Week Jan. 25-31 | Your News & Comments

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Mail | Designers don't 'just slap stuff on a page'

Regarding the consolidation of page design and production for three Tennessee papers, reader Margo Morgan says she worked at The Jackson Sun as a graphics artist. In a new comment, she concedes there may be business reasons for the merger. But it comes at a price some may not fully appreciate.

"I was proud of the work we did,'' she writes. "When the tornado ripped through town, we poured our hearts into the coverage we did, and we saw and were affected by who we were covering. . . . Sometimes you really have to live in a place to really be able to produce the news in a compassionate, thoughtful and understanding way. A page designer isn't someone who just slaps stuff on a page; they work closely with news editors and photographers, and they know the community and how what they do affects others and they design accordingly."

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: today's Sun, Newseum]

Layoffs | Amid stealth cuts, a new way to count

Over the past 18 months, Gannett has announced three major job cuts through layoffs, attrition and other means: 1,000 in August 2008; more than 2,100 in December 2008, and more than 1,300 last July.

But job reductions in the future may be handled differently: Corporate could eliminate a few jobs here and there, without making a formal announcement. That's what happened in the spring 2009 stealth round. So, starting today, I'm keeping a running total for each quarter, based on comments posted by readers, publishers' memos, and published stories. I'll update the list as information is vetted. You'll find a permanent link to the following Layoff Tracker list in the green sidebar, upper right.

Gannett Blog's Layoff Tracker
The estimated total layoffs and other cuts so far for the current quarter: 826. (A ??? means information needs further verification or is missing.)

• Brevard: 10
• Cincinnati: 15
• Clarksville, Jackson, Murfreesboro, Tenn.: 5
• Honolulu: 600 (story)
• USA Today: 22??? (doesn't include 26 in December)
• USA Weekend: 8
• Westchester: 166

Recent job cuts at your Gannett worksite? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Florida papers forewarned: Snooki's on the move

[Asbury's video, above: Jersey Shore house as a tourism must-visit]

The threat level's been raised to orange for Gannett's four Florida newspapers, as The New York Times reports today that the uber-tanned cast of MTV's infamous new reality television show heads to warmer climes: Yes, Jersey Shore is returning for a second season, to be aired this summer.

The first season was filmed in the Asbury Park Press' backyard, and series breakout star Snooki Polizzi (left) is a duly noted native of the Poughkeepsie Journal's home territory. The NYT says: "MTV offered few details about the new season of Jersey Shore, except to say: 'Following the success of season one, Pauly D, Mike, Snooki, Jenni, Sammi, Ronnie and Vinny escape the cold Northeast and find themselves in a new destination.' (Florida? Cancun? The island from Lost?)"

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Earnings | Dubow speaks to employees Monday

After Monday's release of the fourth-quarter sales and profits report, CEO Craig Dubow is scheduled to hold an audiocast with employees, at 1:30 p.m. ET. "Tune in by going to Gannett’s intranet at http://gannett.gci and following the link to the chat page,'' Corporate said in a memo. The session comes after GCI’s fourth-quarter earnings conference call with analysts earlier in the morning.

It's not clear in the note whether Dubow will be answering questions from employees.

That analysts conference call starts at 10 a.m., and is open to the public. In it, Dubow and Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore (left) will answer questions about the quarterly earnings release from Wall Street media stock analysts. To find the link, head to the investors relations page, or follow these instructions.

Related: The Associated Press' earnings preview

Earlier: As quarterly results loom, handicapping job losses

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Taxes | A reader asks: Got your W-2 form yet?

It's the end of January, and some employees -- and ex-employees -- are itching to do their taxes, including Anonymous@12:55 a.m., who wonders: "Has anyone received their W-2 yet?"

Page building consolidated at three Tenn. papers

Newspaper page production for Gannett's Tennessee papers in Jackson, Clarksville and Murfreesboro is being consolidated at The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro starting in March.

Seven employees at Jackson who design and copyedit are losing their current jobs, but can apply for 12 new jobs at the combined center, The Jackson Sun says in a story today. Four other positions at the Sun are being eliminated in the move; the story doesn't make clear whether employees occupy those jobs, however. The story also doesn't detail the impact on existing copy editors and page designers at the News Journal or at the third paper, The Leaf-Chronicle at Clarksville.

In a separate story, however, the Leaf-Chronicle says the switch will result in a net loss of five jobs between the three dailies.

Story assignment, reporting, and photography will continue to be done at the individual papers, the Sun says.

The shift is the latest in Gannett's drive to reduce jobs by consolidating page design and some copyediting at a series of new production hubs.

The Murfreesboro paper was picked for two reasons, the story says: It has the best hardware and software for the work, and it's closest to The Tennessean at Nashville, which prints all editions of the Clarksville paper, plus Saturday and Sunday editions of the Sun.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: today's Sun, Newseum]

How to sell more advertising -- against all odds

"Unless they have a restraining order, you do not have a reason to not create a relationship that could better both of your businesses."

-- Anonymous@3:16 p.m. today, commenting on a long-ago Real Time Comments discussion about selling ads in a tough economy.

As quarterly results loom, handicapping job cuts

On Monday, Gannett reports fourth-quarter sales and profits, amid an improving outlook for the newspaper industry as a whole during the early months of this year. For its approximately 40,000 employees, however, a key question remains: Is the company finished with layoffs and other payroll cuts that have roiled the workforce for well over a year now?

Since August 2008, Gannett has imposed broad layoffs or unpaid furloughs in every quarter except the final three months of last year. Already in the current quarter, employees are on their third furlough, with no final word on whether there'll be another round in the next quarter, which starts at the beginning of April.

What's more, the company has not announced whether it will lift a wage freeze scheduled to end on April 1. Plus, there's uncertainty over the timing of an ongoing consolidation of advertising production at two new centers, in Indianapolis and Des Moines, that could eliminate scores of jobs.

Much of the job picture will be driven by changes in sales, especially of advertising. Early estimates by media stock analysts and competitors predict revenue will continue falling in this quarter and, possibly, throughout the year -- but by much smaller percentages than in the recent past. For example, Wells Fargo securities analyst John Janedis has forecast that ad sales across the industry will drop as much as 9% across 2010.

Yesterday, meanwhile, McClatchy Co. -- which publishes the Miami Herald and the Sacramento Bee -- said it expects ad revenues will fall "in the low- to mid-teens percentage range" in the current quarter. The company has already taken steps to absorb that loss: It laid off employees at the Bee, plus the Kansas City Star and the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. CEO Gary Pruitt acknowledged that the company has more cost cutting to do this year as revenue keeps falling. "He didn't say whether that would require more layoffs,'' BusinessWeek says.

Estimating latest Gannett results
For the fourth quarter, Wall Street media stock analysts are forecasting Gannett's overall revenue fell 16% from a year before, to $1.45 billion. They expect earnings will average 63 cents per share, down 26% -- a figure Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore said the company was "comfortable" with when she spoke to Wall Street analysts in December. In the third quarter, Gannett's overall revenue fell 18% vs. 2008.

Certainly, other publishers are seeing a brighter outlook. Reporting its quarterly results earlier this month, Lee Enterprises, which publishes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 48 other mostly small dailies, said "a small but growing number of our enterprises have begun reporting positive year-over-year revenue.'' CEO Mary Junck said ad revenue fell 16% in the last three months of 2009 vs. a year ago. That was a big improvement over the 24% drop in the preceding quarter from 2008.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: today's Des Moines Register, Newseum. Gannett ad production jobs are being moved to the Iowa city this year]

Documents show Gannett Foundation's new gifts, but controversial executive donor Dubow missing

The Gannett Foundation's newest annual report shows it gave nearly $300,000 to charities hand-picked by top current and former Gannett executives -- once again, including many grants to non-profits far from where the company does business.

But the 15 executives who earmarked gifts in 2008 -- the latest year available -- are also noteworthy for someone whose name doesn't appear on the list: Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow.

Controversially in past years, Dubow (left) directed at least $40,000 to a college scholarship fund honoring himself and his wife, a fund that's virtually off-limits to Gannett employees and their children. Under pressure, Dubow conceded last year that the money had gone to the Craig A. and Denise W. Dubow Scholarship Fund at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.

Dubow's name does not appear in the foundation's just-released 2008 annual report to the Internal Revenue Service. I received a copy of the report yesterday after requesting one from the foundation under federal open-records regulations; it was filed with the IRS late last year. The report for 2009 likely won't be filed for many months to come.

The grants in 2008 and prior years were made by Gannett's charitable arm under a special benefit program available only to current and former members of the Gannett Management Committee, a group comprising GCI's highest-paid executives responsible for overall company operations.

The donations are entirely legal, as they seem to have all gone to non-profit groups. But they've also been controversial because so many went to charities far from Gannett communities, and were made when the same executives were demanding belt-tightening across Gannett, including thousands of layoffs and cuts in retirement benefits.

A lead architect of those layoffs, Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore, is one of the 15 current and former executives who earmarked a combined $288,000 in 2008, according to the IRS document. Each executive could direct up to $20,000. Martore piped $15,000 to her alma mater, Wellesley College near Boston; Gannett owns no newspapers or TV stations near there. That grant brought to $75,000 the total donations she has sent to Wellesley since 2004, public IRS documents show. (Noteworthy grants in 2007.)

The grants are different from the better-known GannettMatch program, where the foundation matches dollar-for-dollar employee donations of $50 to a maximum $10,000 per year to non-profits. Under the executive grant-making program, the executives are not required to give any money of their own. Moreover, as in the case of the Dubow scholarship fund, the gifts don't always publicly credit the foundation or the Gannett company. The foundation's assets comprise investments derived from the occasional sale of Gannett newspapers.

To be sure, the executive-led grants didn't all go far afield. For example, U.S. newspaper division president Bob Dickey directed $10,000 to the Angel View Crippled Children's Foundation. That charity is in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., about 11 miles from Palm Springs, where Gannett owns The Desert Sun newspaper. Dickey became eligible for the benefit for the first time in 2008, when he was promoted to the Gannett Management Committee.

Earlier: As layoffs near, charity that doesn't begin at home

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Upcoming: a Gannett Foundation gift analysis

This afternoon, I received a copy of the annual Internal Revenue Service tax report filed by the company's charitable arm, for 2008 -- the most recent year available. It's well over 100 pages, so will take time to digest. The foundation gave me a copy after I requested one under federal open-records regulations.

Apple tablet | Papers live-blogging today's launch

[CEO Steve Jobs holds device in this New York Times photo]

I'm not at this morning's San Francisco debut for Apple's tablet, the much-hyped multimedia device that's expected to help newspaper publishers grab new paying readers. But the three national dailies are reporting details on what we now know has been dubbed the iPad, as the event continues unfolding; it started at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT:

• USA Today's Technology Live
• The Wall Street Journal's Digits
• The New York Times' Bits

Here's the WSJ's first video of the event, via Fox News:



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McClatchy to stay focused on ad-supported model

McClatchy Co. CEO Gary Pruitt says the company is willing to experiment with charging readers for online content. But the newspaper publisher, reporting fourth-quarter earnings this morning, remains focused on a business model based on advertising sales, he tells Dow Jones Newswires.

McClatchy is the first of the major publishers to report fourth-quarter results. Overall revenue fell 17% to $393 million. Advertising revenue was down 20.5%, compared with a 28.1% decline in the third. Citing continued progress in January, the company says it expects ad revenue to decline this quarter by a percentage in the low to mid-teens, according to The Associated Press.

Related: Gannett reports its fourth-quarter results Monday morning

CareerBuilder seeks votes on 2010 Super Bowl ad

Building on last year's theme about awful workplaces, Gannett's CareerBuilder is ready to show one of three possible commercials during next month's Super Bowl. You'll decide which one. The jobs site is joining other marketers spending millions to air often-funny spots before an audience numbering as high as 100 million for the Feb. 7 game in Miami.

CareerBuilder's ads are based on ideas submitted in the company's HireMyTVAd Contest. The site originally planned to give a $100,000 cash prize to the winner. But it found three good ideas among the nearly 1,000 entries, so made three $100K awards. They're all about workplaces so bad, you've gotta get a better job.

The Chicago-based company is asking consumers to vote on their favorite. I've embedded one of them below; the other two are on the company's website -- including one too controversial to air on TV.



Let's hope this year's commercial performs better than 2009's; that spot ranked No. 23 of 26 commercials, says Seeking Alpha. (No. 1: Dennys; No. 26: eTrade.) Here's last year's:



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Chillicothe | How 'Ellie Light' tricked the Gazette

Barely two weeks ago, Managing Editor Mike Throne wrote a column about steps that Gannett's Chillicothe Gazette took to prevent editorial "astroturfing.'' That's when readers bombard papers electronically with identical letters across the country, hoping to publish as many as possible.

Throne returned to the subject yesterday, in a column about how the paper got tricked into publishing one of the "Ellie Light" pro-President Obama letters -- despite extra steps taken by the small paper to safeguard its letters page. Those steps included conducting a Google search on the letter's contents to see if it had already appeared elsewhere.

"Yes, the irony of having a letter to the editor situation blow up in your face just days after saying the newspaper is following new procedures isn’t lost on me," he writes. "It’s embarrassing and regrettable. But if we hadn’t followed those procedures, I’d feel a lot worse. In this case we did follow them and were lied to about the local nature of the opinion and the address used. In short, we were duped."

The Gazette isn't alone, of course -- despite taking the extraordinary and laudable steps Throne details in his column. Indeed, at least 18 Gannett papers and websites published one of the Light letters, among more than 70 other media outlets across the country.

Throne also reveals that the Obama letter wasn't Light's first attempt: "On Jan. 13," he says, "we also received a second letter from 'Ellie Light' regarding generosity to the people of Haiti and how to make sure your donation gets to those who really need it."

I wonder how many of those got published across the nation?

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[Image: detail of the Gazette's homepage]

Apple as savior? Nope; it's the content, stupid

[One of many mock-ups shown in Wall Street Journal video, above]

I pay $149 yearly to subscribe to the online editions of The Wall Street Journal and its sister business publication, Barron's magazine. Both publish stories that are richly reported and edited, and often exclusive in meaningful ways.

For many of the same reasons, I also read The New York Times online daily: Its business, political and cultural coverage is some of the best anywhere in the country. Access is free, but I'd I pay to read it online, if the company offered that option -- and it will, beginning early next year, for its most heavy users.

In between those two journals, I also check plenty of other free-to-read newspapers, including USA Today and dozens of other Gannett papers. But would I pay to read them if I weren't covering the company as a blogger?

Probably not -- and the reason has nothing to do with available hardware. After all, since I bought my first iPhone two years ago, I've been able to read nearly anything I want, wherever and whenever I want, so long as I can get a network signal or tap into a Wi-Fi line. Instead, it's about content -- or the paucity of it.

A whole lot has already been written about Apple's new tablet, a multimedia gizmo some observers say could be the savior of newspapers. And it hasn't even made its debut. That unveiling is expected to come at 10 a.m. tomorrow during a breathlessly anticipated event here in San Francisco. Plenty of publishers, including the New York Times, are praying that it'll be the piece of hardware that comes closest to mimicing the mobile experience of reading a printed paper. If successful, that would give publishers the courage to take the next step: charging for online access.

Indeed, the Times is already developing a version of its paper for the tablet, the paper says in a story today; engineers reportedly have been working secretly at Apple's Silicon Valley headquarters south of San Francisco. I expect USA Today is at least considering a similar step; it launched its own iPhone application more than a year ago.

Citing analysts briefed on the device, the NYT's story today described the tablet this way: "It will run all the applications of the iPhone and iPod Touch, have a persistent wireless connection over 3G cellphone networks and Wi-Fi, and will be built with a 10-inch color display, allowing newspapers, magazines and book publishers to deliver their products with an eye to the design that had grabbed readers in print."

It's been widely reported that the tablet (we won't know what Apple's calling it until tomorrow) will sell for around $1,000. That compares with $259 for Amazon's wireless Kindle e-book reader, which doesn't offer anywhere near as many bells-and-whistles.

Paying to read Gannett sites?
But will the tablet come to the rescue of Gannett's 84 U.S. dailies, allowing the company to charge for online subscriptions in order to create a much needed additional revenue stream? I hope so (after all, I've got plenty of friends still working for the company). Yet, I worry the company has so depleted newsrooms over the past decade -- and, especially during the last two years -- that its newspapers don't offer enough to inspire readers to pay for access. And I'm not alone.

"I read a few Gannett sites a day," Anonymous@1:24 p.m. wrote here on a recent post, "but would never pay for the service. I'd pay to read the Guardian, but not anything Gannett, including USAT."

That's representative of many comments posted last week, after I asked readers whether they would pay to read their own websites.

Now, it's conceivable that with a new source of revenue, Gannett and other publishers might reinvest in content by creating new jobs for reporters, editors, photographers, artists and others, plus advertising sales positions to serve the businesses we hope would return to a stronger publication. But that becomes a chicken-and-egg dilemma: Will readers pay for what's published now? Or will Gannett gamble today they'll pay in the future for something better.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image, inset: today's USAT, Newseum]

Detroit | Nice work (and pay) -- if you can get it

Gannett business partner William Singleton (left) will earn up to $1.5 million as CEO of Affiliated Media under a reorganization plan, after seeking bankruptcy protection last week, alternative weekly Westword of Denver notes today. Affiliated is the holding company for MediaNews Group, owner of The Detroit News, The Denver Post and 52 other U.S. newspapers. The News is published under the Gannett-controlled Detroit Media Partnership joint operating agency, which also publishes GCI's Detroit Free Press.

Earlier: What happens to the Detroit newspapers now? Plus: a primer on annual bonuses for Gannett's top executives

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USAT | For luxe White House dinner, price jumps

It will cost USA Today even more this spring if it buys the same complement of tables that readers say it got for last year's White House Correspondents Association Dinner. "Washington’s hottest dinner ticket just became more expensive,'' the E&P in Exile blog says today. "Attendees at this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner will have to fork over $225 for the May 1 event, an increase over the previous $200 price tag."

Last year, I was told, USA Today bought eight tables at $2,000 each as part of its participation in the celebrity-studded event. This year's host is late-night TV's Jay Leno (left).

Among the association's officers: USAT's David Jackson, who is vice president. The black-tie dinner is nominally about raising $132,000 for college scholarships, a cause hosted by the association of journalists covering the White House. But in recent years, it's taken on Hollywood trappings as media outlets compete to seat the most sought-after celebrities at their tables. And many of the other seats are reserved for advertisers, turning the event into much more of a marketing opportunity than a purely journalism schmooze fest. For that reason, The New York Times has skipped the dinner for the past two years.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Slippery slope? How about these oiled bikini pics!

[Link-o-licious: Ladies grapple in oiled bikinis, circled link]

Mondays are always a bear when it comes to finding lead art for the homepage, since Sunday is a notoriously slow news day. So, more and more Gannett papers are publishing photos from Metromix, the youth-oriented entertainment websites that often feature pictures of scantily clad women. The Reno Gazette-Journal is now teasing a slideshow from a bikini oil wrestling match at a local casino.

Earlier: in Reno's Santa clause, buxom babes

Got a creative, ahem, use of Metromix photos? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Layoffs | Downside of eliminating newsroom jobs? 18 GCI papers caught in 'Ellie Light' letter campaign

(Updated at 2:29 p.m. with more Wisconsin papers.) Here's what can happen when you reduce the number of editors fact-checking stories and letters to the editor:

Nearly 70 newspapers and other media outlets have now been identified as publishing the same pro-President Obama letter to the editor, according to a politically conservative blog that's documenting this growing journalism scandal. So far, 18 Gannett papers and websites are on the list, including USA Today; 10 are in Wisconsin alone, where editing and printing have been consolidated at regional production hubs.

The Gannett papers are nearly 26% of all those outlets that published the so-called Ellie Light letter, even though GCI publishes only 84 U.S. papers -- just 6% of the nation's 1,400 dailies. (The Gannett percentage may be higher, since the current total of nearly 70 includes non-newspaper publications.)

At least two of the Wisconsin papers -- The Reporter and The Post-Crescent -- have now published a correction online, saying Light provided false information after the paper called a California phone number to verify her letter.

In a new comment, Anonymous@12:17 p.m. wrote: "It doesn't matter one bit to me if it was an organized campaign. Someone in the news didn't do a job, and that's how all this stuff got printed. This is a perfect example of, 'good enough is good enough.'"

Here are the 18 Gannett papers identified so far:

• USA Today
• Argus (South Dakota) Leader
• The Californian at Salinas, Calif.
• Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette
• Daily News Leader, Staunton, Va.
• The Daily Times, Salisbury, Md.
• The Reporter, Fond du Lac, Wisc.
• Green Bay Press-Gazette, Wisconsin
• Herald Times Reporter, Manitowoc, Wisc.
• Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal
• Marshfield News-Herald, Wisconsin
• Oshkosh Northwestern, Wisconsin
• The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wisc.
• The Sheboygan Press, Wisconsin
• The Spectrum, Utah
• Stevens Point Journal, Wisconsin
• Wausau Daily Herald, Wisconsin
• Wisconsin Rapids Tribune

What's been the impact of reduced editing at your worksite? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

After bankruptcy, Singleton's next move in Detroit?

[In Motown: GCI's Free Press, left, and MediaNews-owned News]

Blogger Alan Mutter wonders whether MediaNews Group CEO William Singleton might use the parent company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week to force consolidation of its newspaper holdings, including The Detroit News. That paper is published by the Gannett-controlled joint operating agency that also publishes the GCI-owned Detroit Free Press. From Mutter's post today:

"The newspaper business has been so dismal in Detroit that the dailies there abandoned home delivery for all but three days a week. With MediaNews stripped of debt, it would be in the position to acquire the dominant Detroit Free Press from Gannett, its JOA partner, so that its own struggling Detroit News could be shut down. Alternatively, it is possible that Gannett could elect to buy out MediaNews. But it is far more likely that Gannett, a publicly held company, would like to unload the risk and distraction associated with owning a metro in the staggering Motown economy."

His post continues: "In buying Detroit, Singleton not only would get the opportunity to work his cost-cutting magic but he also would be doing a favor for Gannett, which is an investor in the MediaNews partnership that owns 15 dailies and a batch of weeklies in Southern California."

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Indy | Twice is nice -- when it's a local winner

The Indianapolis Star's page one this morning, a day after the Colts won a berth in Feb. 7's Super Bowl in Miami:

Got a Gannett front page to recommend? Find it in the Newseum's page one database, then post a link in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

[Image: Newseum]

Amid cutbacks, how much are top exec bonuses? Figures due mid-March; last year's $875K for CEO

Q. Concerned about possible Gannett job losses and overspending, Anonymous@12:15 p.m. yesterday asked: "Can you post again the amounts of the bonuses that the higher-ups get?"

A. We'll know how much the company's five highest-paid executives got last year when Gannett files what's called the annual proxy report to shareholders, probably around the middle of March. (This is last year's report.) Under federal regulations, companies must disclose this information publicly once a year.

Bonuses vary from year to year, depending on Gannett's financial performance. In 2008, for example, the company didn't do very well, so some bonuses were cut in half. (Details, below.) The board of directors' executive compensation committee sets the amount. Their rationale takes pages and pages to explain.

To give you an idea, however, what follows are the 2008 bonuses for Gannett's five highest-paid executives. I'm also including the 2007 bonuses for CEO Craig Dubow (left) and Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore. (The other three executives were not on the list in 2007.)

Note: These are only the bonuses; their total pay, which includes salary, stock awards and benefits, is much higher. (Here's a table showing the full amounts.) The 2008 bonuses, all in cash for the first time in years:

Craig Dubow, Chairman and CEO
2008: $875,000
2007: $1,750,000

Gracia Martore, Chief Financial Officer
2008: $300,000
2007: $600,000

Bob Dickey, president of U.S. Community Publishing
2008: $360,000. (This included a $90,000 relocation bonus in connection with his move to McLean, Va., from Phoenix, when he was promoted to head of the newspaper division. Gannett made another $361,357 in non-bonus payments in connection with Dickey's move to Virginia. More on that here.)

Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting
2008: $245,000

Chris Saridakis, Chief Digital Officer
2008: $260,000

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Mail | Shedding light on busy Obama letter writer

In a new comment, Anonymous@12:32 a.m. writes about a mini-scandal rippling through journalism circles:

Why do so many Gannett publications (at least 13, including USA Today) have exactly the same letter posted in their opinion sections (different days and all over the country) from someone named "Ellie Light," who lives in different cities? Do Gannett publications only verify the writers if they do not praise President Obama? A Google search of the name Ellie Light would be informative. The Cleveland Plain Dealer first caught on to Ms. Light's letters being published in many newspapers. There are at least 47 papers with crappy editors who failed to check to see if she is a real person. I'll bet if the letters had been critical of President Obama, they would have checked. No wonder American newspapers are in their death throes.

Did your paper get caught doing this? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Week Jan. 18-24 | Your News & Comments

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Indy | For Super Bowl berth, running big and wide

The Indianapolis Colts' 30-17 win today over the New York Jets was cause to celebrate on The Indianapolis Star's homepage. They're already promoting tomorrow's extra. The Colts face the New Orleans Saints at the Feb. 7 bowl in Miami. Click on image for bigger view:

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Top-level changes at the Centers of Excellence?

Updated at 1:38 p.m. ET: I'm told there may have been management upheaval last week, a blow-up reaching into upper ranks of Gannett's customer-service call centers in Tulsa, Okla.; Louisville, Ky., and Greenville, S.C. The three-year-old facilities -- called the Centers of Excellence -- handle calls for subscription orders, delivery problems and other circulation issues for the company's U.S. newspapers.

Combined, they employ about 400 people, I've been told. More recently, they've struggled to sooth unhappy readers, amid cutbacks including hours of operation and the nearly complete elimination of redelivery of missed newspapers. Jeff Gillen has run the centers since they were launched in 2006.

It sounds like Corporate may have hired a consultant recently to offer advice on the centers's future.

The COEs, as they're called, were all up and running by the end of 2007, according to that year's annual report, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "The COE goals are efficiency and standardization of procedures, which will result in better customer service at a lower cost," the report says. "State of the art technology was employed at the centers. The three COEs will handle an anticipated 15 million phone calls in 2008."

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Tips 'n' tales | All about web-based investigations

The national Association of Alternative Weeklies is hosting its annual winter conference in the San Francisco Bay area next weekend. I'll be on a panel Friday, offering advice on how to do online investigative journalism. From the website for the meeting: "AAN West focuses on line-level staff, offering training and networking opportunities for sales, editorial, design and business personnel." My co-panelist is a staffer with PBS's Frontline World. Details of my panel, set for 2 to 3:30 p.m.:

Low Cost, Big Impact: How to Make the Web Work for You

Panel Discussion hosted by Jackie Bennion and Jim Hopkins. How can reporters and editors with little time and less budget maximize the use of the web for groundbreaking investigative projects? Hopkins and Bennion will go through tips, techniques and ideas for improving your use of the web to report, produce, publish and promote big stories.

It's official: MediaNews parent now in bankruptcy

The holding company for Gannett's partner in Detroit and in two regional newspaper partnerships filed a reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court today -- exactly a week after saying it had reached a preliminary deal with creditors to cut its debt to about $165 million from $930 million.

Affiliated Publications Inc. of Denver had said it planned to file its petition in the near future. The so-called prepackaged Chapter 11 filing means Affiliated got agreement from most creditors in advance, speeding the company's path through court. (Perhaps it's a coincidence, but today's filing and last week's advisory came on Fridays -- the perfect point in the news cycle to bury bad news.)

MediaNews Group is Gannett's minority partner in the Detroit Media Partnership joint operating agency, which publishes the Gannett-owned Detroit Free Press, and MediaNews' Detroit News. GCI and MediaNews also are partners in small groups of newspapers in northern California and in Texas.

Although stockholders are wiped out in Affiliated's plan, CEO William Singleton (left) unexpectedly stays in control. How is that possible? Blogger Alan Mutter compares the CEO to motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, who kept getting up after being knocked flat on his face. "Why would the creditors keep the guy who lost all that money?" Mutter asks, then answers his own question: "Because he is the best chance they have of extricating any value from the business."

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Stock | In a bad market week, GCI didn't escape

[GCI in blue vs. S&P-500 index in red; click image for bigger view]

Gannett's shares fell 5%, closing today at $15.42, during the past five trading days, equal to the 5% decline by the S&P-500 index, a widely watched barometer of broad stock market activity. Shares of major newspaper publishers I watch, with their change over the last five trading days, based on today's just-reported closing prices:

• Gannett: down 5%
• News Corp.: down 7%
• New York Times Co.: down 11%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: down 5%
• S&P-500: down 5%

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Nashville echoes L.A. Times and Staples Center

The Tennessean's under-the-radar investment in a new Nashville convention center recalls the abuse heaped on the Los Angeles Times over its undisclosed financial ties to the Staples Center sports arena, Reuters reporter Robert MacMillan tweets today.

In 1999, the Times signed a revenue-sharing agreement with Staples officials, splitting advertising proceeds from a magazine it published about the center. The paper was pilloried for what media watchers described as an ethical breach of the Chinese wall that stood between the newsroom and the paper's business side.

In Nashville, the Tennessean gave $15,000 to a group backing a new $585 million taxpayer-financed convention center. The paper endorsed the project in a Sunday editorial, but didn't disclose its contribution until Wednesday, in a news story -- the day after government officials approved the project.

Top editor Mark Silverman defended the newsroom, saying that he, too, was caught by surprise when the paper's contribution was disclosed in newly released public documents. He also said the money didn't compromise the newsroom's reporting.

But what did Publisher Carol Hudler know? Most Gannett editorial page boards -- the folks who decide the content of editorials -- include publishers among their members. (Many now also include the top newsroom executive, too -- an ethical problem in itself, since news columns are supposed to be unbiased, neither favoring nor opposing the paper's editorial position.) In its Wednesday story, the Tennessean said the $15,000 was given over three years, but doesn't give more details. At least some of that money was given before Hudler's appointment as publisher in late November, so it's possible the former Fort Myers, Fla., publisher didn't know anything about what her predecessor, Ellen Leifeld, had done.

Still, was their any reason why Leifeld herself couldn't have told the editorial board, so the paper could disclose the contribution in its earliest opinion pieces on the project? There would still be concern about the financial ties to the center. But at least that would have eliminated this week's surprise factor, and allowed the newsroom to disclose the fact in its reporting as well. Revealing the details after the center was approved unnecessarily raised reader suspicions about what other information the Tennessean might be withholding.

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[Image: today's Times, Newseum]