Rising unemployment pinches consumer sales, spurring retailers to cut ad spending -- and further weakening Gannett's revenues: We're feeling the squeeze companywide, new government and New York Times data show, especially in five regions comprising nearly half this blog's readers.The five include areas nailed extra hard in the real estate collapse (Arizona, Florida) and manufacturing meltdowns (Michigan, New York-New Jersey), the NYT data show. Indeed, workforce contraction was in full force last month, the Labor Department said yesterday: The U.S. jobless rate rose to a 25-year high, 8.1%, as employers cut another 651,000 jobs.
Florida's Lee County, home to The News-Press of Fort Myers, lost 20,600 jobs in January vs. a year before -- more than any other Florida county. Lee's jobless rate: 11.5% vs. 6.4% a year ago.
Five regions, 12K workers
Starting with No. 1, New York-New Jersey, the regions comprised 47% of Gannett Blog's 1.3 million visits over the past 12 months, a new Google Analytics report says. Combined, the regions employ perhaps 12,000 GCI workers, or 30% of the 41,500 worldwide.
Top regions sending most traffic to Gannett Blog:
1. New York / New Jersey
Papers: 12; TV stations: one; regional employees: 3,500
Notes: The New Jersey and Central New York groups are possible candidates for further consolidation.
2. Virginia / D.C.
Papers: 10; TV stations: one; employees: 1,500 to 2,000. Notes: Corporate, USA Today based in McLean, Va. Army Times Publishing Co. in Springfield, Va., publishes nine titles. Notes: Tension between Corporate and the field is rising over Chairman Craig Dubow (left) and his team's strategy: Since he became CEO in July 2005, Gannett's stock has plunged 97% vs. 87% for the New York Times Co., and 43% in the S&P 500 index, Google Finance says.3. Florida
Papers: four; TV stations: three; employees: 1,200
Notes: In addition to the News-Press, Fort Myers is the South Group's headquarters, under Publisher Carol Hudler. The city has become the real estate bust's poster child.
4. Arizona
Papers: two; TV stations: two; employees: 2,400
Notes: The Arizona Republic circulates 363,000 weekday copies, second only to USA Today's 2.3 million. KPNX-TV is Phoenix's NBC affiliate. The city rivals McLean, Va., as Gannett's single-biggest worksite.
5. Michigan
Papers: five; TV stations: one; employees: 2,500
Notes: Detroit is home to another big worksite in the Detroit Media Partnership, the Gannett-controlled joint agency publishing the money-losing Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.
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[Image: today's Arizona Republic, Newseum]
If it were not for the FCC dithering, I believe that Corporate would have merged the TV and newspaper newsrooms in each of these districts already. Turn the newspaper newsrooms into TV sets and have newspaper reporters give the local news. It doesn't work well because newspaper writers don't make good TV presenters and aren't trained in the presentation business. Plus not all are really telegenic.
ReplyDeleteLotsa messy GCI politics involved here. For example, will corporate put the knife into Rochester, given the company's history and Rochester being the mother ship? You could put Binghamton, Elmira and Rochester together since they are within a couple of hours of each other on good Interstate driving. But the region is notorious for bad, heavy lake-effect snowstorms.
ReplyDeleteIndiana is at 9.2% unemployment.
ReplyDeleteConsolidate Rochester into Binghamton? I would truly enjoy seeing that.
ReplyDeleteCome on gannett go bankrupt..............I am tired of working for the bully and thieves!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI would give my left nut to see the goliath fall!! Yesssss What truely comes around goes around!!
ReplyDeleteRight about now as the loans will be due soon and gannett is losing the right to borrow against their declining stock...........I would not put this past them of dipping into our guarenteed pensions and using the money before they declare bankruptsy!!! They are theives with a licence to steal!!!
ReplyDeleteJim, Army Times Publishing Company is in Springfield, Va.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Gannett joint.
Trust me: Multiple sources say that Gannett is looking for a way out of Detroit. Sure, the company is embarking on a home-delivery/digitial-first experiment with MediaNews. But as soon as Dean Singleton--who now controls the Denver market and may get an even bigger slice of the San Francisco market--gets his finances in order, Gannett will find a way to give him control of the Detroit Media Partnership. There are all kinds of strong rumors that Gannett tried to unload the Detroit operation on Singleton last year, but he didn't have the finances to do it.
ReplyDelete9:03 am. Good catch! I've fixed that.
ReplyDeleteWord now has it that Freep in Detroit is going to push into the suburbs further with Eccentric papers they bought a few years ago from Phil Powers. Goal is to pick up even more preprints, not necessarily put out a good news product, which the Eccentric newspapers ceased to be years ago.
ReplyDelete