Sunday, September 26, 2010
Week of Sept. 20-26 | 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.)
70 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."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Good morning, Gannettoids!
ReplyDeleteAs an old song goes:
ReplyDelete"I woke up this morning with an attitude.
Looked at the headlines - put me in a real bad mood.
Sitting here in limbo, trying to stay sane, between the end of the summer and the coming of the blessed rains.
I feel dirty, all the way down.
I feel dirty baby, like this dirty town.
I gave you everything on a silver tray.
Could have been a fool forever, but I'm not made that way."
This was the week that was, not with a bang but a whimper.
ReplyDeleteOct. 26 is Craig Dubow's birthday. Mark it on your calendar, because we all will certainly want to commemorate this one. It is the time when Dubow trips the date that he can take early retirement, and rumor has it he will do just that.
ReplyDeleteI heard through the grapevine that this might be the week for the USAT layoffs. Will keep an eye on Gannett Blog for news. I have many friends who work there, as I am sure you do, too.
ReplyDelete10:27 a.m.: I'm fairly certainly that Dubow became eligible for full retirement benefits when he turned 55 in October 2009. Those benefits are worth $19.3 million, according to the most recent proxy report to shareholders. (See page 50 for full details.)
ReplyDelete10:35,
ReplyDeleteDon't be surprised if this goes on quite a bit longer. I think they really have no idea what to do. So they'll come out of the gate with some half-cocked idea because they realize the clock is ticking and we'll all be left to pick-up the pieces when it fails. Hope I'm wrong.
I don't think you are right, Jim. The key paragraph in the last sentence in this very densely written discussion of GCI's senior retirement plan:
ReplyDelete4.1 The Company shall pay the benefits due under this Plan commencing within 30 days of retirement, disability, death or any other event that entitles
an Employee or the Employee's beneficiary to receive benefits under the Funded Plan. Notwithstanding the foregoing, no benefits shall commence prior to the date an Employee attains or would have attained Early Retirement Age under the Funded Plan."
http://contracts.corporate.findlaw.com/compensation/retirement/1183.html
Under the funded plan, early retirement age is 56. Therefore it must be the same age under this plan.
The third quarter ends at the end of this business week.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard of changes coming for the fourth
quarter.Usually when there are no other answers or ideas to increase the revenue side,layoffs and closures happen in big ways to cut the expense side.Or have the leaders just decided to let the ship sink?? It seems unlike Gannett to not make huge employee cuts when budgets are
totally unreachable.By now, the projections for the year should be in,and the reality of a very
bad 2010 fiscal year should be obvious.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, the official agency responsible for making these pronouncements, says the recession is over and the turn-around point came in June, 2009. So how come we are still seeing layoffs, furloughs and departures? Is this the good old days at Gannett, or what?
ReplyDeleteYet more misery.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a poll for the American Press Institute, nearly one in four local businesses plan to cut back on newspaper advertising this year. The money is going instead into the Internet.
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
It's not just Ripple6 and PointRoll. I am hearing from several industry insiders that the VC money is heading back into Silicon Valley, and that employees everywhere are re-cutting deals or leaving to find more lucrative pay days with other firms.
ReplyDeleteGannett doesn't really understand the "pay-for-talent" principles in this segment.
Unlike most businesses, according to a famous quote from Fairfax Mastick Cone (then head of Foote, Cone) referring to his employees, "our inventory goes down the elevator every night."
Corporations typically, whenever possible, carry out layoffs in the fourth quarter of their fiscal year. That way they rid themselves of whatever they consider baggage and will keep it off the new year's books. This is why you've seen rashes of layoffs right before Christmas in some years. It's the worst possible time for laid-off employees, the most expedient time for corporations.
ReplyDeleteodd that no one commented on the Salinas Californian shutting down production.
ReplyDeleteI'm selling a house and my agent says her company no longer bothers to advertise in the local paper - the Gannett in Westchester - because it's a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteThe realtors emphasize their own Web sites, and in the case of mine, she also advertises in the NYC dailies.
Jim:
ReplyDeleteOne of the banner ads on your site is for Ripple6.
That's pretty incredible.
Scott
I wish our advertisers knew that in the hub of our circulation, Morristown, NJ, there sits a circulation box with papers from December 9, 2009. And it sits in front of a bus stop. Have things gotten that bad that the managers don't even care anymore?
ReplyDeleteJim, are you in Europe? Your approvals seem to be coming in the middle of the night for the west coast.
ReplyDeleteThe Broadcast side of GCI looks strong, with many hot election races pumping big, big money into tv ads. Broadcast is setting up for a blowout 4th quarter.
ReplyDelete1:47 -- The recession is not over in any real way for average Americans. All the folks making that pronouncement have looked at is the corporate climate. Also, the newspaper industry is special. It was in trouble before the recession, and things certainly haven't improved during it.
ReplyDeleteIn short, the recession hit dying industries harder than those that were flourishing. And management's knee-jerk cost-cutting has assured that those industries will have a very difficult time rebounding should the economy turn around. Anyone who is still looking at newspapers as a long-term career choice aren't reading the writing on the wall.
In a previous thread, My Boss Says reported that Craig Dubow is now the company's "Chief Strategist." If that's true we're all doomed.
ReplyDelete4:47 p.m.: Ripple6 has appeared as an advertiser many times in the past.
ReplyDelete7:47 p.m.: Sparky and I are on very different schedules now because of a change in his jobs. Also, the time stamps here are when commenters post, not when I approve them. Which leads to:
3:09 a.m.: Dubow's reported focus on strategy is a fact.
When Gracia Martore was promoted to president and chief operating officer early this year, lead outside board member Karen Hastie Williams said: "This move will allow Craig to concentrate on Gannett's long-term strategic planning while Gracia manages the day-to-day operations of the business."
4:30 p.m.: Thank you; I had missed that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether to feel honored, or not, by the following:
ReplyDeleteA reader tells me that Wikipedia has blacklisted Gannett Blog, meaning they couldn't link to this site from a Wiki article.
Go-live date for the new-to-Shreveport press pushed back to Oct. 4. Still working out technical and production issues, according to the publisher.
ReplyDeleteMethinks all newspaper stocks are about to slide on 3rd Q results and 4th Q projections. If it doesn't happen this round. Year end results will create a real whirlpool. Gannett's dive will be the headline but others will sink faster and harder.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point in putting a guy who's eyeing the door in charge of the company's long-term strategy?
ReplyDeleteIs this what Dubow has been hanging in for? So he can hit the retirement finish line and collect his big, fat check? What's the difference between what he'll get for sticking around until he's 56 versus what his parachute would have given him if he had left or been asked to leave sooner?
I wouldn't trust Craig Dubow to plan anything but his own exit strategy.
ReplyDeleteLike most corporate CEOs he draws a ridiculously high salary while doing very little that anyone could call worthwhile. I don't feel that way about people who have built companies from the ground up, but I don't see where this guy or most of the players around them have ever done anything to justify their salaries.
They pay their employees peanuts because they claim that's what the industry can afford, yet they pay themselves as though they are running progressive businesses with serious growth potential.
12:46: I've now read the Supplemental Retirement Plan (SERP) document you linked to. But I note that it is dated Dec. 16, 1999.
ReplyDeleteThe shareholders proxy report is more current; it's dated March 18, 2010. In all these sections, the referenced age is 55. Here's the text:
"SERP benefits are generally paid in the form of a lump sum amount when a participant separates from service or, if later, the date the participant attains age 55, except that payment is accelerated in the event that the Company undergoes a change in control. As of December 27, 2009, Mr. Dubow, Ms. Martore and Mr. Hunke are fully vested in their SERP benefits, Mr. Saridakis is not vested in his SERP benefit, and Mr. Dickey is partially vested in his SERP benefit."
Also, under the section with the heading, Retirement/voluntary termination, it says:
"Pension. The vested portions of the executive’s GRP and SERP benefits are payable at the date of termination, in the case of the GRP, and at the later of the termination date or the date the executive reaches age 55, in the case of the SERP. Further, in the case of retirement or voluntary termination, Mr. Dubow and Ms. Martore would not receive the additional service credits under the SERP provided for in their employment contracts."
Regarding restricted stock units and stock options, that section says:
"RSUs and SOs. Executives who retire or voluntarily terminate after attaining age 55 and completing five years of service are generally entitled to receive a prorated portion of their RSU grants, based on the number of full months worked during the term of the grants. The SOs of executives who retire or voluntarily terminate after attaining age 55 and completing five years of service continue to vest and generally remain exercisable for the lesser of the remaining term or three years. The employment contracts with Mr. Dubow and Ms. Martore provide that, upon these executives’ termination of employment other than for “good cause” (as defined below under “Other Potential Post-Termination Payments to Mr. Dubow and Ms. Martore under their Employment Contracts and to Mr. Saridakis under his Termination Benefits Agreement”), all SOs and RSUs granted to them after July 15, 2005, in the case of Mr. Dubow, and February 25, 2005, in the case of Ms. Martore, would become fully vested on the date of termination and, in the case of SOs, would remain exercisable for the lesser of the remaining term of the SOs or four years, in the case of Mr. Dubow, or three years, in the case of Ms. Martore. Executives who voluntarily terminate before attaining age 55 and completing five years of service forfeit all unvested RSUs and SOs."
8:33 Re: whirlpool. If you read the stock analysts' report, which Jim links on another post, he is forecasting GCI will be flat in the water. You have to figure that cost savings will eventually show up from the continuing layoffs, consolidations, etc. So even if ad revenues drop, it will even out.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with this analysis, IMO, is that it doesn't take into account the drop in quality (of the newspapers) that is prompting both readers and advertisers to abandon us. I find it very noticeable. These layoffs are very disruptive to the product, breaking internal and largely informal communication lines, degrading the quality of the product, and stirring up all sorts of office morale problems. It's my opinion, but I don't think our papers are as lively as they were four or five years ago, and I think that is a drag on the bottom line. I wish these consultants who promoted the idea that content really doesn't matter for newspapers would take a lesson from this recession that there are big knock-on economic effects from layoffs and degrading the product that they had not anticipated.
To 7:09
ReplyDeleteMoral must be so very bad at this point,
as is has been spirraling downward for more
than a year when the layoffs ,consolidations,
closings, production moves first began.
Circulation is reported to be diving in a hurry,
readership is definately not happy with the
watered down products.Content IS important,
that is why subscriptions aren't being renewed
and advertisers understand this ,and choose
other routes to spend their money to advertise
products and services. Gannett seems to think that the same quality news products can be put out there,even with the all experienced newspaper people having been laid off and with
only a shadow of the good employees it had just 2 years ago.
I guess it's kind of like our current government believing that they can fool
all the people all the time.
As a policy, Wikipedia does not accept content from blogs and other self-published sources.
ReplyDelete@10:33 AM
ReplyDeleteAnd considering comments like this from the blog author, why would wikipedia accept content from such a blog?
Jim said...
"Is Hunke content to have a Washington/economy Content Team within the Content Ring that's lacking in content?"
From today's New York Times...
ReplyDelete"For a Few, Papers Seem a Timely Bet"
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/for-a-few-papers-seem-a-timely-bet/?scp=1&sq=for%20a%20few,%20papers%20seem%20a%20timely%20bet&st=cse
If Gannett's cost cutting isn't enough for you, now there's "Vultures" and "Bottom feeders" waiting to pick our bones clean. OMG!
So he turned 55 before he hit 5 full years as CEO. He started July 2005. Right?
ReplyDeleteLast year WTSP in Tampa Bay aired news video of a deputy sheriff dumping a quadriplegic out of a wheelchair. The deputy sued WTSP and the reporter for defamation -- two weeks ago a judge threw the lawsuit out. Because the deputy acts likes he's above the law his lawyer filed to reinstate the lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteFWIW the article ID's WTSP with its old "10 Connects" handle rather than the current "10 News."
6:31 p.m.: Yes; Dubow's official start date was July 15, 2005.
ReplyDelete10:33 and others: In retrospect, I now understand the Wiki rule, and it generally makes sense.
ReplyDeleteThe Wiki rule either makes sense or it doesn't. Shame you didn't take the time to understand things from the beginning but that fits the usual pattern.
ReplyDeleteBack to Gannett,
ReplyDeleteThis is the last week of the third quarter,
does anyone have any ideas or has anyone heard
about changes coming for the fourth quarter?
There should be some solid cutting plans
out there by now!
You want bad news? Wait til our friend Roxanne sends out the 'sorry your insurance rates are going up, nothing we can do, your coworkers' fault for getting sick' letter.
ReplyDeleteI've made less money every year for the past six years, according to my social security report. All lays at the feet of increasing health costs.
Well with a furlough or three thrown in.
I believe the only 4th quarter plan set in stone right now is for the last USAT employee to turn out the lights when he/she leaves the building.
ReplyDeleteFolks,
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to prepare you. Another round has to come. The projects to consolidate are not happening fast enough and the bottom line is not getting what it needs in revenue against costs.
The debate is over whether these pending cuts can be delayed until 2011 and just take our lumps in the 4th Q. Mid-size papers are OK, but the bigger ones are sucking wind.
The mistake may be not doing a "Detroit" at the larger properties soon enough.
Even with the recession, poor management and a variety of negative industry forces, I don't know how a paper once doing as well as USAT has fallen so quickly. My gut feeling is that USAT panicked, got rid of too much institutional knowledge, created some bad karma with some of the layoffs/force outs and has simply lacked leadership and integrity over the last few years. It's so toxic that I can't imagine why anyone -- journalist, ad rep, techie, etc -- would want to work there. Trust has broken down and some of the newly promoted people have major holes in their skill sets. Holes that I guess have gone undetected by the people who promoted them.
ReplyDeleteThis corporation is run like a monarchy with all the serfs making meager wages to fuel the overblown salaries of the royals at the top who are always saying "off with their heads."
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteFollowing is an edited version of a comment posted by Anonymous@1:08 a.m.:
ReplyDeleteactually, the only 4th quarter plan set in stone right now is the board meeting where clueless directors will decide how much compensation Craigy, Neidermeyer and the other [XXXXX] will receive for screwing over employees and readers.
Maybe I missed it, but did you ever update us on what happened to the public information requests you filed for information from university of Mississippi and that college in North Carolina? Thanks Jim.
ReplyDeleteThe question is...
ReplyDeleteThey have seen the projections and they have
seen the bottom line revenues falling and
with no gains in sight.
There can't be an advertising manager out there
that can paint a bright picture with their 4th quarter and 2011 projections,no matter how creative they are in covering up the facts.
The revenues are just not there.
The head choppers have to know this by now ,
so why wait? Why make employees suffer in not knowing.Just let them bleed for a while longer.
Typical isn't it ?
Re: Anon 10:22
ReplyDeleteThat pretty much sums up the situation in Phoenix too. The Arizona Republic laid off/ fired / bought out so many senior people there is no institutional knowledge.
Important stories don't get covered.
PR people from local universities are turning in bylined stories about their institution and those stories are running in the paper.
The paper is a shell of what it once was. And no one can figure out why we're losing readers?
During downturns, smart companies do everything they can to keep their essential, mission-critical employees from leaving. The people they let go are auxiliary workers like the high-paid, do-nothing management drones who depend on the work product of their best employees to look good in meetings. Gannett's management ranks are full of such useless nobodies, many of whom occupy publisher and VP jobs throughout the chain. Gannett's culture of ass-kissing and coattail-riding protects those losers from the chopping block. It should be a red flag that they spent their entire careers in Gannett and were never worthy of joining a blue-chip company.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone bothered to think about why ad revenue is down so much? Probably because we have half the ad reps we used to. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you have to spend money to make money. In fact. I use that line all the time with my victims.
ReplyDeleteAd revenue won't grow until you hire more adverting staff.
8:08: I don't know if you have inside information or if you're just speculating, but I've been thinking the exact same thing. I am speculating but, knowing how company management thinks, it would be unrealistic to expect us to get through the mid-point of 2011 without more cuts.
ReplyDeleteWhile mid-sized papers may be doing well in some markets, I expect those in the most financially challenged areas -- Florida, Michigan, Nevada, California -- will be looking at cuts as well.
I hope I'm wrong, but history says I won't be.
The GCI disconnect that began in July from the Dow Jones average is troubling. On a day when GCI should be popping, it has barely twitched.
ReplyDeleteHey people, speaking of 11:24AM's 'Roxanne note" as a former Gannettoid, I just wanted to put my 2 cents in about the health plan. It's that time of year coming for you guys. I am now paying just over $200 a month for my private insurance with the same HMO Gannett used to have available. Getting it through Gannett back when I was an employee was over $400. After being laid off, through COBRA with the extra subsidy it was about $250. Without the extra subsidy it was $700+. I know some of this may be apples to oranges with the maze of deductibles, lifetime caps etc, but even so, If I were you all, I'd go shopping for insurance that you are not job dependent on, skip the whole Gannett plan and take the company "insurance equalizer" or whatever they call it when you can prove you have another form of insurance.
ReplyDeleteSorry to read about all the issues on the print side. At Broadcast, we're giddy with the ad increases we are seeing. Maybe ad revenue has permanently shifted away from print to the web, regardless of the recession? Paid content is the future and GCI is making the move.
ReplyDeleteLots of simple rewrites (much cut and paste) of PR news releases going on, but no reporter bylines on those. Just "staff." Another cheapening of the product necessitated by reduced staffing.
ReplyDeleteIt's always fun when Jim is getting ripped left and right, like in this thread.
ReplyDeleteGeez when did the Blog turn into the Communist party? Managers bad, serfs and comrades good. Read this entire string. It's beginning to sound like the Communist Manifesto.
ReplyDeleteto 11:52 and 12:31
ReplyDeleteJim provides a good site with information and input from a cross-section of thinking people.
If you don't like the site ....don't come here.
No commies here,just people telling it like it
is.
You must understand that not all businesses
are run like the corporate pricks at Gannett.
I am a former Gannett manager and since leaving
have started a small media business.We have just 6 employees,but I'll say this,they are my
most valued asset and are treated as gold.
Unlike the way Gannett treats employees as though they are just inventory and an evil expense that can be discarded whenever their
services are deemed no longer needed.
Hey 12:31, Gannett has been doing its Communist dictatorship routine now for decades. From the laughable 10-year plans that become 5-year plans that become 1-year plans to the corporate intolerance of dissent to the Stalinist purges. Yep, the high command, insulated from the rabble in its Crystal Palace, exists to enrich themselves at the expense of workers and shareholders. Just like Russia, China and Cuba.
ReplyDelete12:31 AM. Interesting, Communism equals people who don't goosestep to Gannett's leadership style.
ReplyDeleteRead your post, in your comparison you remain a manager while you call employees serfs and comrades. With your views concerning free speech on the Blog, you should go far in Gannett.
Gannett's about as far from communism as anyone or anything can get! Quite to the contrary, it appears to be capitalism at its best or worst, depending upon your perspective.
ReplyDeleteThen again, for a capitalistic venture, it sure doesn't mind throwing away big bucks on unnecessary layers or management. I offer Westchester as an example. A vice president news, a senior managing editor? What for?
Eliminate both jobs. A managing editor ought to suffice without any noticeable impact on the electronic and print products.
12:32 Corporate expenses are a weight other companies do not have or are as great as Gannett. More letting there needed. In local ops, production, IT and circ can be combined with GM overseeing and leaders in each area designated, saving department head dollars. Internally, expenses and budgeting for individual departments can be consolidated. Maybe the time card person for news can also do several others -- and handle their expense reports and budgets. This may not be best, but it is what we've been doing and just has to go another full step.
ReplyDeleteThe dittoheads are out defending Jim. They are bitter little people who have no place in today's newspaper world.
ReplyDelete12:31 -- I don't think anyone here has been advocating communism, although most educated people who aren't millionaires would very likely argue that true communism would be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is the world has never seen -- and will probably never see -- real communism. I hope you're smart enough to understand that. Countries like the USSR essentially adopted fascism under the guise of communism. And interestingly enough, the U.S. is getting closer and closer to that model.
We have an elite class that controls almost all the wealth in the country, and the chances of someone outside of that class joining it are remote. It happens, but statistically only a very small percentage of the poor make that leap. And, over the last 30 years, our nation's wealth has come under the control of an increasingly smaller percentage of the people.
Since the wealthy also control politicians and votes, we essentially have a corporate sponsored government that caters to the elite and asks everyone else to live with less and less. I know this doesn't have a lot to do with Gannett, but for once I would like to see people discuss communism, democracy and socialism with some actual understanding. One of the biggest failures of the media is that -- for decades -- we have allowed the people of this nation to think that the U.S. is not socialized. The truth is that we are heavily socialized and we put more money into our socialist programs than just about every other nation. Trouble is, many of them still don't work.
Sorry for the rant, but c'mon. If we're going to start accusing people of being communists, lets understand what the communist ideal is. And let's agree that China is no more a communist country than America is a democracy. Both nations have spun the terms so far away from the ideals that they don't really mean anything anymore.
9/26, 1:07am: Interesting post - I agree with you, for what that's worth, being an ex USAT employee.
ReplyDeleteOnly a few days left in the month and still no word on the USAT layoffs. Must be pretty tense in the Crystal Palace.
ReplyDeleteThe third quarter numbers will start coming
ReplyDeletein very soon as the week goes on.
The revenue side will continue to be way
off projections .A weekly that I know of will be off by more than 35% and I would guess that
alot will be even worse.I feel the worst is
coming ang very soon.I will brace myself and wait, the same as in the past.The same depressed,nervous,terrible feeling that the
Gannett corp puts employees through month after
month as a usual way of life.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete