Friday, May 13, 2011

Earnings | The sun'll come out, next quarter . . .

Dubow
Gannett's stock closed today at $14.61 a share, down 15 cents. Shares have now fallen 8% 11% from a year ago vs. a 16% gain in the S&P 500 index, according to Google Finance data. Other newspaper publisher stocks have fared even worse.

Wall Street media analysts are expected to quiz CEO Craig Dubow about GCI's prospects on Monday, when he makes a presentation to the Noble Financial Seventh Annual Equity Conference -- a meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that Corporate announced today.

Following are select Dubow remarks about the results of what he's called GCI's "transformation" during the nearly six years he's been the company's chief executive officer:


"We continued to make progress on our goals to provide engaging, relevant content any way the consumer wants while also expanding our reach and offering better solutions for our advertisers." 

-- July 16, 2010, in the second-quarter earnings statement.



"We continue to see positive results from several strategic initiatives." 

-- Oct. 15, 2010, third-quarter statement.



"We further accelerated our transformation to position Gannett to continue to adapt and operate successfully as our industry evolves." 

-- Jan. 31, 2011, fourth-quarter statement.



"We accelerated the pace of our strategic transformation efforts to further strengthen and position our company for growth." 

-- April 18, 2011, first-quarter statement.


Earnings 'n' revenue got you down? Little Orphan Annie had a musical solution for that:

 

17 comments:

  1. Thanks for keeping them honest, Jim. The Wall Street folks know where to go to find out the truth. By now they've all heard about the obscene raises the corporate staff got while the rest of us have sacraficed for this company. Who can possibly respect these people? Serenity now!!!!

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  2. Can't wait for the latest gobblygook from this guy. Analysts will likely give him and Gracia another pass. Hope someone pins them down on the millions being poured into branding/campaigns, new hires and Usat disasters such as the verticals. Were teetering on disaster. No oversight. No accountability. Bad hires.

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  3. Craig could just play a tape of his past wall street performances. More hollow promises ahead. Same old same old. Maybe he can shave the beard and put on a decent suit. God knows he can at afford to look like a CEO even if he isn't qualified to be one.

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  4. Looked at the list of companies making addresses, and not many that I recognize there.

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  5. C Dub gonna make us play yahs, baby.

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  6. How the hell can this guy spew this bullshit with a straight face while continuing to rape and pillage staff at GCI sites?

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  7. A straight face? No, he's smiling, and looking quite smug and self-satisfied. Considering the havoc he has wreaked below him to enrich himself, you'd think he'd at least try to pretend to be a little more circumspect.

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  8. Jim, this post made me laugh out loud. Classic!

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  9. Dubow is a poor excuse for a CEO of anything. And the Board of Directors is a herd of horses' asses for accepting what he says.

    Why the heck is Dubow still in office?

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  10. The mighty GCI is in far better than shape than Lee or Tribune and I think Craig deserves credit for keeping us grounding on the reef. I only wish he would split Broadcast off from newspaper, so the profit-generating side of our business can stop propping up publishing.

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  11. To 1:57pm - USCP is STILL profitable even with declining revenues. Do you broadcast types know anything about this company? The print side of this business continues to pay the bills boys and girls so why not try to be a little less smug and accurate before suggesting Gannett toss the baby out with the bath water. Gannett is making less money as its margins drop along with revenues but make no mistake about it, newspapers reign as the cash cow, well ahead of digital or broadcast. Educate yourself by reading the annual report or Gannett's SEC filings and then maybe you won't make such foolish comments.

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  12. 5:00pm here again...and that supposedly great broadcast division of yours delivered the likes of Craig Dubow, enough said!

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  13. 5:00pm again, should have said,"...try being a little less smug and "MORE" accurate...", but the smart ones among us probably didn't need that correction (broadcast excluded), lol!

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  14. 5 pm is correct about the USCP's profitability -- and Newsquest's. Just ask COO Gracia Martore.

    During an Oct. 15 conference call with Wall Street stock analysts, she replied to questions about Gannett's U.K. subsidiary.

    "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."

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  16. Don't know why any of these institutional investors would put money in GCI stock. Hardly any dividend to speak of, thanks to the 7% payout. That's not the dividend rate, mind you. Too many other companies that pay a better dividend rate plus have a more solid financial footing.

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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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