But revenues in the company's biggest segment -- newspapers and other publishing operations -- are still sliding, although that trend is lessening, she said. The percentage decrease in those advertising, circulation and other revenues will be in the "low-to-mid single digits," President Gracia Martore (left) told the sixth Annual Noble Equity Conference in Hollywood, Fla.For context, publishing revenues in the first quarter fell 7.1% from the comparable quarter in 2009. So, based on Martore's remarks, publishing's second quarter improvement could be very small.
The continuing decline in publishing revenue is especially unsettling because these comparisons are against the second quarter of 2009, when the national economy had fallen into the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This underscores an unpleasant truth: advertising revenue -- which is the lion's share of publishing's sales -- was already falling before the recent recession; the downturn merely accelerated it.
Impact of Advertiser sale
The current quarter's earnings would exclude certain tax items, as well as any proceeds from the recent sale of The Honolulu Advertiser, Martore told the conference.
Gannett's presentation highlights the fragility of the current economic recovery, one that's now being buffeted by doubts over whether the European Union has found a solution to its debt problems. Those concerns drove major market indexes down on Friday, and dragged GCI stock with it. Shares fell 7%.
Today, following the conference remarks, GCI recently traded for $14.24 a share, up 51 cents, or 3.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index are both are fractionally.
Updated: Here are stories by Reuters, the Associated Press, and The Wall Street Journal
Notice when Jim Hopkins posts the information about Gannett's presentation today he puts as much negative stuff HIGH UP in the story as possible. If you read true balanced accounts by the Associated Press, Reuters, etc. you will get the real story, which is the company has made solid strides in digital and broadcast and the newspaper sector is bottoming out. But as you see EACH AND EVERY DAY on this site, it's all about negative news in a feeble attempt to beat the company down. No wonder only a handful of people read this site anymore, a site for losers.
ReplyDeleteHere's the second paragraph -- i.e., high up -- of that AP story you cite:
ReplyDelete"Gannett's newspapers, which include USA Today and more than 80 other dailies, have yet to turn the corner. Gannett Co. Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore told financial analysts Monday that the publishing segment will likely post another quarter of declining revenue compared with the same period of 2009, albeit a smaller decline than the ones reported last year."
I call that context, which is what I provided, too.
Also, Gannett Blog's traffic has climbed every month this year, according to Site Meter. It continues to draw more than 10,000 monthly unique visitors, according to Google Analytics.
The trolls expect everyone to cheer the news exactly the way Gannett writes it. If they had their way, Gannett-owned papers would run the company's press releases verbatim, with no darned context. The model of this, of course, is in Asbury Park where they run the game accounts written by the New Jersey Devils' flack.
ReplyDeleteA decline is a decline, no matter how Gracia tries to dress it up. It is not good news. What it says to me is that the newspaper economy is creeping back to health, but not yet out of the woods.
ReplyDeleteIf we have a double dip recession, we're in for a bad ride.
ReplyDeleteThe meter count has risen because more people want to see the train wreck that is coming.
ReplyDeleteThe blog will be locked by the end of July. Jim will be on an island somewhere. Bank on it.
GCI is fine people. Its on the up and up
ReplyDeleteDeclining ad revenue, no matter how much less, is not good news. It's just not as bad.
ReplyDeleteThis decline is not new or totally hinged to the current economy. It's been going on for years, and will not rebound into the plus column.
GCI might be fine at this time. It's debt is down and its future expenses are down as a result of staff cuts, salary freezes, unpaid furloughs and consolidations.
Some of the consolidations should have been done years ago when corporate was riding high on the profits extracted from its franchises. Nothing spurs action faster than panic.
And many of its holdings remain profitable despite the negative numbers. They're simply not the cash cows that corporate exploited for years.
Print is coming to an end. Ink sniffers and page turners might not like it, but it makes sense for GCI to emphasize the digital media over the print media. A danger is that the company will do it on the cheap as it has with its newspapers for the past 20 years.