President and Chief Operating Officer Gracia Martore says she's discussed Gannett's newspaper "margins" -- i.e., their profitability -- on several occasions.
But it was news to me when she revealed how much the U.S. and U.K. newspapers are now making, during an occasionally testy conference call this morning with Wall Street analysts.
Here's what happened. Analyst Doug Arthur of Evercore Partners asked Martore if the U.K. newspaper division, Newsquest, is still making money.
Martore's reply: "Let me once and for all dispel the myth that Newsquest doesn't make money. Newsquest makes a lot of money. In fact, their margin as I have said a couple times is consistent with the margin that our local U.S. Community Publishing operations generate. So their margins are in the high teens to low 20s and they have consistently made money throughout the years."
Listen to the exchange yourself on the call's replay; Arthur's question starts at about minute 45:30.
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.
Friday, October 15, 2010
8 comments:
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This has got to prove what I have been saying all along: That the other newspapers and broadcast TV properties are subsidizing USA Today. Otherwise where are all these profits going? They are not going to the bottom line.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get someone to ask Gracia this question about USA Today's profitability, and the amounts of money other GCI properties are siphoned off for paying exhorbitant salaries to USA staffers, and for keeping the free gyms and subsidized cafeterias going.
The poor regional newspapers have to bow and remit exorbitant tithes to the royalty in Virginia to keep the palace clean, to pay the domestic staff and to support the rich lifestyles of Dumbow and his court. Independent newspapers and small chains can get by on single-digit profit margins. Gannett's papers can't because they are held hostage by their corporate paymasters.
ReplyDeleteProfit margins of 20 percent and people are worried about their jobs!
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with this picture?
Corporate is sucking the company dry. Dubow is getting ready to set sail on his $19 million retirement voyage, and Martore is getting mega raises and pension boosts while the workers get their pay cut, their pensions frozen, and lose their jobs.
Did anyone listen to Dubow saying how much the company valued its community newspapers and was intent on serving those communties?
What BS! Fewer workers, smaller papers, higher prices.
Gannett's reduced newsprint costs should be no surprise. If some of the papers were any thinner (I can only go by Westchester's) you could see through them!
@1:46 PM:
ReplyDeleteYou are a fucking idiot. The gym is not free and, given the continually escalating prices and decreasing quality, I can't see how the cafeteria could possibly be subsidized.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI generally remove comments about wheelchairs.
ReplyDeleteProfit margins at Gannett community papers used to be in the 30% range. 20% profit margins for any business is still great. But this debate over cps subsidizing usat is a joke. that hasn't been the case in years. when the paper was run by sound managers and was a quality product, it was actually turning a nice profit. Perhaps that's why the advertising dept. cannot sell ads. Its not just incompetence, its selling an inferior product. You know what? Hunke's plan to focus content elsewhere is just going to make the paper an even lousier read.
ReplyDelete7:31 -- You're right. I don't know why Gannett doesn't just fold USAT. If they want it to be competitive, now is the time to pump money into it and allow it to seriously compete with the NY Times and Wall Street Journal. The company should allow its profit margin to fall in order to sweep in and make gains on the other papers that are struggling financially.
ReplyDeleteInstead it's making cuts, assuring that USAT will always play third fiddle to the nation's real newspapers. Since that's the route it has chosen, why lose money for the next five or six years? Just retire the paper and call the venture done.