The move comes as Gannett prepares as early as this week to release compensation details for its CEO, Craig Dubow, and other top executives.McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt's base salary was cut 15%, while other executive salaries are to be cut 10%; Pruitt (left) already gave up bonuses for this year and last year. McClatchy also reduced the cash compensation, including retainers and meeting fees, paid to its directors by about 13%. Plus, directors declined any stock awards for last year and this year.
In this morning's edition of The Des Moines Register there's a story about the use of furloughs by businesses to save money. The story was billed as local, had a USA Today byline, names Gannett as a company doing furlough's, quotes an "expert" and people from two Iowa businesses. No quotes from Gannett. Is this localization of a USAT story the "ContentOne" initiative at work?
ReplyDeleteHere's the lede:
Iowans join others whose job furloughs save money
By LAURA PETRECCA
USA Today
To curtail costs while avoiding the strain of layoffs, companies, colleges and state governments are mandating temporary hiatuses, commonly known as furloughs.
RV-maker Winnebago Industries, the state of California, Pella Corp. and Des Moines Register parent Gannett are among dozens that have used this tactic to save millions in payroll and other expenses.
"Furloughs are really coming under much greater consideration by employers," said Julie Gebauer, managing director at human resources consulting firm Towers Perrin. --there's more--
Notice these executive/board pay cuts for McClatchy. Those are real cuts, not minor fig leaves. Going after actual pay and dropping bonuses and stock awards, even to board members, is really saying something. Now, McClatchy is in a whole other planet of trouble because of its debt situation, but I really would like to see Gannett make some sort of similar move.
ReplyDeleteNo kidding. If the brass were to take a real hit, and not such weak window dressing cuts, they'd find a lot more willingness on the rest of us to bear the burden with them.
ReplyDeleteI don’t believe that newspapers are dead, but the careers of those who led them to the edge of the abyss with their avarice and failed strategies should be flat out fired, and soon.
ReplyDeleteIn Gannett’s case – that time is now, as its leadership continues to fail in dazzling the street with its brilliance, nor baffle them with further B.S. to remain bought in on its strategic plan. And, following McClatchy’s lead here as rumored may address current cash issues, but it hardly addresses the fundamental issues that began Gannett’s decline years ago.
8:29,
ReplyDeleteHow is that story "billed" as local?
McClatchy stock has lost 99% of its value, yet the CEO remains.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone of us (not including the directors) were doing 99% less work, would Gannett still employ us?
99% less work is not the same as a 99% drop in a stock price retard.
ReplyDeleteMcClatchy deserves to go down. There is no comparison to Gannett. Two very different companies. McClatchy should have never bought Knight Ridder! A company that Gannett had the opportunity to buy, but then passed.
ReplyDeleteGive this management team some credit here.
I'd like to give this managment team more than credit...starting with notice they're out.
ReplyDeleteThe sooner Gannett admits its failings publicly, the sooner investors might jump back on. That is: its appetite for costly acquistions, its failure to use $1.8 billion in stock buy back monies to pay down debt, its inability to admit that it surrendered investments in products (web, etc.) for more profits, that it gave away valuable content supported by print dollars in return for internet dimes (with no end in sight), and that its failed to treat its employees well just to name a few.
Look, the decline started well before now so own up to it, make the needed changes and move on as no one buys what Dubow and others are trying to sell now.
And sorry, any newspaper failure further dooms them all, especially since the full story of what made them weak in the first place is rarely, if ever publicly shared.
11:07 am: No comparison between Gannett and McClatchy, because GCI didn't trash its balance sheet in buying Knight Ridder, for $4.5 billion in stock and cash.
ReplyDeleteGannett had done two deals by then that were just as bad: The all-cash purchases of Newsquest ($1.5 billion in 1999) and Central Newspapers ($2.6 billion in 2000).
Is it just me, or does Pruitt bear at least some passing resemblance to Napoleon Dynamite?
ReplyDeletePerfectly good reader assumption from the headline, 3/09/2009 9:29 AM. "Iowans join others ..." It was a surprise to see the localization with a USAT byline.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
8:29 AM.
All director level positions should see salary reductions of 10%. Publishers should see reductions of 17% to match Craig. The people that do most of the work should be left to continue in their current roles at current pay.
ReplyDeleteAt Gannett, the drain on the talent pool has just gotten worse over the past 10 years. No one is eyeing jobs in this sunset industry, which means the level of talent in management positions has been adversely affected.
Jim, I have to call you on your claim that Gannett's two cash deals were "just as bad" as McClatchy's leveraged deals. McClatchy, Lee, MediaNews, Tribune, Philly Inquirer and similar companies are being killed right now because their available cash flow is going to pay off debt from those earlier purchases. Gannett is at least not in that position since it used cash for its two big purchases.
ReplyDeleteMay I remind everyone that Gannett famously overpaid in 2000 for all those worthless Thomson newspapers?
ReplyDeleteSome in Wisconsin were fine, and money-makers. but the Ohio and Indiana dailies Gannett bought? Whatta joke they were - and remain.
And Jim, in defense of FAIR AND BALANCED, how about you name some successful acquisitions or investments that Gannett performed over time?
ReplyDelete1:36 pm: Sounds like you already have a list in mind. Why don't you share it with all of us?
ReplyDeletePrettyboy Pruitt won't feel the sting of a 15% pay cut. get real. he lives on interest and banks his pay. he could work for $2/yr. and still be fine.
ReplyDeleteHe could also get canned and he should. He was at the crime scene when K-R was murdered and he handed Tony Ridder the knife. Is there a statute of limitations on accomplice to the slaughter of a good american company?
Purdyboy should be led way in handcuffs. His board should discharge him as he is not fulfilling a fiduciary obligation to the shareholders, saps tho they are, to look out for their interest.
This board must be asleep.
Two words : Multimedia Cable.
ReplyDeleteGannett bought the tv and cable company for some ridiculous amount. Sold off the cable, kept the TV stations and made > $2 billion. Guess who crafted that amazing deal? Look it up.