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Friday, February 22, 2013
40 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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Don Bailey as s Shreveport advertiser I would love to know how you plan to help us. From what I have been reading here you have been in our community for over a year. if this is so, why have I not seen you at my business or around town. I did hear that the majority of your employees are not happy with you. The majority? Why is this so. I can share a little secret with you. Some of us advertisers do not know you and that makes us pull away from you. We will not du business with The Times until we know who is in charge and what you stand for towards the local community. I do not feel we should have to reach out to you because in reality you are the one who wants our advertising dollars. I hate to bring up the past but Pete Zanmiller was a well know all around guy with Shreveport and if you do not do that you will not survive in this community. Welcome to Shreveport and we wish you well!
ReplyDeleteCan kiss butt Hall come over instead?
DeleteMr. Advertiser Don does not care about you because he hates people. Spend your dollars with someone else.
DeleteMany advertisers in Shreveport have switched to the new digital billboards around town and are getting very positive results.
DeleteKevin Hall is a nice guy - Don Bailey only cares about Don Bailey - Putting signs around the building to be "Part of the community" does not make you "Part of the community" - Advertisers know that. Raising Adv rates instead of listening to what the customer needs only turns them away.
DeleteThe grapes are very sour today, so I'm guessing the wine will be sour as well. It should would be nice if the complainers channeled their energy toward doing their job 50% better rather than just complaining about ridiculous innuendo. I'm thinking these sour grapes are getting very, very old.
Delete5:11 Don Bailey get off Jim's blog. Your comment above is the reason your employees are having a hard time with you.
DeleteSomeone asked yesterday what Central Newspapers Inc. would be worth today. Gannett paid $2.6 billion for Central, which owned the Arizona Republic, the Indianapolis Star and some other properties, back in 2000.
ReplyDeleteThe rule of thumb is that newspapers today are worth 10 percent of what they were back then. So Central would come in at about $260 million, though it could get a bit more, say $300 million, because of the attractive Phoenix market and TV station cross-ownership there.
Similarly, the Boston Globe is expected to go for about $100 million if pension liabilities can be taken out of the picture. The New York Times paid $1.1 billion for the Globe in 1993. The pension liabilities are likely to wipe out that $100 million.
Also, the San Diego Union-Tribune went for what news reports said was "above" $110 million back in 2011.
So how many were laid off yesterday?
ReplyDeleteSounds like there were more stealthy reductions.
According to the corporate website, the Gannett Board meets next week. I wonder if they'll increase dividend payments from the current level given that the recent Q4 report as quite bullish?
ReplyDeleteDividend is already near 4 percent and this company still has heavy debt. The most I could see them doing is extending a share buy back program.
DeleteHow about giving employees a raise instead? Maybe they will also discuss the failure of GPS. They would rehire single copy drivers if they cared about getting Papers out on time.
DeleteI'm not sure the debt is very heavy these days. I suspect there is headroom for another few pennies and the BoD will want to be progressive. I would not be surprised if they take the divi upwards. Going forwards, Gannett will still be bringing in a lot of free cash flow.
ReplyDeleteThe bod is meeting next week. Last year they hiked the dividend from 4c to 22c I think. They were quite upbeat about prospects of digital growth and all access content subscription. Revenues broke into growth too and were it not for the restructuring charge, profits would have been spectacularly good. Most of the major restructuring s seem to be done so there won't be that drag in future.
DeleteDigital growth quickly ends with each advertising customer when they find out it dies no t work. All we salespeople keep doing is finding more and more new suckers.
DeleteIf not for TV broadcast side being so very profitable would there be any dividend at all?
DeleteRemember print side revenue continues to slide
with no upward trend in sight.
5:24 is right. Digital ads do not work! Customers I convinced to go that route soon got no return and I lost the credibility I built over the years.
DeleteShreveport and Don Bailey need to be cleaned up. Nothing works. No one has a clue. And why does it continue?
ReplyDeleteThree days of meetings in Shreveport and the first ground-breaking reader engagement effort afterwards? A pet photo contest.
DeleteShreveport knows exactly what it wants and does not want. We do not want Don Bailey because he does not want us. Shreveport is an ego boost for him from his former bankrupt newspaper property. Shreveport is too small for big egos.
DeleteHow can you say Shreveport is an ego boost for Don Bailey? It doesn't sound like he's doing very well so how can that boost his ego?
DeleteI think 3:52 might be referring to his title of president. The title is an ego boost for him. I agreee with 3:52. When you do see him running out the side door of the building he does have an arogance to himself.
DeleteGannet needs to refocus on maintaining what it has left in it's Print customers and advertisers. They need to in the next three months offer print as a stand alone subscription. They also need to boost single copy sales that means getting them out early and sending out more papers than the stores can sell.
ReplyDeleteAll print would have to do, even without changing content, is to admit a mistake and drop prices. In our case here, to 75 cents daily and back to 1.75 Sundays.
ReplyDeleteI realize Gannett's pockets wouldn't get so fat but they would still be making money And just imagine what another page or two of locally produced content would add.
Too simple for the big heads in Virginia though I guess.
And that would accomplish what, exactly? Ain't gonna prolong the life expectancy of your dwindling customer base.
DeleteTime to face reality, pal.
After they hired a outside private distributor in my area they raised the price of a Sunday Paper by almost 75 percent. Nice way to offset lost sells.
ReplyDeleteThere's no future in print and no revenue in digital. Oh what to do except GET OUT.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows you are right.
DeleteThe layoffs will happen, it is just a matter of time for Gannett employees.
Most choose to keep believing they will be exempt from the layoff lists.They are too important to the cause to be let go.
You may be next or your friend and co-worker may be next.What a way to live.Always on the edge.
11:20 is on the edge of OCD. Same posts, almost every day.
DeleteWell, there's the kettle and the pot with 1:24: same juvenile dismissals and fantastic "in the know" assumptions regarding anonymous posts... almost every day. Love it!
Delete1:57, either you are new here or you are lacking sense. Everyone knows 11:20 comes back 3-4 times a week with the same schtick and the same bad syntax.
DeleteLayoffs and furloughs announced at the Idaho Statesman this week. Jim's old stomping grounds.
ReplyDeleteWhen do the furloughs have to be taken and by whom?
ReplyDeleteIt's not a Gannett paper
DeleteThree things.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason you should be scared of losing your job is if you don't have any transferable skills.
All publicly traded companies have layoffs and cut costs. It's a business. I assume most people who are hung up on layoffs, and how they're letting all of this experience walk out the door have never worked at another company (or on the business side of things). If you really don't have any talent and are making a great salary, then obviously you're great at sales and building a network. If you had the opportunity to make that much, would you really turn it down? Bottom line - this is a business.
And end users of your product (stories) don't care about how great your journalism is. You are paid to write stories that interest people enough that they buy them (in print or on the web). It's really that simple.
I think the problem comes down to fear of the unknown. People are hearing that they won't be able to make what they are making in their current positions and that is simply not true. It may take some homework, but comparable jobs are out there that match your skill level and salary.
ReplyDeleteSome of the layoffs at GPS were just a numbers game to show a reduction in staff the company didn't really cut cost. And excuse me but layoffs can be expected when a company goes bankrupt or just before they do. Gannett has been letting good workers go the for the last 4 years while continuing to make large profits.
ReplyDeleteHow can they make big profits and be going out of business. You may be angry but you don't make much sense
DeleteIt makes perfect sense to me. The post is saying GPS layoffs were premature and not necessary. It says they still are making good profits and doesn't say anything about the company going out of business. It says layoffs can should be expected when a company is declaring bankruptcy and the cuts in staff shouldn't have been made. Nothing very confusing about that to any one with a third grade education.
DeleteDateline...Louisville GPS....
ReplyDeleteThe pressroom has had the starter for over an hour& a quarter. Neither press has sold a paper yet.
And our head guy got a promotion.