Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Earnings | Dueling 'memos' over broadcast's role

Gannett's stock closed this afternoon at $18.63 a share, up 4.4% on a day when stocks overall were higher, and a day after Corporate reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. Once more, the broadcasting division was a key driver during the quarter, as Olympics and political spending sent advertising revenue soaring 36%.

This inspired a war-of-memos on Gannett Blog from one division to another, starting last night with Anonymous@9:39, who wrote:

TO: USA Today, U.S Community Publishing
FROM: Broadcast
You're welcome.


Firing back, Anonymous@1:36 p.m. today then replied:

TO: Broadcast

FROM: 4 year coincidence of Olympics & elections


You're welcome.


How much of broadcastings record ad sales was hard work vs. a once-every-four-years windfall? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

6 comments:

  1. 1. How many NBC affiliates does GCI have? OLY were on NBC.

    2. NYT Co. has more TV than GCI, not doing that much better. Tough call.

    3. Recall: economy stinks. In a crappy economy, OLY helps. Ditto, the orgy of political advertising that BOTH sides are making. (And, frankly, 99% useless, IMHO. Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear -- shit-kicker newspaper wisdom.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey 8:05 . . . the Times sold their TV stations SIX YEARS AGO. Sheesh!

    Does hitting the daily double of Olympic and presidential election advertising help? You bet it does.

    The problem is, you can't base your company's success on events that happen every two or four years. You'd have better luck dumping Jane Pauley for Deborah Norville. Or ditching Ann Curry for Savannah Guthrie. Or Big Al for . . .

    ReplyDelete
  3. So, 12:06, you don't think the stock market anticipates those events and factors them into their forecasts?

    Sure. And politicians always tell the truth. Gimme a break, even Gannettoids aren't that stupid.

    The economy stinks. Just ask the underemployed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gannett has more NBC stations than it does CBS or ABC. Don't forget to add the Superbowl to the great windfall in 2012.

    Stations in Ohio, Florida, NC, Virginia, and Missouri all add up to a great year for broadcasting. But for someone to think broadcasting is keeping the company afloat is doing fuzzy math. Proftis for publishing is in the billions and broadcasting is in the millions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gannett has Tv stations in several key swing states, such as Colorado.

    ReplyDelete

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