Gannett shares dived 24% today, closing at $2.22, another new low in the newspaper crisis, amid a wave of selling over the past five trading sessions.GCI's tumble came only a month after the stock breached the $5 mark, on Feb. 3. Today's key closing data:
- Volume: 15.6 million shares vs. 7.4 million average
- 52-week high: $31.86
- 52-week low: $2.21 (set today)
- Change from year ago: down 93%; (S&P: down 48%)
- Dividend yield: 7.21%
- Gannett's market value: $507 million
After weeks of waiting for Corporate to present their new ideas to the board of directors, what do we get: the only action discernible was to give out stock bonuses to the favored few executives. So Wall Street reacts, and reacts big time. Hooray. Good for Wall Street. Maybe these venal and corrupt leaders will see this as a real wake up call, and realize they cannot continue their pocket-the-riches approach to running this company anymore. Wall Street investors aren't dumb. They know when they are being taken. We've gone from 5 percent losses each day, to 8 percent losses, and now 20 percent plus a day losses. And through all this we get nothing but inaction and paralysis from the Crystal Towers. They are hopeless and, God I hope they are scared because their jobs are soon going to be gone.
ReplyDeleteI'm nearly speechless! Even with this terrible economy, how did this happen so quickly? I suppose some would say it wasn't quick and that Gannett Corp. has been mismanaged for a very long time. It just took this economy to reveal all the weaknesses, the bad decisions, horrible hiring practices and lack of honorable and innovative values. I know other companies have been hit hard, but this fall in particular has been mighty steep. Companies like Citi have been hurting for several years, maybe longer. I can't help but believe that investors are more aware than ever that this company is horribly run with no clear vision of the future. Just look at the massive number of former employees whose hatred of GCI is about as intense as one can ever imagine. Look at all the employees who have been dumping there company stock for years, knowing that this company simply doesn't have a vision and that things are broken and beyond repair. Not a good sign when the people who work here and know the most about how screwed up things have become, are bailing out on the stock. Just look at the all the meetings we sit in where there are very few details as to how we're going to get from point A to B. Lots of labels and catch phrases, and very few serious plans. And don't ask about that lack of details because if you do you will be labeled as negative or a malcontent. It does seem like Gannett's run is about over and that properties are going to be broken up in some fashion. But before that happens, I wonder what GCI is going to cook up next to try to save itself.
ReplyDeleteGannett can save money by printing the newspaper on their stock.
ReplyDeleteI hear they're coming out with a new promotion; One share of Gannett stock with every newspaper!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue! Thanks GLW!
ReplyDeleteI said it yesterday and I'll say it again.
ReplyDeleteThose in the highest places of power are positioning themselves to walk away from it all. They made a mess, and now they want to pick up their golden eggs and walk away, spitting on the remains of the company and it's employees like so much trash.
...sort of a reason to not let them go at all, that is unless it’s voluntary.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the best use for Dubow and others is to severely marginalize their respective roles. Hence, I’d consider down-grading their positions as far as their employment agreements allowed.
And, if that meant giving each one paper routes and other duties then so be it as the goal would be to given them roles so unbefitting to their inflated egos that they’d walk on their own...with nothing.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteYou posted the number of stock options that were given to top executives, do you have access to the how many stock option rest of the the highly unqualified executives got?
As much as I'd like to flail current and past management, could someone please point out for me the media company whose stock is doing well right now? The technological revolution caught everyone flat-footed, not just Gannett. Young folks who read want their info for free, just as we trained them to get it. I'll be darned if I can see what current management could have done to prevent this avalanche. But by all means keep letting them have it. It feels good.
ReplyDelete6:42
ReplyDeleteWrong
Young people dont want it for free. If that was the only problem, Gannett and all of newspapers could set a fix number of papers they print and give them away for free
There are two problems for the newspapers
1. Too slow to market on the information, News is not Daily it is by the minute
2. They like many people don't like what information Gannett is giving them and choose not to buy it. They aren't iterested in it for free either
6:42 Both the NYT and SSP registered increases in stock prices Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteWhen a stock falls like this, what is Miss Market predicting?
ReplyDeleteBANKRUPTCY!
Sincerely,
Whupped in Wilmington
6:42 No other newspaper stock saw a loss of a quarter of its value in one day like GCI saw today. This is not an industry problem, it is a GCI problem.
ReplyDelete19 years with GCI, last 10 at USAT, it's making me sick to see all this. Wish we could all vote to oust the leader!!! Might not do any good but would sure up the company moral.
ReplyDelete6:42, I hate to pile on, but newspapers have seen this coming since 1996. Go look at the reports created by the newspaper association back in the late '90s. We knew this was where we were headed, but chose to milk the cash cow until she died.
ReplyDeleteWell, we got what we deserved. Only now, the cow is so emaciated that we can't even get a good barbecue out of her.
I have to admit... I've been coming on here for a while now keeping up to date. It seems this is the place to come to get the information that corperate has been keeping from us. So with that said I am going to throw in my two cents worth here.
ReplyDeleteYou're damn right the investors have had enough! How in the hell do you tell 45,000 people you have to take off a week without pay then give yourself and your "Buddies" big, fat bonuses in the form of stock options?!?!?! They have always (And I mean ALWAYS)posted on the internet the results/ discussions that come from the board meetings, but not this time! They have thier butts so tightly locked up you couldn't get a greased BB up them!!!
What they have done should be considered criminal! The CEO, CFO and that finacial officer Dale Henn should not only be held accountable for their actions, but even arrested for the crap they have pulled! Everyday you can see huge waistful spending throughout the building.
When a paper brings in people from all over the country/world and puts them up at the Ritz for 4 day, pays for a casino night, catering and then pay for all them to go to a museum with a price tag WELL into the 6 figures there is a serious problem!!! Not to mention a ton of other waistfull moves throughout the building and then when they aren't happy they move again withing 4-6 months. The list goes on people so wake up!
If there is anyone that wants to argue this then the only one you are kidding is yourself! Either that or you are part of their possy! So... If there is anyone on the board looking at this take note! It's time for a change and the time is NOW!!!
Sorry for any typos! Have a nice evening!
Happy to report, 222 is our lucky number. Onward and upward from here!
ReplyDeleteI remember when the multi-million-dollar Newseum opened, how some commentators were calling it a memorial to newspapers, not a celebration of them. To add to all the marble in D.C. honoring our country's greatest leaders.
ReplyDeleteWho among us writing here are corporate lawyers, who would know what has to happen for a corporation to continue? Probably not many posters, most likely, none.
Bankruptcy gives a corporation the opportunity to hold creditors at bay while it continues to function. The courts sell assets off to satisfy obligations.
This is the BEST option for all of you out there working at a Gannett site.
As for me, I was laid off in December. I have nothing, so I have nothing to lose.
Just when you think it can't get worse....
ReplyDeleteHot damn! Maybe by the end of the week a single GCI share will cost the same as the Sunday paper. At least with a Sunday paper I can train a puupy, line a bird cage start a fire, pack my breakable dishes, clip coupons or cover the floor before arts & crafts with the kids.
ReplyDeleteNewspapers have been on the downslide since 1996, with the warning bell getting louder every day. What did Gannett do? BOUGHT MORE NEWSPAPERS, made short term money at the expense of long term survival in order to meet the mark needed for executive bonuses. When they are finally banished from Gannett, they are well prepared for new careers in the mortgage industry, banking and at AIG.
ReplyDeleteAs an ex Gannett employee I have to admit to taking a certain amount of pleasure in watching the stock drop. Today, I discovered many current employees take an even greater pleasure in watching the drop in the hopes it will remove them from the Gannett stranglehold and perhaps some of the Gannett puppets running their paper.
ReplyDelete6:39 pm wrote: "You posted the number of stock options that were given to top executives, do you have access to the how many stock option rest of the the highly unqualified executives got?"
ReplyDeleteI have the same access to documents that you have: from the company's investor relations pages on the main website. These are public documents; anyone can look at them -- employees, non-employees, stockholders and non-stockholders.
The named executives you reference file disclosure statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They are called a Form 4. You can search for those and other forms on the investor relations pages. Here's the short URL: http://tinyurl.com/bu99v8
Look, I understand why people feel angry, but it is not rational to say that newspapers are just going to disappear anytime soon. The business may change and downsize, but there's going to be local papers for decades to come. While most young people get their news from the internet, there a many millions of older people that still get a paper copy. That's not going to change in the next couple of years, and probably not the next couple of decades.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is not the end all be all of life, and the only reason the short-sellers are attacking the stock is because ad revenue is declining rapidly during the recession. That has nothing to do with "the end of newspapers".
Just thought of something, for every seller there is a buyer. Are investors fleeing to or from GCI? Think about it.
ReplyDelete11:01 No one is saying newspapers are going to disappear. They are just losing the advertising revenues that makes them possible. There were newspapers called broadsheets before advertising discovered them, and they thrived. But it was the ads that provided the revenues to hire large staffs for investigative reporting and other forms of journalism that are expensive. Without revenues, those forms will die off. They already are dying out. Newspaper chains like GCI and others that depend on the revenues ads bring in are similarly doomed.
ReplyDelete11:01 Remember the Yellow Pages? Ten years ago, these were fat volumes of ad-filled yellow newsprint. Today, they are slimmed-down books of a few hundred pages and are no longer published for metropolitan areas. That is what faces the newspaper industry today.
ReplyDeleteIt is time to shut down the circus and fire the clowns!!!!!!!! I agree with the person, 6:32, who said demote the top people to delivery people before they are let go and they will walk on their own and quit........maybe then we wouldn't have to give them their "golden parachutes"!! These rich board people care about nobody but themselves and have instilled sense of greed and worth like they are deserving more than welfare queens!! We should get the torches and pitchforks out and storm the mothership headquarters and nail and hang all of them bastards and bimbo's from that great big world ball in their lobby and maybe the next board members would consider actually working for their money instead of stealing it!!We've created a bunch of self serving frankensteins!
ReplyDeleteJim 10:52
ReplyDeleteI was laid off in December and no longer have the access to people who might.
Maybe someone out there does and is willing to share.
"Hot damn! Maybe by the end of the week a single GCI share will cost the same as the Sunday paper"
ReplyDeleteHmmm - so if everyone in the country bought a single GCI stock today instead of a newspaper, byt he end of the week the stock would be... ?
Chris 11:01
ReplyDeleteAsk the good people of Denver how impossilble it is for a newspaper to close and go away.
Wait a month or so and ask the good people of Tucson the same question.
8:48:
ReplyDeleteI was talking about newspapers in general, not individual newspapers. Ad revenue will pick up again when the economy recovers. If you look at the overall buzz about Gannett stock, it's generally positive over the long term. Why do you think the execs are buying into the stock now? This is a great buying opportunity - even if the stock recovers to only $20-30, you can make a lot of money if you load up on shares now. But I'm talking long term - it will go up and down in the short term.