Gannett's 10-member governing board has held its quarterly meeting during the final week of October for each of the past five years, and this month will follow that tradition, a reader tells me. The coming week's meeting likely would include approval of a quarterly dividend.We hope it also will include a status report on a high-profile executive vacancy, that of chief digital officer -- a position that's now been empty 200 days. That ought to fall under the purview of the five-member Digital Technology Committee, which includes Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow. It's hard to take the company's digital aspirations seriously without a full-time digital chief. (For the moment, I'm told, that explains why Gracia Martore's unofficial title is president, chief operating officer, chief financial officer and acting CDO, plus would-be chairman and CEO.)
A dividend history
The payout has been four cents a share for seven consecutive quarters now, producing a yield of 1.3%, based on Friday's closing price of $12.18 a share. (Current stock price.) It was slashed 90% in February 2009, when the company was in grave financial straits. (History of dividends.) Since then, GCI has been using available cash to pay down debt: $210 million in this year's third quarter.
During the quarterly earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts, the dividend did not come up. In response to a question about paying down debt, however, Martore said: "We're going to continue to do a good job on that front. Obviously a lot will depend on if there are some investment opportunities that we think are worthy to look at, that would certainly play into it. We also have different dynamics in the fourth quarter with some of our cash requirements. So we'll just have to see how that plays out. We'll give a little bit more guidance on that in early December when we present at the conferences."
Could someone direct these directors to spending an hour or two on this blog and get a bit of education about the mood of many employees. Just a glimpse at the gross incompetency of USAT's "transformation" would be enlightening.
ReplyDeleteSince then, GCI has been using available cash to pay down debt: $210 in this year's third quarter.
ReplyDeleteShit I pay my credit card off faster than that. You mean $210 million by chance?
Oooph! Good catch. I've now fixed that.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Tuesday is Craig's 56th birthday. It has been marked on my calendar since speculation arose he's going to take early retirement. So do we have a party.....or not?
ReplyDeletePlease, don't bother. You sit there with thumbs up your butt and do nothing at all except drawing your pay for being on the board. Worthless, useless human beings. A waste of human skin.
ReplyDeleteIt'll be interesting to see if they finally do something to favor the shareholders over the executive suite.
ReplyDeleteI have my doubts, but then I've always been a skeptic. Maybe they'll surprise me.
One thing would be to cut from the top this time - the adminstrative paper shufflers and so called news VPS - instead of the people who actually produce the product. They should also revise their thinking regarding executive pay.
It burns me to think that McCorkindale strolled away with $250 million plus numerous bennies, and that Dubow is setting sail with more than $19 million stashed aboard his retirement scow.
Oh Board of Directors, please take note of the industry as a whole and adjust the executive pay scale to reflect lower earnings now and in the future.
And please, enough appeasing the executive ranks! Act positively for those invested in the company.
The board could care less what the mood of employees is. As long as the EPS hits target, they're happy.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Wall Street reacted quite negatively to the latest numbers. The stock is off 10%. Maybe the next cost-cutting plan would cut this do nothing board from 9 directors to 7. Unfortunately, knowing the mindset around CP, they'll add more.
ReplyDelete