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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
41 comments:
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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Jim,
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question about how Gannett management coaches analysts in arriving at quarterly earnings estimates without sharing same with regular investors, all I know is that many companies issue press statements or run transcripts of the sessions on their websites. I can't tell you this though: I go to these investment dog-and-pony shows around the country at fancy hotels that regular people can't afford admission to, and although we get a lot of scripted speeches and PowerPoint slideshows, we also get private time afterward with the CEO and CFO. That's where I can connect loose dots and fill in blanks. So, no, Reg FD has its loopholes.
10:02: Just curious if you know why Wallstreet is so tolerant of Gannett. Nothing they have done to date makes sense or shows promise of vast improvement.
ReplyDeleteDubow gets a $37.1 million retirement/disability payout and yet for some reason Florida Today can't repair a leaking roof. Every time it rains, out come the buckets to catch the drips. It's shameful that a company gives away millions to Dubow and yet it can't fix the roof for those who work for a living.
ReplyDeleteFrom yesterday's third-quarter earnings report:
ReplyDelete"A decline in advertising demand at USA Today was offset partially by an increase in national advertising at Newsquest. . . . A substantial increase in technology advertising spending, the largest category in the quarter, was more than offset by declines in the entertainment, automotive and financial categories."
Also noted: Today's USAT has 32 pages. The New York Times' main news section alone is 22 pages.
10:27 -- Wall Street likes Gannett's TV stations and its 51% stake in CareerBuilder.
ReplyDeleteThe Street also knows that Gannett will cut ruthlessly to meet its profit goals.
So that's at least a partial explanation of its tolerance.
It's only a matter of time before the Newspapers Gannett owns are consolidated or sold off to private entities.Digital is where it's at and they know this.How much longer will a company who loses circulation and advertising in print, be able to hang on in this economy, which shows no signs of improving anytime soon.
ReplyDelete10:34 that's because the extra money set aside for building maintenance went to the EE's bonus this year.
ReplyDeleteKids the Dow is up 1% GCI up 6%! I like it!
ReplyDelete10:27, Wall Street looks at companies solely as vehicles to make money. We look at operating earnings and cash flow and, of course, growth. GCI was a dependable producer of all three until about 2006. Investors are, in fact, intolerant of the reversal of its historic trends and now consider GCI to be a "show me" stock. Personally, the company looks like a breakup waiting to happen. It should have happened seven years ago. Management at Knight Ridder and Times Mirror were much savvier in carrying out their duty of maximizing shareholder value.
ReplyDelete3:19 Kight Riidder and TM were savvier? Haaaaaaaaaa good one! Oh I needed that. Please, let's we continue to make money and they are both part of history. I sure hope you don't work for my company.
ReplyDeleteHow many solutions or ideas to cure Gannett's model have been posted on this blog in the last 3 years? Maybe a dozen? Just countless of complaints and grievances.
ReplyDelete4:40 pm Many more than you counted. A change in upper management, a change in the way upper management is rewarded, and a change in upper management’s attitude definitely is the best place to start to move Gannett forward and has been a continuing theme of this blog.
ReplyDeleteHey 4:04 let's hear your solution or are you just a complainer toooooo!
ReplyDeleteExcellent point, 4:04. No one here has much to offer other than complaints.
ReplyDeleteRemember, we are talking about people who welcomed the dumbing-down of the product because they thought their jobs would be easier. Then their jobs disappeared, so now they claim they were against the strategy.
4:38 and 4:39 are great examples of those people. They run in to post two-cent insults, but they have never been part of any solution.
4:40, those are really one suggestion. Unless you can name more than 11 more from the last three years here, you lose.
ReplyDelete4:04 pm You must be a member of the entrenched upper management that’s led the company on its downward trend--stock price, ad revenue.....to name a few.
ReplyDelete4:41, these complainers who "have never been part of any solution," begs the question then: since when in the past decade has Gannett corporate solicited, let alone listened to, suggestions for solutions other than their own?
ReplyDelete5:01, still waiting for those 12 solutions that have appeared here. Don't keep us waiting.
ReplyDeleteI had suggestions and shared them as well as opinions as what I thought wouldn't work. Labeled troublemaker and eventually fired. One basic idea is all it would have taken. Don't alienate your core readership by trying to reinvent the wheel and cutting staples of the paper and putting stupid things in trying to catch the elusive young reader. I know Ioved reading the paper read four a day only one gannett they all drove me to the Internet. Gannett being first by a year.
ReplyDeleteThe PRINT of GANNETT as we know it is dwindling--FAST!!
ReplyDeleteSo are it's employees.
Why make repairs on a leaky roof when you can't repair the problems in the building.
Florida Today was an astounding newspaper, now it is a for sure fish rapper that is, it has gotten so small that a minnow would compensate.
I'm glad that I still have my job but this place is ridiculous.
Publisher and management have got their fingers up their-- and my money in their pocket.
I hope there spine crawls at the end of the day.
Shameful company to work for, I hope to leave soon, this waliking on eggshells sucks!
What's behind the circulation departments in Cincinnati moving from being Enquirer/Gannett employees to being employees of a new company? Does this have anything to do with the Enquirer printing moving to the Columbus Dispatch in a year?
ReplyDeleteYes ,The believers that they still have life long employment with Gannett are here !
ReplyDeleteWow ! after all these years you still believe there are solutions.Yes,the Gannett solution is to lose as many employees as possible.
Employees just make the expense side of the ledger too top heavy,therefore......make the expense side less and the revenue side of the ledger then looks so much better.Budgets can be reduced and actually achieved as much less revenue is needed to show net gains.
So get over the "solution searching" ,you are the solution.Just not the way you envisioned.
Anyone hear of any updates on dates for the finance consolidations? I know that not many finance people read this blog, but trust me (especially advertising folks), the more "bean counters" that leave your building and are consolidated - the less access you will have to the data and information you are looking for everyday.
ReplyDeleteAnd - how are the sites that have consolidated doing? Paper measuring, adjustments, etc... these things all are done to ensure our advertisers are billed properly (and happy).
We saw one memo on this blog about the newest consolidations and one post about layoffs at one site. We need to see more about the finance departments. The finance department gets ignored daily, but imagine life without them.
3:19, you illustrate why there needs to be a change in this country from shareholder to stakeholder. Putting the interests of investors ahead of employees, communities, customers and others may be legally right, but it's morally wrong and it's destroying America.
ReplyDeleteCorporations are a creation of the state. They do not exist in nature. As creations of our society, they can be shaped and regulated by our society to serve interests beyond the maximization of profit.
It's only a question of our society summoning the wisdom, will and leadership to accomplish these ends.
Not a bunch of whiners, but expressions of agony from lives turned upside down because there is no solution. And it is hard to change careers as the middle class crumbles. Newspaper journalism is going away fast and there is no economically viable or scalable model for online/digital. No longer a profession except for a few editorial/biz survivors. More "rightsizing" to meet demands for profit.
ReplyDeleteThat's not a solution, 7:36. That's just more whining.
ReplyDeleteIf we count 6:07's vague idea as a solution, then we still need another 10-11 ideas. Don't be shy. All of you are so certain you know what's best.
Solution for bottom line....
ReplyDeleteLess employees....
If you believe there is another Gannett solution,get over it! You will be
just another Gannett expense removed.
Move on already!!!!
In other words, 10:26 (who posts here incoherently every day) has no solutions to offer.
ReplyDeleteThe remaining tally is unchanged.
I have a solution. Go to your local papers. Ask them what would work best in their community. Give these papers the tools they need to make them successful without corporate's interference. I know of one paper that is about to implode because Corporate and its minions got involved. It's such a shame because it was a great place to work and the community enjoyed its paper. The people who work there are well known and respected in the community. That's all about to change.
ReplyDeleteRobin Pence has been let go.
ReplyDeleteGod, this is all so depressing.
ReplyDeleteIs Robin Pence really gone? If so, how can anyone here not see the writing on the wall.
ReplyDeleteAll of us, no matter how high up, no matter that we were the voices of reason about what was happening, are disappearing. I was one.
How can you all be so naive? The voices on here who shout back are corporate shills. I was one! We all die. It is one step worse than working for the mafia!
.Digital is where it's at and they know this.How much longer will a company who loses circulation and advertising in print, be able to hang on in this economy.
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Good job by the Journal News staff in Westchester County, NY. Tonight they beat the local Patch/Daily startups as well as the local 24 hour cable News station in covering the death of a family of four in a likely murder/suicide.
ReplyDeleteCirculation in Cincinnati is in the new operating called GPS, which entails, Production,Circulation, AD building, page design among others. GPS is its own group serrate from gannett. This is a way to consolidate all these department into a much more efficient operation and will save millions. You can say good riddance to all the unions when the GPS is up and running at full speed
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete8:00pm. From what I've heard, things at my former site are going just fine. What was being moved to Fishers IN has been moved and life goes on.
ReplyDeleteIf pence is gone, its a great message from gracia. She is serious about holding people accountable. Pence oversaw a tepid branding campaign and did a poor job preparing the boy prince in his not so royal public appearances. Pence also failed to connect with employees outside her insulated circle.
ReplyDeleteThen hunke and rudd davis must be on the short list, no?
ReplyDeleteWe are not the people who are paid $9 million a year (with $37 million golden parachutes) to come up with solutions for turning this company around.
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