Monday, March 21, 2011

March 21-27 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

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58 comments:

  1. This is the last week of the first quarter, bringing an end to the latest round of furloughs across the U.S. newspaper division.

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  2. Is it public info from any of the SEC filings how much Gannett stock is owned by current employees? Somehow, we need to use that leverage, if it exists, and get together to do something about the outrageous salaries and bonuses of these incompetent corporate honchos. For all the woes of the industry, Gannett is still making tons of money, but none of it is going to the worker bees.

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  3. 12:50 No; that information is not public. The most recent annual 10-K report to the SEC says only that Gannett has about 8,800 shareholders in all 50 states and "several foreign countries."

    However, those 8,800 include investment firms that hold shares for investors in "street name." That means, for example, Charles Schwab & Co. would be listed as a single shareholder on behalf of hundreds of individual stockholders.

    Also, as with most publicly held companies, most of Gannett's stock is owned by a small number of large institutional investors: pension funds, etc. Collectively, these institutions own 94% of all the company's shares. Indeed, the top 10 biggest institutional investors own nearly 48% of the shares.

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  4. As odd as it may seem, Gannett may actually avoid bankruptcy or insolvency in the near or distant future. I was laid off in July of 2009 and the company was and still is in a state of deperation, and a major cash crunch because as much as tey talk about new media and revenue steams the company has not changed a a bit. At this point in time the Gannett company should be a media dispesnsing powerhouse with about 10,0000 employees and minimum $10 billion in revenue and publishing 10 or fewer print media. At EVERY OPPORTUNITY they miss the ball and are a running joke at every media, investment and social media function.

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  5. I LOVE THE GANNETT BLOG :) pure and simple

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  6. 2:23 AM I totally get what you are saying.... LMAO

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  7. Bankruptcy and insolvency is not in the cards. What is bothersome is that GCI might violate its debt covenants -- the agreements that come with debt loads requiring the company to maintain a certain profit margin and to restrain stock expansion. If the covenants are violated, the debt would have to be renegotiated, presumably at a higher interest rate. That we are already listed in a junk bond status shows the banks think our finances are shaky.

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  8. Hey, Jim, do we have a revolt on our hands about this new branding campaign, or did Arizona just not get the memo? Neither the front page, nor the Website has the "A Gannett Company" slug that was required to be displayed on the flagships this month. Just curious.

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  9. At what point do we make more money off of employee health insurance contributions than say, digital?

    We're still charging nearly the same for online ads as we were five years ago, while my yearly health insurance has gone up 500%.

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  10. 7:46 the comPany share has gone up as well. Ask folks on COBRA how shocked they are what total premium costs. Bad comparison

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  11. Indeed, the COBRA price is approximately three times what the coverage cost when I was employed. No one told me this specifically, but it looks like my health care was subsidized for the amount of time I was eligible for TPP payments. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I don't think so.
    So we have employee share increasing, for increasingly poor coverage, and Gannett is still picking up the lion's share of the bill.

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  12. Another quarter is about to end.
    The same old scenario.Bad 3 months in revenue,
    little growth projected.Has any site actually shown any increase in revenue over last year? I would bet the resounding answer is NO. The only question to be answered is how much loss....5%
    or 10% or more in some cases.My local is down 35%.This means layoffs and furloughs.You can count on it.I am.

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  13. NY Times cuts pay package of CEO Janet Robinson as revenue slump erodes market value of newspaper company http://yhoo.it/g1Ez09

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  14. 7:04 "A Gannett Company" appears today on the Republic's print front page, just below the flag.

    But you are correct: I've just checked its website, and I don't see that "endorsement" on the homepage. Strange.

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  15. Any word on 2nd quarter furloughs?

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  16. The first sentence of the comment by 2:23 a.m. ("As odd as it may seem, Gannett may actually avoid bankruptcy or insolvency in the near or distant future.") exhibits a notion so out of touch with even remote possibility and reality that it almost makes me feel embarrassed for the write. GCI is still very profitable. It only seems untrue because of where the company (and the industry) were just five years ago. GCI generates huge cash-flow and is paying off debt at fast rate. It still pays a dividend, for chrissake.

    Now, 5:11 a.m. -- that poster has nailed the point. The pity of it is that the foolishness about bankruptcy, which you see at this site often, tends to overwhelm the sensible stuff here. Hate the company if you want or must. But do not make the mistake of thinking that what you dislike must inevitably fail. It just ain't so.

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  17. I don't know how Gannett can be "picking up the lion's share" of the health insurance bill when I'm paying over $5,000 for INDIVIDUAL coverage.

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  18. I don't know anyone working in private industry who pays more for health insurance than I do with Gannett. As soon as the economy gets on track, I'm getting the heck out of here.

    This mixute of pay freezes, pay cuts via furloughs and higher insurance premiums has me making less than I did five years ago!

    And the executives keep pocketing bonuses? I've been a sucker for too long. Goodby G A N N E T T!

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  19. I heard the rumors about having another furlough or layoffs in 2nd quarter?

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  20. I don't see how they can avoid more furloughs or layoffs. The management where I'm at have been having more frequent closed door meetings and talking quietly amongst themselves. Our top sales people have had their sales figures cut in half and a new venture that we thought would be our saving grace is falling flat. Numbers continue to be down across the board.

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  21. @9:12 -- Poor Janet Robinson. Her pay was cut from $4.9 million to $4.5 million. Where can I send my condolences?

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  22. @11:07 - if you don't believe the company is picking up a sizable chunk of the tab for health insurance, check out how much it costs to pay for the whole thing yourself. The soaring costs of health insurance aren't Gannett's fault.

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  23. The game is all about advertising revenue, and as far as Gannett's newspapers are concerned, the gravy has been wiped off the plate and the crumbs are getting scarce.

    Furloughs and cuts are unavoidable without a corporate adjustment to profit margins. Staff sizes also have to be brought into line with circulation and revenue, a definite concern at eroding sites including here at Weschester.

    A lot more people, including the so-called "content producers," will be eliminated as the papers continue to downsize.

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  24. Did Westchester site employees have to take furloughs this quarter or was the site exempt?

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  25. If Gannett chooses to furlough workers in the second quarter, I will be going to the Labor Department with information I have amassed over several years as a manager. It's past time for Gannett to manage its way to a stronger future rather than place the burden on the backs of employees yet again. Try innovation and creativity and smart strategy. Try to understand audiences - do not harm employees.

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  26. USA TODAY, the newspaper, is suddenly full of ads.

    Could a corner be near? Hope?

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  27. Pay cuts force reporter into prostitution:
    http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/03/reporter-says-pay-cut-forced-him-to-set-up-prostitution-ring/1

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  28. Gannett is too shrewd to wind up in bankruptcy. Instead, it burns employees en masse on the sacrificial pyre in order to divert their salaries and benefits into the profit/cash flow that is used to pay down debt. At the rate that the company is going, there won't be any business operations to speak of, yet the top executives lining their pockets -- like Qaddafi -- will remain.

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  29. The thing about furloughs... I recently took mine and I look forward to another. We are so short-staffed. That is the only week you can get a break. For those of us still left after layoffs, the workload is overwhelming. Furlough forces me not to check email, work, etc. I love this job but hate the fact that there are simply too few people in the newsroom to give important issues needed coverage.

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  30. What employee is paying $5000 for health insurance? Is this your contribution per year? If it is, try checking what private insurance would cost per month. If your $5000 is per month, you SHOULD check into private insurance. You can get a whole lot more than Gannett is giving you for a whole lot less, if this is the case.

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  31. Re: Pay cuts force reporter into prostitution ..

    At least he transitioned to a working business model!

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  32. Jim, 7:04: It's right there at the top-right of the azcentral homepage, just beneath the 12 News and Arizona Republic logos.

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  33. 4:24 Ah, I see it now, but I thought the Gannett logo was supposed to appear under the flag, in this case AzCentral.Com, not off to the side or at the bottom of the page where the Gannett connection used to be.

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  34. 2:45 xx USA TODAY, the newspaper, is suddenly full of ads. Could a corner be near? Hope? xx

    With 44 million people using their Facebook accounts each month, why would advertisers continue to use USA Today?

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  35. P.S. Look at the Facebook pages, and you will find USA Today has 47,000 subscribers who say they like USA Today, compared to 1.2 million who say they like the NYTimes, and 157,000 who like the WPost. These are young people using this social network, and we are losing this audience.

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  36. The younger generation would flood Gannett sites if only we could find a way of showing them those branding commercials we ran two weeks ago.

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  37. Be careful what you wish for re: furloughs. Take what happened in January at NJ papers. One Thursday, furloughs are announced. By Monday, the news staff is told to re-apply and half the staff is let go ...

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

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  39. Gannett-related from AP: The Detroit News has publicly apologized for altering the online version of an automobile review solely to please an advertiser.

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  40. Management drone leaked out that there will be furlough in 2Q and most likely each Q thereafter in 2011.

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  41. No surprise about more furlough. Ad sales at our east coast property sucks and continues to dive. Word is that this is the case all around Gannettland and other newspapers.

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  42. @7:00, are you just repeating what Jim has said 2Q furloughs, or is this "management drone" an actual source of yours?

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  43. I thought you couldn't have furloughs all four quarters, for some legal reason.

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  44. Younger generations have never been the "news" readers. Until someone is vested in their community (kids in school, paying property taxes, etc) they take little note of what is going on. Its mor important to capture the 30 something.

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  45. Will the USA Today mobile apps be updated with the new branding?

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  46. Furlough, layoffs, taxing you for having a company cell phone (If you get to keep one). What next? Bring your own toilet paper and water?

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  47. Sure 9:21, G A N N E T T will update the app just in time for it to be out of date as a result of a newer logo.

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  48. Employee benefits have always been calculated at approximately 26% of actual cost. That's a standard used by all compensation folks. COBRA allows a company to charge 102% of the actual cost of the benefits. If you're paying COBRA, you're paying a little more than 3x what you were paying as an active G employee. Under the old severance program, as long as you were still on the books, you paid the employee price for benefits. Under the TPP model, they usually offer you 2 months at the employee price and then toss you onto COBRA.

    Based on what I'm hearing from my G friends, I think we're back in a situation where we wait until the preliminary 1st quarter revenue reports come out and then they'll announce furloughs. Once again, the timing will cut off about 2 weeks of time that could be used for furloughs and compress it again. I hope I'm wrong.

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  49. There are only 6 days left in the quarter. Bad numbers will not dramatically improve in that time.

    The jerks upstairs need to put everyone out of their misery.

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  50. The suits just added more than $1 million to corporate's payroll for the CMO and CDO, so there will have to be layoffs or furloughs to pay for them.

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  51. 9:13 If you get young people to use a particular brand, consumer surveys show you likely have them for life. The NYT seems to understand this, and I don't know why we don't. By the time they are in their 30's, people become less interested in experimenting.

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  52. 10:24, that consumer survey is wrong. Young folks are all about experimenting and change.

    Remember myspace? It was all the rage.
    Now it's Facebook. Young demos drove that. What about new technology every 6 months? Who scoops that up? Young demos. GANNETT is grasping straws and missing terribly.

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  53. Hey 8:25, this is 7:00 pm. The management drone is in management where I work and he let his guard down (not normal) out of frustration and disgust and just blurted it out when we were in a social situation. Is it true? I tend to believe it 'cause this guy one of the few good people who are in management but is looking to get the hell out of Gannett too. Take it for what it is worth. I do believe there will be a furlough in second quarter because business is really bad at our place. Part of the reasons are down economy, but probably a good part is the really lousy advertising sales department loaded with a bunch of lazy people who don't do much work because they can get away with it when they are "on the road" and not being watched. Last week I was on furlough and ran into 2 of our wonderful sales people shooting the bull at a coffee shop at about 10:30 in the morning. Both of them almost wet themselves when I walked in and saw them. Ooops!

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  54. Sounds like the sales 'pros' at the courierpost you describe.

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  55. Most of our ad people seem to be hard-working, but I never did understand the lazy ones. If they're paid by commission, wouldn't it benefit them to be on the road?

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  56. They operate out of th cp. Working 9 to 5. Not!!!!

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  57. That's the crystal palace, not the courier post. Lazy and ineffective not great for sales.

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  58. Just an aside about capturing the business of young people...My uncle never paid for a pack of cigarettes all through college, and other relatives of his generation got their cigs free in the military.

    Then for the next 50 to 60 years they paid for their Luckies, their Chesterfields and their Pall Malls.

    Maybe G A N N E T T could come up with an addictive form of newsprint. Something that seeps into the pores from the ink....And for online editions, subliminal messages...G A N N E T T Loves You and You Love G A N N E T T.

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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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