Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday | Feb. 25 | Your News & Comments
Special note for Wednesday's board meeting: If dividend news breaks while I'm offline, post it here, in this dividend watch edition of Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)
92 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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frist
ReplyDeleteWaiting with bated breath
ReplyDeletefrist!
ReplyDeletewoohoo First. What sad tidings will today bring us?
ReplyDeletetoday will be a good day.
ReplyDeleteGannett to suspend the dividend and use the cash for stock buy back in hopes of positioning itself to go private.
ReplyDeleteHi, Jim:
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work. We've got to keep The Day going.
I give this hypothosis. Shoot it down, please. The reason that there are 1st quarter furloughs and likely 2nd quarter furloughs is that there are no savings at all from the end of year layoffs. After all, even with only 1 weeks pay per year seniority, most of those laid off are still getting their bi-weekly paychecks and many will continue to get them through May. Therefore, no layoff savings at least until July. Those paychecks and the cash necessary to pay off the pension plan payments will probably cause those of us remaining to give up a week a quarter until the end of the year.
ReplyDelete1:17 -- Some sites did the layoffs based on seniority. In those cases, many of the severance payments have already ended. So there would be some savings.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to company should be starting to save from the buyouts that they gave to Jim and other long-term employees. I think they were capped at a year and that time is up.
So, there has been savings. Sadly, advertising revenue is even lower than last quarter and there's no reason to predict a big upswing.
Single copy sales are being taken over by USAT, in Reno.
ReplyDeleteSome guy named Rader, or Raider. is running that show.
He's already in Reno.
Can someone explain what this means?
Ed Hutcheson said...
ReplyDeleteHi, Jim:
Keep up the good work. We've got to keep The Day going.
Fantastic! A great movie about the realities of this business. Deadline USA or at least what the realities used to be.
Ed Hutcheson: It's not enough any more to give 'em just news. They want comics, contests, puzzles. They want to know how to bake a cake, win friends, and influence the future. Ergo, horoscopes, tips on the horses, interpretation of dreams so they can win on the numbers lottery. And, if they accidentally stumble on the first page... news!
ReplyDeleteEd Hutcheson: That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing!
ReplyDeleteYa a slight case of News,followed by just a little bit of tabloid,. After its the norm.
ReplyDeleteFor those in New York City, a free panel that may be of interest:
ReplyDelete* From the Deadline Club, the NYC chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Salmagundi Club, a Center for American Art *
Layoff Survival Guide: How to Succeed in the Most Trying Times
With newsrooms downsizing, find out how to prepare if you’re concerned about losing your job, you’ve received a pink slip, or you just want to be ready for what’s ahead. Our panelists will address employee rights, personal finance and job searching in a tough market.
When: Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Where: The Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Ave., btwn 11th St. and 12th St.
Panelists:
* Allison Hemming, founder of The Hired Guns and author of “Work It! How to Get Ahead, Save Your Ass and Land a Job in Any Economy!”
* Hanan Kolko, labor attorney with Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein
* Donald Mazzella (moderator), editorial director, Information Strategies, Inc.
* Jay Sanders, chairman of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants’ Personal Financial Planning Committee
This panel is FREE to all. To reserve your seat, email
rsvp@deadlineclub.org
Note on the Salmagundi Club: Dress is business casual. Sign-in is on the
second floor. Just let us know if you will need disabilities
accommodations and/or ground-floor access.
Bet they will try to keep the stock stable today
ReplyDeleteGood morning all. A sunny, warmer day here in the Midwest.
ReplyDeleteEight months since I left Gannett and enjoying every single day.
We just dropped the local paper after 20-plus years.
A question for any Gannett corp. circulation people, either on here or reading without writing. Is the gutting of single copy at Florida Today coming from you? We're being systematically cut to nothing by people who blame it on you, but I find it hard to believe that you'd allow such things as racks being taken off the street that sell 15-30 papers a day. Draws for those are nearly cut in half so we CANNOT sell what we did last week! It's not right to stores, carriers, or the readers. Those in charge have been quoted as saying "they wish there never was a single copy". We're sure getting there. This carnage has to stop and I don't know how, except here. Please help, unless this IS what you (Gannett) desire. Cutting costs is one thing, cutting sales/revenue? I don't get it.
ReplyDelete8:33 AM
ReplyDeleteGannett now has hard line return goals that must be met. My guess is the paper was running over after the first couple weeks of the period and the publisher has mandated that every step be taken to ensure they meet this objective - even if it costs sales and revenue. I know this sounds stupid, but remember, this is Gannett.
12:37 a.m.
ReplyDeleteWe can only pray so ...
8:42 Thanks for your response, but you cut returns by cutting draws for EVERYONE, not just for racks! You have sell out racks with stores still maybe sometimes being higher. They eliminated some racks last year under some guise to prop up home delivery, but that didn't work and they stopped. Returns are cut by lowering ALL draws, not just racks. AND...there wouldn't be so many returns if the paper got out ON TIME most of the time instead of making 1/3 of the county start their runs at 3,4,5am!
ReplyDeleteThis is our season here so cutting off your nose to spite your face should be after April, not now.
I'm not a circulation person but curious about the single copy and rack comments. Is ROI tracked on individual racks...i.e., if you sell 30 units a day and it grossed $15 what is the net after production, staff and distribution costs..just curious how all this works....I'm a 30-year news guy. Thanks and good luck!
ReplyDeleteJim: this is my problem with you and many other bloggers. You write what you think, instead of what you know. At least I can't tell the difference. You say in two recent items that the board is nearing a vote on the dividend and that the board continues to debate it. Do you know - for sure - that either is true? Could they just as easily be debating a new CEO, a plan to buy Tribune, a move of HQ back to Rochester, or what to have for lunch? Please, separate the facts from your wish list.
ReplyDeleteLogically, the current dividend cannot be sustained, regardless of how you feel. I suspect the 401K match will be suspended also. Any option is grim. Things will get worse before they get better. Not that it matters, but I have a FICO score in the very high seven hundred range, and Chase this week canceled a 9 year old Visa card with a low balance, no late payments, only 15 percent of limit used.
ReplyDelete10:05 am: Good point. I've recast this morning's item to make it more conditional. As always, I do the best I can in the absence of specific information from Corporate.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel like the lone ranger, 2/25/2009 10:09 AM. My FICO score is over 800 and CITI, which administers my Sears credit card, raised my interest rate to 29%. I had a zero balance, was never late in a decade. When I called, the credit counselor said they were doing it to everyone because of the poor economy, but I could rollover any credit card balances and pay 7.9% until the balance was cleared.
ReplyDeleteI cut that sucker up.
Question - Has anyone on the Board ever worked at a newspaper?
ReplyDeletewonder if board members read the newspapers.
ReplyDeleteCan those of us in Virginia collect unemployment for our furlough week?
ReplyDeleteyes you can!
ReplyDeleteI love my new jersey newspaper! I put on a fresh pot of coffee in the morning and open my front door to get my asbury park press and sit down at the table and read it.Im looking for a new job in the paper but wait a minute no classified job section ?What am i to do ?Are there no jobs in the press anymore ?where did that section go??
ReplyDeleteI've waited for the other shoe to drop with bated breath for so long, I'm a frickin' expert. Hell, I might even be a master bater.
ReplyDelete3:41 a.m.: a slight correction. The USAT buyouts (December 2007) had no cap. It was 2 weeks per year of service, unlimited. Not that there were a LOT of folks with more than 26 years' service (which would have equaled a year's pay) in that group, but there were some ... and some will continue to draw buyout paychecks well into 2009.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, many of those 43 buyouts are over with, or will be shortly.
Just in time, no doubt, for another round of cutting ... and paltry-by-comparison severance packages. The 1-week-per-year-of-service with a 26-week cap is nothing short of an insult to longtime employees for their service.
9:57 Don't know how "the company" breaks it down, but our carrier's cost is 59 cents for a 75 cent paper. How much of that is actual profit for the paper I'd be willing to bet nobody really knows! I do know FT's carriers get the least cut almost across the country. Not surprising for a Gannett paper however.
ReplyDeleteIt's just not understood how one takes away probable sales to supposedly cut returns instead of fixing the problems that cause the lower than should be sales in the first place. That, and with the tailspin we've been under the last couple of years, it is questionable that Gannett even knows what's going on with their papers. Losing sales by attrition, even if imagined, is one thing....losing them to irresponsibility is another.
The meetings are over and the board members have left the building... Waiting... Waiting...
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be something if MoveOn or the NRA or one of the political parties bought controlling interest in Gannett? At $500 mil, they could shape the conversation for the entire country with USAT and all of our other papers and TV stations - without having to buy air time or write letters to the editor en masse.
ReplyDeleteAnd in a year or two, when we come out of the recession, they'd have a license to print money. If I had the cash, I'd do it tomorrow. If you'd shutter the ten worst performers, we'd still be ahead in profit.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe meetings are over and the board members have left the building... Waiting... Waiting...
2/25/2009 12:42 PM
The deep breath before the plunge...
Predictions anyone?
ReplyDeleteWhat will the news be by the close of business today and when the stock bell rings?
So, I can get unemployment for my furlough week in Virginia? Is it too late if I am already taking the week? How do I apply?
ReplyDeleteJust heard from a former co-worker that Ithaca and Elmira have eliminated paginators. Binghamton will take over the duties. They can apply for the few openings in Binghamton...
ReplyDeleteRe: 12:33
ReplyDeleteI can speak only of my site and my department; but, the highest paid and most senior employees were let go. I know of several who will be paid into May; even at one week per year. I know of another who took one of the first buyouts, who is still getting a check cut to him, a year after he died. In addition to the cash necessary to pay for those laid off, it is necessary to come up with the cash to pay off the pension plans for those let go. There will not be savings from layoffs and buyouts for at least another year.
I just shake my head... the Directors at my paper are more concerned screwing around with texting, IM'ing, and Facebooking each other all day long, than the challenges at hand... Signs of true leadership. Maybe if they quit farting around, and dusted the cobwebs from their brains, we could come up w/ some $$ generating ideas?
ReplyDeleteNote: Most folks who work at newspapers are the hardest working types that I've ever encountered. Problem is, it only takes a few slugs to bring the entire operation down... and it seems to me that Gannett has a slug-epidemic in management ranks. Oh, and the slugs who are reading this know who they are.
12:30.. I like it.. good one
ReplyDeletebated breath here
Telegraph Herald in Dubuque picks up Des Moines Register cartoonist Brian Duffy, who was kicked out the door by the Register: http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=234294
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting on a shirt.
ReplyDeleteyipeeeeeeee, bring on the corporate axes!! Off wit their heads!!!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the earlier single copy comments: Yes, it does appear that this company will continue the rape of single copy!
ReplyDeleteThey are more concerned with hitting return numbers than they are sales numbers. When you go in to talk about the cut in draws this week they tell you it's 'return percentage'. Next week when you go in they tell you... It's not percentage it total number of returns and it has nothing to do with percentage!#@!
%???????
They have absolutely killed the sales in my area over the past two years. I am in a market where the hometown paper rules... we are selling at .75/1.75 compared to .50/1.25. USAT is there also and I know several contractors there that say they are not being harrassed about returns numbers.
After 3 rate increases in the past year, the IDIOTS in the ivory tower can't figure out why the sales numbers are down!!!#@$#!
In addition... the company can trim and cut their expenses anywhere they please...including furloughing employees but can't understand why a contractor doesn't want to drive 2 miles out of his way to service a rack location that sells 2 papers/week!!!
Interesting little development reported on E&P home page:
ReplyDelete'Des Moines Register' to Print 'Wall Street Journal'
By E&P Staff
Published: February 25, 2009 12:49 PM ET
NEW YORK The Wall Street Journal will close its printing plant in West Des Moines in mid-April, when Dow Jones & Co. will pay The Des Moines Register to print copies for distribution in four states.
I was shown over the weekend a recent Tuesday editrion of the Gannett "newspaper" in Chillicothe Ohio. My friend said that it has become the laughing stock of the community. It is just 8 pages Monday and Tuesday, and not much more the rest of the week.
ReplyDeleteYet, the paper's staff is huge by comparison.
This raises the issues of the December layoffs and why these money-draining Ohio community papers got a layoff pass last time. many of these small papers have newsrooms much bigger by comparison to the Wisconsin and Indiana papers and Louisiana papers.
How come?
No one from these papers EVER respond on this site. Maybe out of fear, or maybe because they want to remain invisible.
But I have been told these newspapers are a major corporate drain, so why haven't they been closed, sold, or cut back in personnel compared to the rest of Gannett????
2:00pm...I really need to agree with you on this one. We are a huge southwest sunbelt site (aka 85004) and have had a massive rollout of blackberry and wireless technology...started with the directors, then senior management and then the entire advertising department. It always seem like the ones who could use it most (photographers and breaking news reporters) were never considered...instead we continue with the ways of the past.
ReplyDeleteDoes strategy development live in "rightnow" mode?
Just a comment on yesterday's CN in NJ (or maybe it was Monday. There is so much content to the CN that I need several days to assimilate it all. .... Silly Pants wrote his usual bubbly column--this time about taking Boy Scouts on a tour of the premises. That has to be a three minute tour. No presses, Ad Services people doing nothing, advertising people scrambling to fill all of the paper since there is little news reported, "My Dear Readers" writing his inane columns with little personal quips which no one really cares to read. How many times do we need his repeated auto-biography in the columns?
ReplyDeleteThe poor Boy Scouts must suffer such triviality to earn a merit badge, but it also gives them a clue that journalism has been destroyed in NJ.
The furlough has been my best week of the year!
H
Hey why were Community Newspaper execs summoned to the Crystal Palace?
ReplyDeleteDividend cut to 4 cents a share -- press release is out
ReplyDeleteDividend cut to 4 cents a share -- press release is out
ReplyDelete4 cent per share dividend has been declared.
ReplyDeleteMCLEAN, Va.----Gannett Co., Inc.'s Board of Directors today declared a quarterly dividend of 4 cents per share, payable on April 1, 2009 to shareholders of record as of the close of business March 6, 2009.
ReplyDeleteWed Feb 25 21:47:00 GMT 2009
Community Newspaper Execs called home to McLean can only mean one thing... and it can't be good.
ReplyDeleteHow many of them are there??
90% Dividend cut...yet Dubow stays. Sad.
ReplyDeleteCommunity newspaper execs were summoned to the "Crystal Palace" this week to learn about Gannett's new toolbox of applications and how they are going to save the company.
ReplyDeleteDemonstrations of the applications, plus top-down edicts on how they are to be used in the field - and sold to advertisers - were among the sessions.
Our Executive Editor and Advertising Director went. Don't know if any other disciplines were asked to attend.
Gannett feels its positioned itself to weather the storm and survive with its new online (Information Center) tools.
After hours trading: Shares down 6.13% or minus 23 cents to $3.52.
ReplyDeleteThat's a larger-than-expected dividend cut. Wonder if it means things are worse than anyone realizes. Wonder if more job cuts are still on the table.
ReplyDeleteby the time they are done with elmira and ithaca, you will be able to fit whats left into a cereal box.
ReplyDeleteSomeone please put this dog out of its misery. It's just lying there by the side of the road. Twitching. Please, someone. Anyone. Step up and have the guts to do the humane thing. End it now.
ReplyDeleteIf revenues continue downward into Q2, this very well might be the last dividend ever paid.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Chilli staff is heavy, but I find that unlikely. One of its sister papers has no city ed, news ed and maybe five reporters. Not all the Ohio papers are exactly stacked with employees ...
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding? NINETY PERCENT cut?
ReplyDeleteThis is a sign that things are bad. Really bad. Really, really, really bad.
In and of itself not a death sentence. But couple it with the fact that the people who put GCI in this position are still steering the ship, and you have about as terminal of a prognosis as you can get.
I will be stunned if Gannett exists as we know if a year from now.
Damn, how ignorant are you people. Cutting the dividend is a good thing. They can use the money to pay down debt and wait out the storm. If they hadn't cut the dividend you'd all be screaming at the top of your lungs. Grow up already. You make it soudn liek the company is insolvent. They saved $350 million lemmings and will use it to stabalize the financial picture. It's one thing to be angry it's another to be just financially ignorant. Educate yourselves for heavens sake.
ReplyDeleteAfter hours trading already down to $3.52 and falling.
ReplyDelete@6:10, it matters not if they 'save' $325M. The suits in charge will still run the company into the ground.
ReplyDeleteYou say they're going to 'wait out the storm.' Problem is, they're going to perish in the storm.
The best financial move they could have made imho.
ReplyDeleteLet hear it for Craig - Hip Hip Go to hell
ReplyDeleteI guess they left out the part in the press relasese where $100M of the savings will be dedicated to the severance packages of the BOD...
ReplyDeleteCONFIRMED:
ReplyDeleteDickey has summoned execs to McLean to discuss layoff. We are talking some serious numbers here. I heard it will be 50 - 75% more layoffs than last time.
That would make it about 3,000 to 4,000 USCP staffers!
I know they are sending top execs Thursday. Nobody is saying what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteHey 7:13-how do you know?
The dividend cut is a good financial move. However, it's not the only one they likely will be faced to make, imo. The economy is awful and everyone is suffering these days. At least we know that the pain is being spread around.
ReplyDeleteFIRST!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, well, maybe that boat sailed
Will Ithaca and Elmira be combined with Binghamton? I know they're looking for a new building still, and maybe this is what they're waiting on; to give everyone there the hatchet.
ReplyDeleteHey pricks...Just wait and see. 7:13p is correct. You are all doubting this poster because you might be indenial, there will be another 3,000 plus layoff's in USCP. Bob Dickey has already worked out the plan and is meeting with the USCP execs to review local impact. The terminations will happen by the beginning of April.
ReplyDelete8:21 that's right the lay-offs come from within each property. They let those morons choose.
ReplyDeleteThe Truth - I'm 8:21 and you are as full of shit as 7:13.
ReplyDeleteI never said layoffs weren't coming - all I said was the meetings at Corporate have nothing to do with them.
You, as with 7:13, obviously have no idea how the decisions related to the layoffs are made.
I don't know what kind of bullshit you're spreading but I know one thing - it sure aint "The Truth."
8:21/9:40p...I wish I was wrong and full of shit. Trust me, my sources are as qualified.
ReplyDeleteI do not know who "The Truth" is, but obviously that poster might be seeing or hearing the same thing I am.
As a side note, look at the drop in revenues for last year from our division in USCP and look at how many people we have already terminated. Now, take a look at the general economic situation and tell me it has gotten better since the last Gannett massacre on Dec 3rd.
The economy is worse and based on what we are seeing as it relates to our selling numbers, it isn't pretty.
Today they announced a dividend cut, do you actually think they are done with the layoff's? Do you see more cars being bought? More homes being sold? more companies posting jobs? Do you advertising pages increasing or decreasing?
So, even if you believe I am "full of shit", then pick your head out of your ass and look around, because the shit on your face is only going to get worse when they knock out another 4,000 employees!
5:17
ReplyDeleteGannett wants to get rid of all the Community Newspapers and have a local section wrap around USA Today if people want a printed paper.
10:02 - did you even read my post?
ReplyDeleteI didn't say layoffs weren't coming.
I'm just pointing out that what "The Truth" is posting as gospel just isn't so. I point it out because if he/she will post that crap as the truth, what other pieces of misinformation are they posting.
Let me type this slowly. The meetings at corporate have nothing to do with layoffs.
For those few happy, shiny people on this blog who are Gannett flag wavers and who think we're all paranoid...Why is it that every time smoke appears it's not long before the fire engulfs us?
ReplyDeleteSome of us see the red flags sooner than others. When it goes from some to many... usually, within a month or two, the hammer comes down.
It's been a pattern repeated time and time again. So nothing would surprise me this point. The war drums are beating again and there is enough evidence for concern.
While some might jump the gun or only be interested in creating rumors, many are just using their eyes, ears and memories of the past to take educated guesses at what's coming next.
I can recall editors and managers always calling for caution and saying they were optimistic. Then two weeks or months later, we were losing jobs or taking furloughs.
Hey, it's clear that in comparison to other industries, Gannett hasn't cut enough personnel. And since they blew the last round of layoffs by getting rid of so many qualified people who could have handled the increased workload, now they have to get rid of the people who haven't measured up but were protected for other reasons.
I suspect any future layoffs will target those bargain-basement employees with the string of bad reviews or other obvious flaws. The ones who should have been let go in December. Instead, Gannett opted to get rid of older, higher paid workers simply to save a dime. What they were left with was a lot of inferior employees who aren't rising to the occasion.
How about recalling some of the really fine people let go in December and getting rid of all this damn dead wood piling up? How is this company going to pull out of this without the steady hand of experience staffers? I mean, do you think an inexperienced pilot could have safely landed that plane in the Hudson?
There is something to be said for experience. And there is a cost for throwing proven workers overboard.
Gannett needs to fix its workforce. Then maybe the rumors and layoffs and all the negativity will subside.
A lack of confidence, because of poor decisions and a weak workforce, has led us to this blog. We need help. We need smarter, seasoned hands at all levels in every department. That's how the company became strong. December and the buyouts a year earlier was too much of a drain too fast.
Look around and you will see why we are sinking and why this blog is filled with legitimate fear.
Its the mid level managers that should be worried about being cut. Many of those jobs should be consolidated.
ReplyDelete7:13 this is 7:28. I say Bull Shit and screw you. Tell us Mr anonymous how do you know. What ahv eyou seen or read Mr inner circle that lproves what you are sayin gis fact? And don't make like you will be outed if you tell us. You are not that important or on the inside you weasily schmuck. Guessing is one thing, no problem. But stating a lie as fact scares thousands. Tell us how you know. Otherwise shut the fuck up you wanna be!
ReplyDelete"Jim Hopkins is so dumb ..."
ReplyDelete"How dumb is he?"
"Jim Hopkins is so dumb that when someone asked him if he knew what a dividend was, he said, 'I think it comes from (blank).'"
Yo 11:29 you can't type for shit but you speak the truth. Tell us Mr Wannabe, how do you know?
ReplyDelete"How about recalling some of the really fine people let go in December and getting rid of all this damn dead wood piling up?"
ReplyDeleteMost of the really fine people I know that got let go have already found better jobs.
It's kind of what experienced and talented people do.
Sorry 7:28 but I am 7:13 and this is a fact. Also, I chose to leave Gannett while there was something to leave and no I was not a voluntary layoff--I would have been the last to go and by the way I am in sales and the local website I now chose to work for is booming! Quit hanging on to something that is gone. Face the truth.
ReplyDelete8:42. I am glad that the talented people you know who were let go in December have remarkably secured new jobs in less than three months in this economy. That is not the case with the folks I know who were in Gannett or other industries. Some very bright people have been unemployed for awhile now. A year or longer in many cases, and not through any fault of their own. I kind of resent your implying that just because someone has talent, that assures them of finding good work. Unless you've been in a cave for the last year, that simply is no longer true in this economy, which makes it even more important for companies to hold on to talented folks. Try having a little more awareness of what is really going on in the job market and don't make ridiculous statements that defy reality, statistics and the economic forces that are in place right now. Talented folks, who can't find jobs, don't need people like you telling them that there's no problem. This is a horrendous time we are living in. Don't diminish the pain many quality folks are feeling. And don't let Gannett off the hook for getting rid of many of those quality employees.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing that 9:45 AM. I appreciated reading that and totally agree.
ReplyDelete