The Gannett Foundation gave only $42,250 in college scholarships to children of the company's 46,000 employees in 2007, public documents show -- even as the foundation raised to $40,000 the total donated for endowed scholarships at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.Surely, though, Citizen-Times newspaper employees 53 miles away in Asheville's Buncombe County can apply for one of those Western Carolina scholarships, right? After all, Gannett CEO Craig Dubow steered the big gifts to WCU. The foundation's website says its mission is to "give grants to organizations in the communities in which Gannett owns a daily newspaper or television station." Plus, Asheville is really hurting after this month's layoffs cost the paper 76 jobs -- nearly a third of its workforce.
Well, guess what: Citizen-Times employees from Buncombe can't get a dime of that $40,000 -- if it wound up in the Craig and Denise Dubow scholarship fund, listed here. Why? In establishing their fund, the Dubows said students from only three counties -- Jackson, Macon and Transylvania -- are eligible. (See: county map, inset.)So, if a student lives in, say, Jackson's private Trillium golf community in Cashiers? Step right up! But if they're a press operator's kid from Buncombe -- well, there's always a job at the Center of Excellence customer service factory in South Carolina's Greenville!
Dubow's exclusive fund
Here is how WCU describes it: "Craig and Denise Dubow have established an endowed fund to provide scholarship support for deserving students at Western Carolina University. This scholarship provides support for full time undergraduate students from Jackson, Macon, and Transylvania counties who demonstrate financial need and maintain a B average."
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Oh, that is downright slimy!!!!
ReplyDeleteBut surely the Asheville paper has already ferreted out this info? ;-)
Terrible. Just awful. This is the kind of reporting news organizations should (and I rarely use that word) be doing.
ReplyDeleteListen up Gannett reporters. Take a lesson from Jim.
Here's what Wikipedia says about Cashiers, N.C., home to the private golfing community of Trillium: "The racial makeup of the community was 98.98% White, and 1.02% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.51% of the population." Also: "None of the families and 4.2% of the population were living below the poverty line."
ReplyDeleteThis seems an apt time to bring up the origin of the term "bunkum":
ReplyDelete(from Wiktionary)
From Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. On 25 Feb 1820, Felix Walker, a US Congressman (whose territory included Buncombe County, NC) gave a rambling speech on the Missouri question with little relevance to the current debate. Walker refused to yield the floor, informing his colleagues that his speech was not intended for Congress but that he was "speaking for Buncombe."
Yes, as I told you yesterday, the median price for houses in Cashiers is $660,000. These golf course properties you are highlighting are going for $200,000or more an acre, compared to the $6,000 an acre or less farmland in the region. It is not a rich area, but this is a very rich enclave built around the golf course and Thorpe Reservoir, which the local real estate interests have renamed Lake Glenville. It is a retirement and vacation home area.
ReplyDeleteApparently, Dubow's own actions continues to support Gannett's strong heritage of ethically challenged leadership.
ReplyDeleteGiven that, would he be so "bold" as to claim "his" contribution on his personal tax filings with the IRS? I mean, a contribution like this would certainly help tide him over given the hair cut he's taken in stock price declines and his recent pay cut.
Very sad.
Asheville:
ReplyDeleteI can tell you right now there is no one with the guts at the Asheville Citizen Times to run this story.
Lesson to learn here. You have two and a half months until the next round of cuts allegedly happens. You either go out with your head held hi because of ethics or you sit on your hands for another month while your job slips away.
Why wait for the Ashville Citizen Times to share the story when anyone can share this story on Western Carolina’s school newspaper website.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure the faculty and student body would be thrilled to read what Jim’s discovered…especially great topic for an ethics class discussion.
Site Link:
http://www.westerncarolinian.com/
Message Board Link (open postings):
http://www.westerncarolinian.com/messageboard/
The student newspaper has followed Jim's post earlier this month, and wrote a piece on it. p.s. the average $1,032,540
ReplyDeleteMaybe I missed an earlier post... but what is the significance of the Dubows choosing this university for their giving? Did Craig or Denise go to WCU? Do they have a relative there? Something is not adding up. You don't give to a university just because it's close to a golf course that you like. Is the suggestion that in order to get into the club, he had to make a nice contribution to the university close by? Craig's very own pay for play (literally) scheme?
ReplyDeleteaverage sales price in Cashiers in the last three months was $1,032,540
ReplyDelete4:23 That is what Jim is trying to find out. Why this mysterious limitation to just three counties and a B average? Was this targeted at one particular student, perhaps the son or daughter of the Trilium's developer. Was it just so Craig and Denise could play big boy and girl in the clubhouse because of their munificence and philanthropy. It is a lousy $40,000, and given Dubow's salary, he could have donated it for a tax deduction rather than going through the Gannett Foundation. Come to think of it, maybe he did claim he gave it on his tax returns, in which case the IRS would be very interested that he is claiming gift deductions others are giving. It is all very strange, and Tara isn't providing any info.
ReplyDeleteThe IRS gives rewards to individuals who find and report clear tax fraud violations like this appears to be.
ReplyDeleteThere you go Jim: another source of income. Report this mystery gift to the IRS and see if the taxmen find Dubow claimed credit for the Gannett Foundation gift on his personal tax return.
ReplyDeleteCraig went to Texas. Not sure about the misses.
ReplyDeleteThe arrogance of the Dubow's is enough to make you sick.
ReplyDeleteCraig Dubow went to the University of Texas. Noted: On his recommendation, the Gannett Foundation gave $40,000 to his alma mater in 2005 and 2004, mostly for scholarships.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jim. What is the significance of choosing this particular school? Any idea if a relative goes there or child?
ReplyDeleteSaw that the Dubows were also featured as Gold sponsors of the Friends of Lake Glenville (FOLG) in Cashiers, NC, (Jackson County) in 2006. Membership status as gold requires a donation of $300. According to later newsletters, the Dubows are either no longer giving or have asked that their names not be published in the newsletter.
ReplyDelete5:01 pm: I have a theory about why Dubow chose Western Carolina University, but I'm still doing research, so cannot report anything more just yet.
ReplyDeleteI've now looked at every photograph on Trillium's website, and here's what I noticed: As near as I can tell, every person pictured is white -- which reflects Wikipedia's assertion that the golfing community is 98.98% white.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, don't you think, considering Gannett's public face as the company all about diversity?
I also noted that about the university. Look for yourself. As for the golf course, I was wondering what the caddy shack looks like, or the kitchen of that magnificent club house and dining room overlooking Thorpe reservoir.
ReplyDeleteGiven that Craig and Denise limited their scholarship donation to three almost all-white counties in the state, the university's lack of diversity should come as no surprise.
ReplyDeleteIf you want the definition of lily white, look up the racial composition of the McLean subdivision where the Dubows live. Talk about segregated.
ReplyDeleteA "B" Average? Are you joking me? Really? I could have slept through every class and high school and pulled a B average.
ReplyDeleteWhile the question of why the Dubows chose Western Carolina and these three counties is a great big question mark, some of the posts here are wandering way afield.
ReplyDeleteCashiers is almost thirty minutes' drive time from the university. It is geographically separated and culturally distinct from the school and its student body, many of whom are first or second generation college students from middle class families. The school is a sister college of the UNC system. Cashiers, and the other resort enclaves roundabout, are indeed exceptionally well-off. The region? Not so much.
Remarks about racial diversity are also being overplayed. Sure, the three counties in question are mostly white. All the counties in western North Carolina are mostly white (and Cherokee). They always have been. It's rough, mountainous country, into which relatively few African-Americans were brought or motivated to migrate.
Now, is the Dubow/Gannett money being routed to less deserving students, or some other smarmy end? Anything's possible. But the demographic and economic info that Jim and others cite about Cashiers isn't relevant to the university, especially in an economic sense. Not many kids who summer with their families in Cashiers end up at WCU.
It'll be difficult for Dubow to defend his donation regardless, simply because you'd think he would've been making opportunities for Gannett employee's kids. But to paint a picture of of elitist college kids vs. the struggling offspring of pressmen is a little, well, rich.
6:06 PM -- I agree
ReplyDeleteIn 20 years of business reporting, I sometimes began a conversation by telling a publicist: "It's not my job to offer you public relations advice, but . . . "
ReplyDeleteAnd here's what I'd say: Stonewalling an inquisitive journalist does not get you fewer stories you don't want published. In fact, it often gets you even more stories than you'd have received had you just been candid in the first place.
6:06 I am sure that Craig and Denise had a little Vanderbilt moment, and felt like the robber baron's family, who built that resort estate near Asheville while making sure the children servants were taken care of at nearby schools and universities. So today we have the Dubows with their millions building a mansion in the hills of Cashiers, and ensuring that the children of those who serve them there are being properly educated at the local university. This all is beginning to sound a little medieval to me. But, hey, I wonder if you and I will be able to get a room at the Dubows some day, just as we can rent a room at the Vanderbilt's Biltmore resort, or even buy the same jam they ate.
ReplyDelete