Sunday, October 17, 2010

Questions for Dubow during tomorrow's audiocast

CEO Craig Dubow will host an employee audiocast at 1 p.m. ET on Monday. An advisory sent to employees says: "He'll discuss third-quarter earnings and other company news. He is also looking forward to taking your questions. To tune in and to send your questions before the audiocast, go to http://gannett.gci/chat/live.asp?chatid=198."

But why wait?! Post questions you'd like Dubow to answer in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

15 comments:

  1. I'd like to know whether furloughs in the first quarter will be company-wide -- or site by site. Plus, will there be another round of wage freezes, and will they be company-wide, or site by site?

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  2. Will you dispose of newsquest?

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  3. Are you taking early retirement this year?

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  4. 1) Will there be across-the board fur-cations in Q1 2011, will it be site-by-site, or will the annual cost-cutting practice come to an end?

    2) GCI's quarterly dividend is .04 now, resulting in a paltry annual yield of only 1.1%. Prior to the 90 percent dividend cut announced in Feb. 2009, the annual rate was in the high single digits; currently, the 5-year trailing percentage is still 5.8. Now that the stock price has stabilized in the high teens, what thought has been given to increasing the quarterly dividend?

    3) When will the Design Hubs be fully staffed, and how many jobs will be eliminated between now and then?

    4) Do you expect to continue to offer health insurance under the laws of ObamaCare, or do you expect to take the fine instead and let employees fend for themselves when choosing a health plan?

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  5. For daytraders, it might be a good trading idea to short GCI right before Dubow starts talking, and cover when he concludes.

    Or not.

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  6. Do you read any of the print or online Gannett products?

    Operationalize "transformation" and rate the company's efforts toward your definition of transformation. Behind schedule, right on time, or ahead of schedule?

    What's it feel like to get a bonus when so many Gannett employees are struggling or laid off? Any guilt or remorse?

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  7. There is no way Robin Pense is going to allow any questions bordering on anything controversial. I've tried the past three q and a sessions. Some are among the most innocuous you could ask. Nada. Its only happy times and baby talk.

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  8. GCI just reported flat revenues Q3. So what are you going to do to grow revenues, especially after draconian cuts of staff at the papers and reducing circulation?

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  9. What was the dollar value of your non-salary based compensation (i.e. bonuses, stock options, perks, etc.) in 2007, 2008 and 2009? And do you intend to turn all such money down in 2010, working only for your base pay?

    Do you also plan to suggest that other highly placed GCI executives do the same? We've heard time and time again that these are tough times for all of us, but I don't there's an employee in the company that believes they have been tough for you or any high-ranking GCI executives. Do you plan to address that concern in a meaningful way?

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  10. All of these questions are WAY better than the softballs that will get (hot) air time.

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  11. Say you're copy editing a tight sports section. You have just a few inches of newshole left to fill. There's a title fight in Vegas, but the outcome may be past deadline. Or, there's 3-4 very short, local stories about kids competing in obscure sports.

    Which do you go with:
    Boxers, or briefs?

    ;-)

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  12. Do you take responsibility for running Gannett papers into the ground?

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  13. You have castrated the properties of this company, and yet you now expect them to be fruitful. You can't now go back and undo the operation, so what are you going to do?

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  14. If you were a director of this company and had no other fiduciary interest other than representing shareholders, would you reward your CEO,CFO and other managers for such incompetence? Would you keep current management in place? Would you hold them more accountable?

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  15. Argus Research just downgraded GCI stock this morning, from a Buy to a Hold, citing declining newspaper readership. Can you comment on that?

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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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