Wednesday, March 30, 2011

March 28-April 3 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

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50 comments:

  1. For Part 2 of this comment thread, please go here.

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  2. 11:42 AM what happened to the ad vp in louisville? they have quite a few metros slots now open???

    yes, Louisville, Des Moines, Westchester, Wilmington, and Brevard all have VP of Advertising openings

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  3. Most of our few over-$80k employees are missed when they are gone. You could count all of them in our state on your fingers, but here, they earn that money. The top editors edit, the ad directors sell, the IT heads work on installs, and the GMs have to take the abuse of corporate and the community while still emptying their own garbage.

    I realize that not every site or every manager is the same; here, those people earn their keep. Your experiences may vary.

    Unfortunately, at their level, most of the work can only be done by them, so when they are kicked out of the building, they've done all their stuff the week before or week after. Not because corporate expects it, but because they expect it of themselves.

    That being said, I'm still appreciative I'm not going to have to try to figure out how to accommodate another furlough myself. I'd just prefer that the sites that are dragging the newspaper division down actually bear the majority of the cuts - not us sites that are still printing money.

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  4. Uh 4:25. Wilmington has a VP of Advertising. Eric Mayberry. He was brought in with the new publisher in Q4 '10.

    And Jim- Since when is Howard Griffin the VP of anything other than Wilmington and Salisbury?

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  5. 4:25 AM, Brevard's decided he had enough and is starting his own company.

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  6. I see on TV this Gannett branding program is still running. So is it too early to ask how much revenue it is bringing in? How many readers are calling up the newspapers and buying subscriptions after seeing these ads? How many advertisers are streaming to the newspapers to buy ads in the papers?

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  7. 7:42 AM, Brevard's AD did decide he had had enough...but I don't believe he is starting his own company. I think he's going into a chief marketing position for another national co. headquartered in FL. I was told he was just sick of the Gannett BS!

    PS: Where did the AD VP in Des Moines go??? I missed that one. (Kevin Hall I think?)

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  8. I see on TV this Gannett branding program is still running. So is it too early to ask how much revenue it is bringing in? How many readers are calling up the newspapers and buying subscriptions after seeing these ads? How many advertisers are streaming to the newspapers to buy ads in the papers?
    3/30/2011 8:53 AM


    ZERO POINT ZERO

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

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

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  11. Phoenix's VP of Advertising is still open.

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  12. Phoenix's VP of Advertising is still open.
    3/30/2011 10:35 AM

    The former VP of Advertising Peter, was one of the few decent people to ever fill that role, but Zidich and Crotchfelt ousted him

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  13. The AD in Brevard was literally offered the opportunity of a lifetime. He has no resentment toward Gannett so you haters will have to move on. Chris is a class guy all the way. He has forgotten more about advertising then you haters will ever learn

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  14. i heard the rumors that we're getting layoffs or furlough?

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  15. @8:53 AM, where have you seen TV ads running? Odds are it's on GCI-owned stations, in slots that couldn't be given away. Which means that no one relevant is seeing the spots, anyway.

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  16. The branding ads are still running on CNBC. I guess they are aimed at the investment community, which I find peculiar because that is one part of our society that already knows what Gannett is and monitors us regularly.

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  17. This will just kill the Lemmings:

    The paidContent 50: The Most Successful Digital Media Companies In The U.S.
    Gannett Number 12!!!!!

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  18. If the $80K and above furlough is true it will be nice to see the "good girls club" in the NJ Group on furlough. Maybe they will see how we can eliminate some of those positions.....

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  19. 12:24 pm - I haven't seen ANY of the branding commercials. My husband says he's seen one. Apparently they are targeting news junkies (like DH). They haven't been on prime time at all, that I can tell.
    So, what was the point? Do they believe their target audience only watches news? During the day?

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  20. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes received 2010 compensation of $26.3 million, a 34% increase. http://bloom.bg/hDtkpR

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  21. A few random thoughts in response to today's comments:
    1) Branding campaign is aimed at the business community (B2B). It is not designed to sell subscriptions (or otherwise be a direct revenue driver), and it can't be judged a failure because it does not. Branding does not directly sell, as a rule, but is essential to selling. Those commenting obviously know little about marketing. The only criticism I have of the campaign is it is unbelievably overdue.
    2) I believe the top ad position in Brevard is a director, not VP.
    3) Kevin Hall went to Hearst in Connecticut, I believe, near from whence he came.
    4) I agree about Peter.

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  22. 2:18 What metrics will be used to measure the campaign's success?

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  23. Gannett was listed as #12 most successful digital company out of top 50.
    Today's paidContent article. CareerBuilder #19. NYTimes #27.

    http://paidcontent.org/list/the-most-successful-digital-companies/

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  24. 2:18 Jim has a good question. My position is that this company is about to impose new cost-cutting measures, including furloughs on its employees. Gracia has appeared in public to complain that revenues are dwingling. And Gannett is involved in some branding campaign that looks like it involves the expenditure of considerable cash. So what are we getting out of this campaign? This is a public company, and we stockholders want to know if corporate is just wasting money as it admits its economic troubles.

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  25. 2:41 I understand your points. Having said that, look at today's paidContent listing of Gannett as #12 of top 50 successful digital companies. It's reporting $1Billion in digital revenues with Pointroll accounting for $618 Million. Gannett is no longer a "newspaper" company alone. Branding might help get that message across.
    The decline in revenues comes from only the publishing sector which is weak for all media companies. Moving into digital is a no-brainer.

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  26. 8:53 said "How many people are calling up the newspapers and buying subscriptions?" re: Brand Campaign

    Are you seriously not paying attention in class? It has NOTHING to do with that. It's about moving to digital/to iPAD/to apps/to mobile.
    Wake up and watch how people consume the news!

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  27. A talented movie editor, Sue Kelly, just left the Life section. She was only in the job about two years, but it was going strong and she was beloved by her staff. Hillkirk's plan is NOT to replace her. So who does the yeoman's work she previously carried out? Who is running this critical part of the paper's entertainment coverage.

    Nobody. All to save a couple of bucks.

    Hunke and his "leadership" team are sucking the lifeblood out of USA Today like vampires.

    But why? What is their end-game?

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  28. Citi downgrades Gannett:
    http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/market_news/article.jsp?content=D9M9NL2O0

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  29. 3:40 That's why the ad shows a man picking up a newspaper from his doorstep, and a woman reading USA Today Weekend? I'll broaden my question about how many subscriptions this brought in, to how many digital subscriptions if you want.

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  30. APP finds a way to make money lost to furloughs:
    http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110327004

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  31. The branding campaign isn't meant to sell subscriptions. It's meant to sell the company. And by that. I mean SELL the company.

    For all of those who question by what metrics will it be successful. If WE'RE sold. That's how you know it was worth the money.

    My thoughts are that they've been trying for a while with no luck, and this is your usual pathetic Gannett attempt at something.

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  32. 2:41 I understand your points. Having said that, look at today's paidContent listing of Gannett as #12 of top 50 successful digital companies. It's reporting $1Billion in digital revenues with Pointroll accounting for $618 Million. Gannett is no longer a "newspaper" company alone. Branding might help get that message across.
    The decline in revenues comes from only the publishing sector which is weak for all media companies. Moving into digital is a no-brainer.
    3/30/2011 2:59 PM

    Here's the problem and the tricky accounting.... Careerbuiler is #19 with $560 million and #29 is Classified Ventures at $350 million. Since Gannett owns 51% of careerbulder and part of Classified Ventures they count all of careerbuilders and Classified Ventures revenue as their own. So of the 1 billion dollars that GCI is counting $560 million of it is from careerbuilder and $350 million from Classified Ventures. There is alot of smoke and mirrors going on at the Crystal Palace and the accounting practices are perfectly legal, but definitely stretching the reality of the business.

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  33. These rankings of companies are always interesting, I can tell you for a fact that PointRolls revenue is nowhere near $600 million dollars.

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  34. 6:13 PM, Correct and remember most of the digital "revenue" is actually pass over from print advertising. Not actually digital sales.

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  35. 6:13 PM, Correct and remember most of the "revenue" is actually pass over from print advertising. Not actually digital sales.
    3/30/2011 6:29 PM

    Yes, exactly... a print buy always includes a online or "digital" buy of some sort and in many cases that one buy (i.e $10,000 media buy = $8,000 in print and $2,000 online) can be accounted for as $10,000 in print, $10,000 in digital or split in any number of various ways, in some cases I know of even double and triple accounting of revenue going on when I worked at the Arizona Republic.

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  36. 11:02AM--While true the AD may have been classy guy, he was not a very effective manager.

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  37. Here is how paidContent states the digital revenue:

    Gannett reported $1 billion in digital revenue in 2010, up 10.2 percent from the year before. The company’s digital unit, which includes operations like Pointroll, contributed $618 million of the total, while online ad sales at its newspapers contributed the remainder.

    So all of Gannett Digital is $618 with Pointroll being a large chunk. The remaining $382 from the digital portion of newspapers? Career Builder was a separate listing on the chart. Regardless, that's a lot of dough.

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  38. Here is how paidContent states the digital revenue:

    Gannett reported $1 billion in digital revenue in 2010, up 10.2 percent from the year before. The company’s digital unit, which includes operations like Pointroll, contributed $618 million of the total, while online ad sales at its newspapers contributed the remainder.

    So all of Gannett Digital is $618 with Pointroll being a large chunk. The remaining $382 from the digital portion of newspapers? Career Builder was a separate listing on the chart. Regardless, that's a lot of dough.
    3/30/2011 6:55 PM


    You are missing the point entirely...not sure if you worked at Gannett or not, but I did and know the break down of the revenue and it is a well documented fact about careerbuilder and classified ventures. The fact that they are listed seperately on the ranking is a moot point but also illustrates that since GCI is counting their revenue as their own (which they can do legally because of their ownership relationship) GCI's digital revenue is very small and has double accounting practices going on to boost the actual number (again all legal). So you can understand completely Careerbuilder, Classified Ventures & Pointroll contribute to most of the $1 billion even though Gannett is not actually receiving all of Careerbuilder and Classified Ventures revenue but is counting it as if they did. Hope this help clarify things.

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  39. 7:11 PM you are correct Gannett's actual digital revenue (meaning what they sell and what actually contributes to the bottom line is more in the $350 million to $500 million range, which is less than 10% of their actual revenue, that is why they are constantly in a cost cutting mode. If they actually had a real $1 billion in digital dollars they would be in fantastic shape because the profit margin is so high in the digital world.

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  40. All: PointRoll/Shoplocal revenues were $110 million last year.

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  41. Jim said...
    All: PointRoll/Shoplocal revenues were $110 million last year.
    3/30/2011 7:33 PM

    Thanks Jim, and that totally validates my point Pointroll/Shop Local $110 mil + Careerbuilder $560 mil + Classified Ventures $350 mil = $1.02 billion (right in line with the rankings). So without their double accounting and such Gannett's actual digital is about the $400 to $500 mil that I said earlier. It's amazing that nobody calls Gannett on this and their artificial numbers. Gannett using some very tricky (but legal) accounting practices mostly because their real financial picture is a house of cards.

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  42. 7:50 where is the digital display ad revenue for TV and newspaper sites?
    what about moms like me?

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  43. 8:32, I would love to know what the newspaper web site ads are bringing in, but Gannett doesn't report it separately. Rather all revenue from display ads in newspapers and on their web sites is lumped together as "publishing." We know publishing revenue has been declining and still hasn't returned to severely depressed levels of 2009, but we don't know whether online is helping to offset the print decline, declining as well or what percentage it is vs. print.

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  44. 7:50 where is the digital display ad revenue for TV and newspaper sites?
    what about moms like me?
    3/30/2011 8:32 PM

    That is why all of this is all smoke and mirrors with Gannett, it depends on how they want to account for the money depending on needs and budgets at the time. But the digital revenue outside of the 3 main areas is not even $100 million across all of Gannett including broadcast and print.

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  45. Youn know what this blog needs a search that will search the comments stream. I only want to read about one certain area and I can never find much for details.

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  46. Read it in the New York Times Feb. 7:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/fashion/07campus.html?pagewanted=all

    And then read it again in USA Today March 30:
    http://yourlife.usatoday.com/sex-relationships/dating/story/2011/03/More-hookups-on-campuses-but-more-virgins-too/45556388/1

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  47. Have to say that the discussions about revenue is some of the best stuff I've read on the blog in some time. Thanks. Remarks on the much hyped branding campaign great, too.

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  48. 3:47, News is losing two editors. They wont be replaced, either. Maybe some senior editors will be strategically transformed. Into actually producing something besides hot air.

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  49. The discussion about revenue stressed that what corporate is doing is legal. But is it ethical? We hold people up to these standards in stories all of the time, and regularly hold public officials to account for deceiving the public or dissembling. Shouldn't we hold those same standards to our own company?

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

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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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