Friday, December 10, 2010

Week Dec. 6-12 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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48 comments:

  1. Nice to see the Gannett trolls back trying to discredit My Boss (on the previous thread). My question is this: If you know everything that's planned for 2011, why don't you pass the information on?

    Your posts smell of a desperate attempt to try to discredit a mole that's spreading news you don't like.

    As for Tafler, My Boss said he would remain on the job until January. The fact that he hasn't officially announced a resignation and walked out of the building doesn't mean he hasn't laid the groundwork. We'll know on that one soon enough. So, if he does walk be sure to come on back and tell us just how wrong My Boss was.

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  2. 2:01 AM

    My not knowing "everything that's planned for 2011" does not mean My Boss does.

    And I am not a Gannett troll. I am a reader of this blog who makes his own decisions on the validity of the information posted on this blog. Will there be more layoffs in 2011? Probably. Will their be 500 positions cut? Probably not.

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  3. My Boss is absolutely correct on the Ripple6 closure. There was just a mass layoff at Ripple6's New York office the other day.

    I think Gannett is in trouble. They lost their Chief Digital Officer. They are losing the CEO of their most profitable and fastest growing company with Point Roll and now we learn that the largest digital revenue source, Careerbuilder, has a CEO that is also leaving.

    Doesn't this concern the Board? What is going on in the Crystal Palace that is having top people (technically, the future of Gannett) leave this company?

    The wrong people are leaving. We need Craig Dubow, Gracia Martore, Bob Dickey, David Hunke, and Jack Williams to announce their departures. These overpaid executives ARE NOT the future. They are a bunch of media "has beens".

    What we are learning is that as soon as the economy gets better, the higher end, more desirable, digitally savvy people will find new jobs, while the "has beens" will be sitting ducks. Gannett is a bunch of media past.

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  4. I would like to thank Robin Pence and her team for writing all of our speeches for the UBS Conference. Btw, the new CFO sounded lime another corporate suit. This guy is from Mars!

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  5. Funny story...I was on a flight the other week and sitting in front of me was Brad Robertson, Head of GannettLocal, talking to a colleague of his on the phone. He obviously did not realize that there was someone from AZ Central one row behind him. He was discussing the demise of Gannett Local, how decision making from Bob Dickey takes months and how he was "going to give it until June and then look at leaving". He mentioned that his "investment budget was significantly reduced".

    This hardly sounds like Gannett Local is doing well, GRACIA.

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  6. Just saw an ad on the internet for USA Today.

    It read: "These days, Earvin "Magic" Johnson is more likely to be in (Money section logo) than in the paint."

    Huh?

    Magic retired - what? - over a decade ago?

    Real timely, there, marketing geniuses.

    Deliver me.

    Gath

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  7. 8:42: Rather nit-picky. The ad on a literal level works. Because he's retired from basketball and he's a serial entrepreneur now. Therefore, he's more likely to be in a biz section than "in the paint," OK?

    Not the most clever or inspired of ads, but cut 'em a break. If you're going to take shots, take fair ones.

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  8. This web site has become virtually obsolete because most of the posters are just bitter ex-employees who can't see the big picture. So many say Gannett is going belly-up. . . yeh, the company's stock just went up 33 PER CENT in six days. Sure sounds like a sinking company to me. You might have been fired as part of the mass restructuring but the company is very much alive and has many undervalued assets. Keep focusing on the As The World Turns doings of your news room and your lives. The company is not going anywhere. And the stock is likely to go much higher. enjoy you bitter ex-employees$$$$$$$$$$

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  9. Yes, 9:56 AM, the stock is doing well, but no company with such a terrible corporate culture will long prosper. No company that hates paying its own employees will last.

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  10. 8:11 -- Of course, the fact that you don't know everything doesn't mean My Boss does. Fact is, however, he/she has a pretty solid track record and the things he/she has been wrong about have been very minor. Minor enough that the things he/she said might have been in the works but got altered later.

    Why do you think the company won't be 5,000 employees smaller at the end of 2011? It's a big number, but with layoffs, attrition and a continued reduction in the size of papers (all likely) it seems pretty do-able to me. And it would certainly make Gannett more money in the short-term, which is all the current regime seems to worry about.

    Again, My Boss has a pretty solid track record on these things. Someone said he/she is just reporting rumors that have been floating around the Crystal Palace. If that's true, he/she has done a historically wonderful job of separating the true rumors from those that were false.

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  11. 9:56 -- I'm not an ex-employee yet, but I will be soon. If you can't see that the company is done, I feel bad for you.

    No, it's not dissolving, but it's a shell of what it used to be -- both in terms of its size and its influence on the market. The stocks return to $15 a share is no big deal since the recent gains simply made back what it had lost over the last couple months.

    It has teetered around $15/$16 at other times this year, but I don't think it's ever gone over that.

    It won't be surprising to see the company split into pieces sometime over the next five years.

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  12. 10:31 -- Most American corporations hate paying their employees. The average American wage has been going down, not up. Yet most companies are doing just fine.

    I think Gannett stinks, but there are many other company's that have made a practice of paying less and less in wages regardless of profitability.

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  13. Gannett stock was at $18.20 in April.
    I know,I sold all of mine.
    So,it hasn't even regained to even since then.

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  14. Responding to 8:41am - I sit near Brad Robertson and he has not been out of the office on a plane in a long time.

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  15. 12:20 p.m.--Yes, that's true. But the stocks of other newspaper companies, LEE and MNI, for example, have also not recovered their April highs. To some extent, that's true for radio stocks, too. A great deal of the price of any given stock is attributable to whether the industry it's in is in favor or out of favor on Wall Street. By the time the overall market averages hit their lows in March 2009, media stocks were priced for the end of the world. What we've seen since then is a sensible repricing. But the market is an imprecise pricing mechanism over a short period of time, which is why the stock of a perfectly healthy company can be down 5 percent Monday and up 5 percent Tuesday despite the fact that absolutely nothing has changed with the company.

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  16. "But it's a shell of what it used to be" Give me a break!!! Gannett has always been and always will be as long as it lasts a Company that is asshole to elbows in OVER PAID MANAGEMENT types. When they bought Central Newspapers we knew we were doomed. It took a little longer than we expeted but we knew by Gannets record that mass changes and not for the better were in the works. Thing is for you people who worked for them for many years you were living a dream that this Company has any plan or gives a shit about there employees.

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  17. 9:56. If you think the stock price is so good, why don't you go look at 4 year ago.

    Gannett stock was at $60.46 on December 29, 2006.

    Bit of a difference.

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  18. Hey, 1:07. Guess you must sleep at your desk.
    Brad Robertson traveling to silicon valley for the first time....I assume their is start-up cash just laying around like a "take a penny, leave a penny" dish
    Tuesday at 6:08am via BlackBerry

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  19. Hey 3:48pm - I know he is gone right now. But the original post said the person heard him last week or older and he has been here everyday during that time.

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  20. I can't believe anyone would crow about the stock hitting $15. THIS WAS A $90 STOCK IN 2004!!!!

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  21. Good to see the same "experts" back offering the same whining but nothing useful.

    9:56 has it right: This site is obsolete.

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  22. You know it, 4:42. I was one of those schmucks who kept all my stock while every level of management was dumping theirs. I was a lowly prepress technician, but I figured, hey, that's counterproductive, I'm an employee, and I'm keepin' my employer's stocks, damn it, even if my "leaders" are not. What an idiot. Lesson learned.

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  23. Make a believer out of me!

    My Boss defenders are requested to provide citations on all the posts where My Boss hit the bulls eye.

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  24. Jason Tafler is THE man! Gannett (and Pointroll) will be screwed when this guy leaves the house. Hey Gracia...LMN!

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  25. My Boss is the Julian Assange of Gannett!!! My Boss has the goods on everyone in Gannett. It seems like this person is dead on right all the time.

    Jim, has the Matt Ferguson leak by MyBoss been confirmed?

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  26. Wake up people...everyone knows Brad Robertson dislikes Bob Dickey and Michelle Krans. He had no choice but to work on GannettLocal, since they were going to can his ass in VT.

    Also, seems like Curtis Riddle is not going down without a fight. He has been very vocal about his departure. Stay tuned....

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  27. 9:15, why do you say this about Riddle? What's he been up to?

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  28. New Publisher Howard Griffin announces new VP of Advertising in Wilmington today, Eric Mayberry of Philly.

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  29. More on the Mayberry appointment to come no doubt. Has anyone else noticed that Wilmington is starting to look a lot like center city these days? Could there be truth in the rumor about Dickey shuttering the non performing print sites and selling off the profitable ones?

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  30. Another publisher bites the dust.
    I would bet there was a forced resignation.
    L.H. has done the very same scenario in the
    past.Publisher resigns,yet office is emptied
    comepletely before the next work day.
    No 2 weeks notice, no good byes ,or party.
    Yeah right, a resignation.
    I am a former small site manager and have seen the scenario.
    The long time managers and other employees are treated like vermine to be ushered out the door
    as quickly and as rudely as possible.Like trash.
    I am now away and well employed,but Gannett
    is a very nasty organization and I wish it nothing but disaster.
    Let the shuttering begin.....from top to bottom.

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  31. I laughed out loud when I saw the picture of the "Chopping Block". Speaking from the point of already knowing what it feels like to have the axe fall on my neck…wouldn't it be great to use the "block" in numbering and keeping score etc. when a "top dog' get axed. Let the count begin.

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  32. What's going on with the editor search in Cincinnati?

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  33. Hunke is in Detroit today for a breakfast meeting at the DoubleTree with the Detroit MC. I wonder how much this cost?

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  34. I worked with Brad Robertson in Burlington and to say he was going to get canned while he was in that job is being completely uninformed. The stuff folks make up on this site is crazy. It is ruining the credibility of the gannett blog.

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  35. Wow. CNBC reporting A&P supermarkets looking at filing for bankruptcy. This is a big deal for NY and NJ papers because they might lose the food ads. Stock is collapsing on the report.

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  36. Anonymous said...
    Wow. CNBC reporting A&P supermarkets looking at filing for bankruptcy. This is a big deal for NY and NJ papers because they might lose the food ads. Stock is collapsing on the report.
    12/10/2010 10:44 AM

    More misery for NJ and for me... my hubby works for a vendor who has a contract with A&P... :(

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  37. 10:07,
    The Apparition is in Detroit? Glad to hear he is actually doing SOMETHING!

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  38. Headline on CNBC this morning: "Beckman Coulter puts itself up for sale. Might fetch $5 billion."

    Why isn't Gannett doing the same?

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  39. @2:31pm Because those currently residing in the Palace would surely be unemployed in the pink slip bloodbath that would follow such a sale.

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  40. 3:12: That shouldn't be a problem to execs whose change-of-control golden parachutes kick in and they receive 3X their salaries (or whatever the rate is) and an acceleration of the vesting of their stock options, not to mention any other sweeteners they can negotiate with the invaders.

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  41. There was a meeting this morning at the Fort Collins Coloradoan where some people from corporate announced that Kim Roegner, the publisher was no longer with the Coloradoan or Gannett. Bob Moore, the editor will be the interim publisher.

    Ding Dong, the wicked witch is GONE!!

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  42. Executive compensation junkies, take note:

    Gannett just filed a bunch of Forms 4 with the SEC, reporting RSU grants to the top brass, and dispositions. I'm never sure how much of a big deal these are, given the relatively small numbers. Thoughts, anyone?

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  43. Why no comments on Rippyle6? Didn't gannett buy that from Saridakas? I thoght he got a few million from that. Did he leave because he knew Rippyle6 was a POS? Or is it ok if gannett screws up when Saradakas is involve?

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  44. Jim - Are there any SEC laws about an company officer selling something he was an owner of to his company, when he knows their product is a sham and they will probably not survive?

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  45. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  46. Listen up GMC. This is what that new local marketing arm you recently created really needs to be focusing on. I'm only going to say this once:

    If Gannett is interested in maintaining its presence in information distribution, it needs to create a digital/print?/advertising/marketing distribution model built around medical offices and facilities. There is a ton of untapped money there and captive audiences. Imagine eventually having agreements that allow them to essentially control the information dissemination in these places -- including on smart devices? I know what I'm talking about.

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  47. For Part 4 of this comment thread, please go here.

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  48. 7:33 There is no SEC jurisdiction on this. But a company that is defrauded in this process can always sue to recover money spent. Depending on the extent of the fraud, the company can also turn the information over to the police to see if it warrants a criminal prosecution.

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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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