a wall. So, now the decision will be out their hands and I guarantee they will all say that had no say.
ReplyDeleteSo here is what happened to me. I used to go to my managers with ideas. Then they would proceed at company meeting to take credit for them. So then after getting burned I started going to the publisher and we would sit and talk about how to implement these ideas to save money.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened next is amazing. The advertising director held a meeting with my fellow coworkers and singled me out. He then preceded to threaten me that if I ever took another idea up to the publisher without showing it to him first I would be in big trouble. He was serious and obviously the publisher asked him why he does not come up with good ideas like his hourly workers do. LOL I still kept going to the publisher and we became good friends.
11:03 - Thanks for your insight. I wish my managers would ASK for ideas and actually be open to receiving them. In my experience, unless the ideas come from the top (and they're some crazy-ass ones!), they're ignored.
ReplyDeleteIf I offer up a story idea for the sports or features departments, it goes nowhere unless I can find the time to do it. If I suggest a possible new venture to make some money, providing local readers with information they REALLY can't get anywhere else, it gets ignored.
I would make a suggestion to save money, but I'm afraid that the muckety-mucks would follow the idea to its illogical conclusion and eliminate my job.
So there's really no point in making suggestions. It's very dispiriting.
For 10:27 - I'd LOVE to get the hell out of this place. You can have it! But the fact remains that it's the highest-paying job I've ever held, and there's nothing else around here that would pay my bills.
11:28 - When I quit Gannett and fled in horror, I took a pay cut to do so. Not a big one, but a cut nonetheless. But it was well worth it in both physical and mental health. The stress of such a terrible work environment was deadly at Gannett, and there were not enough Ambiums to stop the sleepless nights of worrying. So believe me - money isn't everything if you HATE the job.
ReplyDeleteGannett lies when it says it wants to hear ideas to boost revenue or monetize initiatives. I used to buy in to that program, only to learn that after an initial grunt of interest from a boss, suggestions simply died. On a couple of occasions the suggestion resurfaced several years later AS A CORPORATE IDEA, the self-stroking thieves.
ReplyDeleteDid the dividend come up during the call with analysts?
ReplyDeleteNote the $14 million "corporate" expenses. That's how much it costs the newspapers and TV stations every 3 months to support a bunch of dressed-up zombies who pretend to know what they're doing and who regard the lifeblood of the company -- reporters, editors, anchors, photogs, camera operators -- as people in "the field," as if headquarters served such a vital function. It further galls me that Gannett throws so money at Mickey Mouse Internet ventures like ShopLocal, Metromix, MomsLikeMe, Topix and Cozi instead of making early-stage investments in ventures like Craigslist, Facebook, YouTube and Pollstar, although the porn possibilities at Moms could end up saving all of us.
ReplyDeletewww.MILFsLikeMe.com = $$$$$$$$$
ReplyDeleteThat's a legit idea that would turn this company around!
The dividend came up in the conference call, and Gracia weaved and bobbed. She said corporate is "evaluating our capital allocation" on the grounds that the stock doesn't justify that sort of dividend.
ReplyDelete10:27 has to me one primary example of why Gannett has a crisis! The very attitude and standing up for the company is creepy. We all seem to have these types running around our buildings, and this casts a bad light on even the worst of them.
ReplyDeleteThe message: "Shut up, take any crap that comes your way, never complain, never question and just follow blindly what you are told." Even this jerk will find himself/herself at the unemployment office SOON.
hahahaha....is Wall Street really that stupid?? GCI says that ad revenues are down "due largely to continued soft ad results from their Califirnia, Nevada and Floida newspapers"... oh..let's see, a multu BILLION dollar company blames their problems on tiny papers like Tulare and Visalia or maybe the BIG one like Palm Springs! don't forget all those papers in Nevada....oh, I guess its just RENO....another BIG daily...who writes this stuff?
ReplyDelete