We know Bob Dickey was there, because the newspaper division chief is featured in all the press materials, and quoted in the Citizen's story. But Corporate typically flies in a team: grimly busy executives from HR, finance -- maybe a little extra security. I picture black and blue and gray suits, BlackBerries vibrating in the background. (What does protocol say about wearing your President's Ring for this kind of visit?) Lots of, I'm sorry's.The afternoon Citizen is Arizona's oldest continuously published paper, going back to 1870, when Ulysses Grant was president, and construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge. Now in a joint operating agreement with a Lee Enterprises paper, the Citizen has been one of Gannett's workhorses since 1976, piping tens of millions back East -- $13 million in 2007, alone. It has maybe 80 employees.
But business is business. CEO Craig Dubow may have been in Tucson today, this comment suggests. The Citizen story only mentions Dickey (left). (Curiously, an earlier version of that story included this phrase, which appears to have been removed: "Dickey said he traveled from Virginia because he wanted to make the announcement in person." Was there talk of this being a phoner?)To be sure, Gannett isn't closing the Citizen immediately; it's offering for sale certain assets, which probably means the name, and customer list. The paper's JOA partner is Lee's Arizona Daily Star. GCI has hired a broker to handle any offers by a March 21 deadline.
No buyers -- anywhere
But barring a miracle, the Citizen is a goner -- just like two other newly endangered papers in JOAs: the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Denver's Rocky Mountain News. There are no buyers for papers now. If they weren't already, they got scared off yesterday, when private equity investors who bought the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2005 sought bankruptcy court protection.
What's more, the Citizen's circulation dived 14%, to 19,802 as of Sept. 30 vs. 23,102 a year before, according to Deutsche Bank. Circulation at its partner, the Star, is 117,000. Plus, Gannett gets half the JOA's profits, whether the Citizen publishes or not. And while those profits were $13 million in 2007, they'll be much lower this year.
Finally, if Corporate does, indeed, "hope for a quick and positive response to this offer," as Dickey is quoted saying, why announce this on BusinessWire on a Friday -- at 6:08 p.m. ET, the traditional burial ground for bad news? And why is there no talk about Gannett's preserving an editorial voice by making the Citizen web-only, if no buyer steps forward?The March 21 deadline likely will pass without offers. The Citizen will be shuttered. Then, following recent practice, Corporate will donate the paper to the Gannett Foundation, where I suppose it can be remaindered as some sort of tax write-off.
Been there, hated that
I wasn't in Tucson today, of course. But I've seen this before: in Little Rock, Ark., in October 1991, when Gannett pulled the plug on The Arkansas Gazette, throwing 700 employees out of work during a recession. That paper's closing may be the last time Gannett shut down a paper. Anyone know?
I'd been an employee since 1987, and was by now the business news editor. For five years, Gannett had battled the local Hussman family for control of a market that could only support one paper. We knew we were in trouble.But it was a shock to hear senior managers making comparisons to Vietnam. "Little Rock is Gannett's Saigon,'' I recall hearing. "They're sending helicopters for anyone who wants out.''
It was Corporate's jet, not helicopters. Directors from advertising, editorial and other departments interviewed anyone who hoped to transfer to another Gannett paper. There was a recession. Other newspapers were starting to fold. I wound up in Boise. I survived.
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
[Image: my Gazette employee ID photo, taken in October 1987]
Diminish Dividend, Dumbasses
ReplyDeleteThat "distant footsteps finally drew close" phrase sounds familiar. I'm not sure that's original.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that the $13M you quote for 2007 is Gannett's share.......and it is a 50/50 JOA -- which is why they aren't going anywhere in the JOA.
ReplyDeleteAnd in regards to the furlough comment about Tucson -- all employees were told on Wednesday immediately before the memo from Dubow that all Tucson employees (TNI, Citizen and Star) were exempt from the furlough. Little did they know that it was because by Friday they would be giving back a much greater expense than just a week of pay...the Citizen itself.
No wonder they never replaced Michael Chihak -- this has probably been in the works with the Justice Department since his departure. The Citizen staffers are a great group of journalists fighting an uphill battle -- and they will be missed in Tucson.
Green Bay News-Chronicle got shut down less than a year after Gannett bought it, in 2005.
ReplyDeleteSo sad. So very very sad.
ReplyDeleteWe may not have been a reknowned paper, but everybody there gave 200% and really cared about what they did. I'll miss them and my scrappy afternoon paper... and my paycheck :-(
ReplyDeleteI feel really sorry for Tucson. You're all in my personal prayers.
ReplyDeleteTo my friends at the Tucson Citizen you will be missed. My first job was at Tucson Newspapers, I always enjoyed working with the staff of the Citizen because they were the plucky underdog of the two papers and thus always seemed to be working harder than the people at the Arizona Daily Star with their aloofness.
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ReplyDeleteRE: Anonymous 10:18.
ReplyDeleteCraig Newmark probably had more to do with this than Craig Dubow.
A lot more.
Jim, there was a very small daily paper, that, while it was listed as "a section" of the Asbury Park Press, was a paper that stood on its own several years ago -- albeit not on the firmest of footing. That paper, the Ocean County Observer, was bought up in the late 1990s, if memory serves, and Gannett folded it formally in late 2007, making it part of its weeklies. Its employees were then folded into the staff of the Asbury Park Press; some were let go.
ReplyDeleteI have many friends at the Citizen. This is very sad and upsetting news.
ReplyDeleteThere are many good people over there who have busted ass for years to make the Citizen a well-written, well-reported news and information entity.
Unfortunately, however, Gannett, Tucson Newspapers and the Citizen itself didn't react quickly enough to changing times. The company should have gone web-only a few years ago to position itself well for the future: streamlined and cost-effective.
Gannett didn't really seem interested in supporting (saving?) the Citizen for the past several years.
The death knell came when publisher Michael Chihak departed and no replacement was named - a no-brainer to comprehend.
Many staffers saw and understood what was up, but diligently kept on because getting the job done is what they do best.
It is sad that so many quality people are likely going to be out of work during this awful, rough economy. The resilient ones will leave journalism and embark on new careers with promise.
Others will make attempts to stay in the field only to be disappointed yet again.
I wish them all the best of luck whatever fate befalls them.
If the Citizen folds, a living piece of Arizona history dies.
What a damn shame.
Gannett (Newsquest) closed a series of titles in Lancashire, England, coincidentally also called The Citizen(s) just before Christmas. Again, popular and (until recently) largely profitable titles. They were never even offered for sale.
ReplyDelete