[Graham vs. Dubow: Whose stock performed best?]
Performance of stock in the Washington Post Co. vs. Gannett since July 15, 2005, when Craig Dubow became CEO, according to Google Finance:
- WPO: down 49%
- GCI: down 77%
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Stock | Washington Post CEO's 2009 pay falls 49%
Performance of stock in the Washington Post Co. vs. Gannett since July 15, 2005, when Craig Dubow became CEO, according to Google Finance:
18 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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Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
ReplyDeleteMr. Dubow and the rest of the Gannett brass are unethical swine who are completely incapable of any empathy whatsoever. How do they justify collecting such large compensations in the light of the last two years?
ReplyDeleteIn the last year, WPO up 39 percent. GCI up 615 percent.
ReplyDeleteAnd Dubow would have earned every penny of his $4.7 million -- if he'd been hired a year ago, and hadn't ridden the stock to $1.85 a share.
ReplyDelete1:44pm - Please explain the math for GCI being up 615% in the last year?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Everybody with a profile similar to Gannett's tanked (or is gone). Name me one who didn't. Then, name the ones who have done better since.
ReplyDeleteIf investors wanted only industry-average performance, they would have invested in an index fund back in 2005. But we wanted superior returns.
ReplyDeleteNewsflash: Hopkins praises $400,000 salary for almost-a-billionaire Donald Graham.
ReplyDelete2:22: Scripps, McClatchy, Belo all did better than Gannett. NYT gained less, but fell less in the downturn. Looking at GCI's annual report, you can see that Gannett has lagged its own peer group for many years.
ReplyDeleteDubow's getting a bonuse is like a man killing several members of his family, collecting the life insurance and getting away with the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteI just read that the Washington Post Company actually gets the lion's share of its revenue from Kaplan, the company's test preparation and education services division. Washington Post's other media operations include Newsweek, the #2 weekly news magazine (after Time Inc's Time), a portfolio of six TV stations, and the online publishing operations of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.
ReplyDeleteI met Donald when I was delivering mail in their building as a summer replacement for the mailroom folks in '79. His mom Katherine was running the show but later that year Don replaced her as Publisher. Can I name drop George Will and Herblock the cartoonist, too?
The difference is that Graham has an actual personal interest in his company ... it has been apart of his family's life for many years. DuBow and his the rest of the clowns have no personal stake in Gannett. They do have stock options, but it's not the same thing. Corporations have ruined the local newspaper concept.
ReplyDeleteConsidering Mr. Dubow was out for four months on medical leave and undoubtedly out of it for an additional amount of time, his pay package is even more egregious. Donald Graham has it right - share the pain with the staff. At Gannett, it's "Let them eat cake. We're special!"
ReplyDelete10:07: The smartest purchase Katherine Graham ever made was Kaplan Inc. The Washington Post Co. would be toast without it.
ReplyDeleteDonald Graham may be wealthy thanks to good choices in birth parents, but the Gannett executives wouldn't exactly have gone hungry, either. They could have declined their bonuses and pay increases and sent a powerful message of solidarity to the staff. Instead, they took that money with both hands -- the same hands that threw countless people out of work.
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed for Gannett and the greedy little bastards who run it.
7:01 am: I would add that Gannett's executive compensation policy should not be a CEO wealth redistribution plan. Corporate welfare has not yet sunk to that low.
ReplyDeletePeople who argue that Dubow and company deserve the bonuses because of the massive stock rebound just don't get it. The long-term numbers are the only thing worth looking at.
ReplyDeleteLetting your company slip to the verge of bankruptcy and then clawing back is not something to be rewarded for. If the leaders of this company were smarter, I would argue that they drove the stock price down, so that they could get greater bonuses in the long term. It shouldn't work that way.
Bottom line: No CEO should receive any for a five-year decline. Bonuses are supposed to be awarded for going above and beyond. Reducing the value of your company -- even in bad times -- does not mean you went above and beyond. It means your performance was average or worse. The base salaries for our executive staff our rich. Bonuses of even small amounts should be a thing of the past until the company once again reaches its peak stock price. And, as they are fond of saying to employees, "If they don't like that, they can leave." We clearly won't be any worse off without them.
Dubow and company are always telling employees they need to do more work with fewer resources for less pay. Why is it different for them?
It is so wonderful that Donny doesn't do bonuses. He's such a nice, nice boy.
ReplyDeleteOh, he does get his $2.25/share dividend on each of his 4.3Million shares of stock. That's only $10,000,000 in DIVIDENDS a year.
I guess that's why he doesn't get a bonus. Right Jim.
Gimmeabreakjim.