Nov. 25-Dec. 1 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Nov. 25-Dec. 1 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Pop Quiz | Gannett Foundation exec gifts 2012!

Illustrations hint at charities favored by top execs. See quiz, below.

Right in time for Thanksgiving, I've just obtained a copy of the Gannett Foundation's 2012 IRS tax return, the annual report that reveals the highs and lows of the company's philanthropic arm.

For Gannett Blog virgins, the foundation has a history of curious (ahem) contributions made to non-profit groups at the behest of current and retired executives. Their employee benefits include the right to earmark up to $15,000 annually for any of their favorite charities. But they're not required to pony up any of their own money to exercise that benefit. That's different than the employee GannettMatch program for all the little people, who must first make a contribution before the foundation will match it to a maximum $10,000 per year.

All the rest of the foundation's grants go to non-profits in communities where the nation's top newspaper publisher does business. As with many companies, that makes the foundation an extension of Gannett's public relations operation. (Indeed, the foundation's executive director is Debra Goetz, the company's vice president of marketing, according to the IRS return.)

Here's the fine print
The IRS tax returns are public documents under federal open-records laws. They're the most detailed reports charitable foundations must make public every year. For the Gannett Foundation, the documents only disclose names of executives under their special program. The returns don't identify individual employees using GannettMatch. (Read and download a free 116-page copy of the 2012 return.)

Payne

The exec-driven contributions open a rare window on their philanthropic priorities: for example, how closely they favor personal interests such as their alma maters (hi, retired CEO Doug McCorkindale!) or their dedication to actual journalism (Chief Digital Officer David Payne!).

This spreadsheet lists 43 contributions earmarked last year by 15 top executives totaling $215,000. (Chief Financial Officer Victoria Harker directed just $5,000; she came to Gannett only midway through the year.) Click on the "2011" tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet to see a list of the previous year's gifts.

Now for that pop quiz
Which executives chose which non-profits?

1. Center for Reproductive Rights: $1,000. (I sure didn't see this one coming: "Our groundbreaking cases before national courts, United Nations committees, and regional human rights bodies have expanded access to reproductive health care, including birth control, safe abortion, prenatal and obstetric care, and unbiased information.")
2. University of Texas Foundation for support of the College of Communications' Innovation Fund: $15,000. (Obvious hint: The university's other programs include the Craig A. & Denise W. Dubow Endowed Presidential Scholarship.)
3. Indiana University Clown Science Program: $7,500. ("Licensed clown science practitioners provide humor therapy in a variety of settings.")
4. Glimmerglass Opera: $1,500. (Show tunes! "The company’s mission is to produce new, little-known and familiar operas and works of music theater in innovative productions.")
5. Wellesley College: $10,000. (Longtime readers will say: "Duh!" For everyone else: "Wellesley is known for the thousands of accomplished, thoughtful women it has sent out into the world for over 100 years -- women who are committed to making a difference.")

(Answers are in the comments section, below.)

Earlier: Gannett Foundation gives $1,200 to Focus on the Family, founded by the conservative evangelical minister James Dobson.

This is now, that was then

The Gannett Foundation is actually the organization's second incarnation. The original was renamed Freedom Forum two decades ago when the late Gannett CEO Al Neuharth, facing the prospect of retirement spent riding an adult-sized tricycle in Cocoa Beach, Fla., got other ideas. (Way, way too complicated to explain here. But you can get a flavor of what's happened since then.)

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.

I'm about to temporarily cut back on blogging

The Thanksgiving turkey and I have something in common this week: We're both going under the knife.

My outcome, I hope, will be considerably better. Starting tomorrow, I'll be convalescing from shoulder surgery that will probably make it very difficult, if not impossible, to do what I'm doing now: type. And I don't know how long this will last.

The week of and after Thanksgiving are always very slow news periods, anyway. So for the time being, I'll only be posting the Real Time Comments open threads you see at the top of Gannett Blog's homepage.

Related: Food Network's how-to-carve-a-turkey video. Plus, Bobby Darin sings "Mack the Knife."

Pop Quiz | Takes this ethics test off today's news

Consider these two scenarios and then answer the questions below.

No. 1
A Gannett TV anchor planning to interview a police officer as an expert on door-to-door consumer scams sends the cop a rough script outlining the story's key points to make sure the officer can comment appropriately on the key points.

No. 2
A Gannett newspaper reporter planning to interview an expert on door-to-door consumer scams sends a query to the public relations service ProfNet, outlining the key points to make sure respondents can address the story's subject appropriately.

Ultimately in both cases, the experts address the story's subject directly, supplying basically the same quotes and same information.

One of these scenarios is real, and the other one is made up for the sake of comparison. Questions:

• Are these scenarios fundamentally different? How?
• Are there any ethical implications about prepping expert sources this way?
• Under what other circumstances would this violate journalism ethical standards?

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.

USAT | Study finds big post-merger airfare hikes

A USA Today analysis of the country's top 100 airports in the 48 contiguous states found that on average, those that lost at least a quarter of their domestic seats since the start of 2005 saw nearly twice the average fare increase over the past eight years.

The paper's analysis published this morning is based on inflation-adjusted fare data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and airline schedule data from OAG Aviation Worldwide.

In one example, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport saw its number of seats plummet 80% between the first quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2013, as Delta slashed flights and the airport lost service from Northwest as well as Continental, which merged with United in 2010.

Fares spiked 26% during that eight-year period, to an average ticket price of $519 — the highest of the 100 airports reviewed.

GCI predicts higher medical costs under Obamacare as more uninsured sign up for company's coverage

That's according to a new Wall Street Journal story that says Gannett and other employers expect the Affordable Care Act will increase the number of workers seeking company-provided health care to comply with the law's requirement that all Americans get medical coverage by Jan. 1.

Because Gannett funds its own plan, that would raise the company's annual medical costs, now well over $100 million a year for its 30,000 employees.

The WSJ attributes the role of uninsured workers in Gannett's higher medical cost forecast to a person familiar with the company's plans the paper didn't identify. It does not say how many employees are currently without any medical coverage.

Gannett announced a major shift in its medical plans in September, switching to one plan from two, and adding steep deductibles that must be met before plan coverage kicks in. With those deductibles, an employee with coverage for just themselves must pay the first $1,500 in doctor visits and other costs before the company starts paying 80% of the rest. Employees with family plans pay the first $3,000 out of pocket.

The company also scrapped a policy where employee premiums were set according to a sliding scale based on how much they earned. Now, the lowest-paid worker pays the same as the highest paid.

It's not all Obamacare
At the time, CEO Gracia Martore principally blamed Obamacare for the company's decision to boost employee premiums and deductibles. But she offered no details on the reform law's specific role. The WSJ story is the first I've seen to do so.

But the paper says that new, higher employee premiums aren't solely because of Obamacare -- a point I made when Gannett first announced its new plans.

"Employers have been pushing more of the cost of providing health insurance on to their workers for years," the WSJ says, "and firms that aren't booking much sales growth due to the sluggish economy are under heavy pressure to keep expenses down."

Gannett's full-year 2013 revenue is expected to dive 3% to $5.2 billion, according to a survey of Wall Street stock analysts. But those same analysts forecast a 17% surge in revenue to $6.1 billion next year because the broadcasting division will sell more ads with the winter Olympics and the midterm elections.

According to the WSJ, Gannett says more than half of its employees will see monthly premiums fall by 12% when the new plans start in January. But factor in the higher deductibles and the savings will almost certainly evaporate.

And for the other half, of course, premiums will rise on top of the higher deductibles. "For some employees, the result was a 60% jump in monthly premiums for family coverage, to $575 from about $360," the WSJ says.

Earlier: Here are two FAQs about Gannett's new medical plan.

Nov. 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 5

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

USAT | In 'knockout game,' a tale of two tales

Both USA Today and The New York Times published stories in the past 24 hours on the same subject.

Here's the gist of USAT's

Perpetrators have dubbed the violent practice as the "knockout game," where teens try to randomly knock out strangers with one punch. The attacks have raised concerns across the country. In New Haven, Conn., police are investigating six incidents in the last month as part of "the knockout trend."

And the NYT's:

Police officials in several cities where such attacks have been reported said that the "game" amounted to little more than an urban myth, and that the attacks in question might be nothing more than the sort of random assaults that have always occurred. Police cautioned that they had yet to see evidence of an organized game spreading among teenagers online, though they have been reluctant to rule out the possibility.

Nov. 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Digital Divide | Do as we say and not as we tweet

Around noon today, Gannett's smallest daily newspaper -- the 2,358-circulation Port Clinton News Herald -- issued this Tweet:

Ohio owes its residents more than $30 million in business tax overpayments. http://t.co/jdiJlxyWiO
— News Herald (@pcnewsherald) November 21, 2013

In and off itself, that wouldn't seem especially remarkable. After all, Corporate is pushing dailies of all sizes to shoot video, update Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr -- and tweet, tweet, tweet like there's no tomorrow. This is all in the service of Gannett becoming a digital powerhouse while shedding its image as a fuddy-duddy newspaper publisher.

Port Clinton has just 10 people in its newsroom and God love 'em, all but the news clerk lists a Twitter handle in the staff directory.

But here's what drew my attention to the hardly overstaffed daily: That tweet up there is the 66th posted to its Twitter page in just the past week alone.

Now I invite you to examine the date on the last tweet posted on Corporate's official Twitter feed, the very same Corporate that's leaning on the Port Clintons to do more with less every day:

USA TODAY GM @derekjmurphy (2nd from left) was honored as a #CUPCatalysts Change Agent at last night's Media Forum. pic.twitter.com/mYYqErS3CE

— Gannett (@Gannett) November 14, 2013

So, the score is Port Clinton, 66 -- and Corporate, zip. (By the way, this isn't the first time, either.)

Nov. 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Nov. 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

USAT | Ex-staffer is a Bloomberg layoff casualty

Work life after USA Today is anything but guaranteed.

Elliot Blair Smith, the high-profile reporter who left USAT in 2006 after nine years to become a Bloomberg News investigative and projects reporter, was among dozens laid off today as Bloomberg retrenches, according to blogger Jim Romenesko.

Talking Biz News says Smith’s Bloomberg work includes revealing how former President Bill Clinton combined charity, private business and political fund raising in global travels from Colombia to Kazakhstan; the hidden cause of a mine accident in Canada that tripled worldwide uranium prices; how a pro-nuclear trade group secretly persuaded federal regulators to ignore court precedent in shaping policy to thwart anti-nuclear activists; and the flawed financial models of Wall Street credit raters who risked century-old reputations for fleeting profits."

Smith is a past winner of the prestigous Gerald Loeb Award. Bloomberg is controlled by Michael Bloomberg, the multibillionaire New York City mayor who's finishing his third term in January.

Nov. 18-24 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Appleton | In documents, weak sports charities

Charities tied to high-profile Wisconsin athletes and teams raise millions of dollars annually for dozens of causes, but IRS filings also reveal some report expenses improperly, use money inefficiently or fail to file reports at all.

And despite the inherently high profile of professional athletes, many athlete charities operate on a very small scale — more than one-third had revenue of less than $50,000, according to their latest IRS filing.

Those are among the findings of an investigation published today by Gannett Wisconsin Media's investigative team. It examined 51 active or recently shuttered charities connected to Wisconsin athletes and professional teams, compiling a list based on IRS public records and an array of online resources. The team also assembled a searchable online database of related charities.

Charitable foundations have become a huge industry in recent decades, but the news media rarely play their watchdog role making sure abuses don't occur. To do so in Wisconsin is all the more challenging because of a fan culture that often favors teams like the Green Bay Packers over the public's right to know.

Got exemplary work to recommend? 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.

[Image: detail of today's front page, Newseum]

As Freedom Forum posted another $48M deficit, non-profit paid retired CEO Overby nearly $1M; new documents disclose a comical money trail

A just-opened Newsroom exhibit tied to a new comedy stretches the free press mission.

Four months ago, Freedom Forum CEO James Duff raised hope for long-needed financial reform at the troubled charitable foundation after years of overspending on construction and sky-high salaries under predecessor Charles "Peanut" Overby, the chief executive for more than two decades.

Duff

There were ample reasons to move quickly. Freedom Forum's money-losing Newseum about news history in Washington had gnawed away at the foundation's crucial income-generating endowment. That spurred deep program cuts -- and an occasionally antic search for more revenue, like the museum's just-opened exhibit promoting Paramount's sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy.

Duff was named CEO two years ago -- only the second in the non-profit's history after Overby eased into retirement (or so it seemed) at age 65. He and Al Neuharth had turned the original Gannett Foundation into a refashioned Freedom Forum when the legendary jet-setting chairman retired from the Gannett Co. media giant in 1989. The move has cost Gannett communities nationwide hundreds of millions in lost charitable support, however.

In July, after another round of job cuts, Duff told the Associated Press: "We’ve certainly worked on tightening up on expenditures. I think we’re making good progress. And certainly our numbers are very, very encouraging."

But now, newly released public documents show foundation finances grew even more precarious last year after Overby got a 55% pay raise and Neuharth's compensation hit a record high, jaw-dropping expenditures even for Freedom Forum.

For the seventh consecutive year, Freedom Forum racked up another, enormous deficit: $48 million, according to its annual Internal Revenue Service tax return. Total overspending has now reached $410 million during 2006-2012 alone, the period when the museum moved to new quarters costing nearly twice initial estimates.

By the end of last year, the endowment's value dropped to $351 million, a record low, according to an examination of hundreds of pages of tax returns. In 2000, before the museum buildup, it topped $914 million -- $1.2 billion in today's dollars.

Overby

A contributing factor comes as a surprise. Although Overby ostensibly retired in 2011, the foundation paid him $987,000 in 2012 as chairman of the namesake Overby Center for Southern Journalism & Politics at his Ole Miss University alma mater -- a position previously undisclosed in tax returns. Last year's pay was way up from $638,000 in 2011.

Overby's pay, which included $480,000 in deferred retirement benefits and a $207,000 expense account, was his third highest on record, exceeded only in 2005, when the foundation paid him $1.3 million, and just barely in 2008, when he got $991,000, according to tax returns.

By contrast, the Knight journalism foundation's highest-paid employee in 2012 was CEO Alberto Ibarguen, who got $742,000. With $2.1 billion in assets, Knight is three times bigger than Freedom Forum, even when real estate is included. The Miami-based charity donated $25 million to help open the museum's new home. Ibarguen is a former museum trustee. Knight is now represented on the board by former Gannett executive Michael Maness.

Overby's total: $9.2M
Last year, Overby was once more Freedom Forum's highest-paid employee, bringing to $9.2 million his total compensation since 2000, tax returns show. But he certainly wasn't the only Freedom Forum employee pulling down big bucks in 2012:

Neuharth was paid $602,000 as founder, the most he's ever received in a single year. It included a record $303,000 expense account. Neuharth died last spring at age 89.

Ken Paulson, former CEO of the foundation's First Amendment Center, also got $602,000 -- a record for him, too. That included a $367,000 salary plus $186,000 for his retirement account. In July, he became dean at the College of Mass Communications at Middle Tennessee State University. A former top USA Today editor, Paulson had once been a sure bet to replace Overby.

Finally, Duff earned $514,000, most of which was his $445,000 salary. To be sure, that was far less than in 2011, when he got $1.6 million, almost entirely in deferred retirement pay.

Those fat paydays were followed by another round of cost-cutting early this year. Duff slashed dozens of foundation and museum jobs, sources told me, hitting the First Amendment Center and Diversity Institute in Nashville especially hard. Freedom Forum also canceled the Crazy Horse Journalism Workshop, an annual event encouraging young Native Americans to enter the profession.

Whether Duff has made more progress stabilizing the foundation this year likely won't become clear until late 2014, when the foundation files its next tax return. I obtained a copy of the most recent one on Friday under open records law. They're the only comprehensive source of financial information non-profits are required to make public.

Neuharth

Neuharth's compensation and duties remain a mystery. Freedom Forum has repeatedly refused to detail his job responsibilities whenever I've asked. The tax return only says the late octogenarian media mogul averaged 40 hours a week in his role as founder -- an average $289 an hour.

His $303,000 expense account suggests he traveled a lot, two years after double knee replacement surgery left him riding an adult-sized tricycle near his seaside estate in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He died in April after sustaining injuries following a fall at home.

His 12-page will signed in 2009 included detailed plans for three memorial services, but no bequests to Freedom Forum or the museum. However, he did order their names chiseled on his headstone. And the Neuharth family is listed among donors of $100,000 or more to the museum.

Meet the boss: his daughter
Freedom Forum's latest deficit came during Neuharth daughter Jan Neuharth's first full year chairing the 11-member board of trustees. She replaced Overby. The foundation paid her $50,000 last year.

Jan Neuharth

There is considerable overlap between Freedom Forum's trustees and the museum's, which is a legally separate entity. Many are long-time close associates of Al Neuharth.

Duff is on both boards. So is Neuharth's Cocoa Beach attorney, Malcolm Kirschenbaum, and the former Gannett newspaper publisher Mike Coleman. One of the more high-profile trustees is PBS NewsHour co-anchor Judy Woodruff.

Over the years, Freedom Forum and the museum have become a popular way station to retirement for many other top Gannett executives, including Peter Prichard, chairman of the museum board and another editor of the paper Neuharth founded, USA Today. As a Freedom Forum trustee, Prichard was paid $44,000 last year.

That the foundation and museum have been run by former newspaper editors, rather than trained professionals with experience in the field, suggests a major reason why both entities have become such financial boondoggles.

Duff, 60, is an attorney who came to his job without any discernible experience in museum or foundation work. He was chief administrator of the sprawling U.S. court system, with 35,000 employees and a $7 billion budget. Before that, he was managing partner of the Washington office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.

The office, which did legal work for the foundation, was founded by Howard Baker Jr., former majority leader of the U.S. Senate for Tennessee. Freedom Forum's tax return says he's a trustee and secretary, but the foundation's website says only that he's trustee emeritus. Overby, Paulson and the foundation also have deep Tennessee ties.

Overby lives in upscale Franklin, Tenn., which draws country music stars from nearby Nashville. In addition to his Freedom Forum pay last year, he also earned $200,000 as a director at for-profit prison operator Corrections Corp. of America in Nashville. He's been on the board 12 years, piling up 89,000 CCA shares, mostly options, with a gross value of $3.2 million, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Screenshot from retirement video.

(In court, CCA is at odds with Freedom Forum's free press and free speech mission. It has unsuccessfully opposed Tennessee open-records laws, arguing it shouldn't be required to disclose public documents about lawsuits against the company. CCA is a major government contractor. Overby has contributed $25,000 to its political action committee since 2009, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.)

From Franklin, it's a four-hour drive to the Ole Miss campus' Overby journalism center. The center got its name after Freedom Forum donated $5 million to the school, one of a slew of eyebrow-raising grants. It's unclear whether it will continue paying him a six-figure salary as the center's chairman. On his retirement as foundation CEO, the university hosted a testimonial dinner that included a breathtakingly hagiographic video called Charles Overby: A Journey of Courage. It describes the $450 million museum as his "bold idea."

$27 million for museum
Whatever Duff accomplishes in belt-tightening, he won't immediately escape Freedom Forum's biggest ongoing obligation: the museum, which had 374 employees and a $68 million budget last year. The foundation gave the museum $27 million vs. $30 million in 2011. Freedom Forum's total 2012 spending last year was $56 million vs. $55 million. It generated only $8 million in revenue, producing the enormous deficit. The largest operating expenditures were employee pensions, salaries and wages.

The museum has fought for a Washington audience where many must-see attractions are free. It charges $22 for adults, although tickets are sometimes discounted. Admission revenue has barely budged since it opened in 2008. Last year's $7 million was virtually unchanged from 2011.

Newseum's Washington exterior.

As with many cultural institutions, it derives most of its revenue from contributions, facilities rental and concessions: $13 million in 2012, according to the tax return.

Its collection is eclectic, reflecting the breadth of its First Amendment mission: three-ton chunks of the Berlin Wall, newspaper comics and cartoons, and perhaps its most visible exhibit, an online collection of newspaper front pages from around the world.

But as the news industry grows more diffuse in the Twitter age, the museum has stretched the bounds of what might advance the foundation's free press ideals. The newest display -- Anchorman: The Exhibit -- is as much a promotion for Paramount's latest comedy as it is about journalism. The museum says the exhibit explores sexism in 1970s newsrooms. Its perhaps unintentionally arch Twitter hashtag: #stayclassynewseum.

Presley got star treatment in 2010.

The exhibit includes props, costumes and footage from 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, starring Will Ferrell. Organized with Paramount, it opened Thursday, ahead of Dec. 20's debut of the sequel Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. The foundation's website features a trailer for the movie. Paramount didn't make any payments to the museum, according to The New York Times.

To be sure, the exhibit isn't the first devoted to an entertainer; in 2010 the subject was Tennessee's adopted son, Elvis Presley.

A $650 million start
Neuharth, after retiring as Gannett's controversial CEO and chairman, held onto the company's philanthropic arm and installed Overby as chief executive. Founder Frank E. Gannett originally established the Gannett Foundation in 1935 for the benefit of Red Cross chapters and other needy causes in communities where the newspaper publisher did business.

Frank Gannett

Neuharth pressured Gannett to buy back $650 million in company stock that was the entirety of the foundation's endowment, then gave it a new name and mission, transforming it into a global journalism charity.

But in 2000, he and Overby shifted gears, focusing the foundation's money on one project: the museum. A promoter of the First Amendment, the museum also was to be a lasting physical legacy of Neuharth's life and career. Housed in a mammoth 643,000-square foot complex on a $100 million Pennsylvania Avenue parcel in Washington, it also is home to Freedom Forum's headquarters.

Opened years late for a whopping $450 million -- nearly twice initial estimates -- the museum now accounts for virtually all the foundation's annual gifts to non-profits. It wasn't Freedom Forum's first experience with runaway construction spending, however.

In 1994, Overby negotiated a 17-page settlement with New York's attorney general when the foundation was still incorporated in New York. Overby and Neuharth agreed to curtail what the attorney general called excessive spending on Freedom Forum's first headquarters, such as a $40,000 desk for Neuharth's office. Its provisions effectively remained in force only three years, however.

Neuharth and the other trustees paid $175,000 in restitution to the foundation. He later called the payments "utter nonsense," made simply to avoid a costly court case, according to Editor & Publisher. "Darts and arrows like this go with the territory for any action-oriented organization," he said.

A "font-tastic" t-shirt.

Under the settlement, Neuharth gave the Gannett Foundation name back to the company, which launched a new one under the same name. It has never returned to its former financial clout. Its most recently released tax return, for 2011, says it made $5.4 million in grants. Administrative overhead totaled only $194,000, however.

Where the original Gannett foundation supported untold numbers of community groups, Freedom Forum is spending down its endowment while the museum's gift shop sells $20 gag t-shirts and bangle bracelets. The foundation's administrative costs hit $28 million last year -- not including another $28 million for the museum.

But what about Elmira?
The museum's website features a by-the-numbers breakdown of its operations, such as the weight in pounds of the artifacts moved in for the 2008 reopening (145,460), the height in feet of the building's tallest point (137) and the number of TV studios (2).

Here are some numbers for last year that didn't get mentioned:

• The museum's operating expenses: $185,850 per day.
• Admissions revenue: $19,672 per day.
• Foundation grants to the U.S. Equestrian Team (Jan Neuharth is a horse enthusiast): $1,000.
• Overby's compensation: $475 per hour.
• Grants to non-profit groups in Elmira, N.Y., where in 1906 Frank Gannett started his company: $0.

Related: Read and download Freedom Forum's 2012 tax return and the Newseum's. Plus: See this spreadsheet showing foundation financial data for 2000-2012. And: Can Ron Burgandy save the Newseum?

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.

Nov. 11-17 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Nov. 11-17 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

In the digital economy, a tale of two companies

Here's another example of driving innovation at warp speed, and the challenges faced by Old Line newspaper publishers.

In August 2011, then-CEO Craig Dubow announced plans to redesign all the company's U.S. news sites and mobile apps to boost Gannett's revenue and readership amid ongoing declines in advertising.

Snapchat's logo.

The following month, two Stanford University students, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, released software they had developed from Spiegel's father's livingroom, laying the foundation of a messaging company they named Snapchat.

Two years later, Gannett has launched the new sites and apps at only USA Today and a handful of other newspapers and TV stations. It hopes to reach the company's 35 biggest markets by the end of the year.

And Snapchat? Users now send 350 million daily messages or "snaps," up from 200 million in June. Based in Los Angeles, it has fewer than 30 employees, according to USAT. And today, The Wall Street Journal reported the tiny startup recently turned down a $3 billion cash acquisition offer from Facebook. It hopes for a better deal from a growing line of suitors.

Nov. 11-17 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Nov. 4-10 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Nashville | Putting the digital cart before the horse

Corporate hopes to boost flagging sales of digital-only newspaper subscriptions as it launches new desktop and mobile app designs across the top 35 U.S. news sites.

But The Tennessean hasn't made the switch yet. So, why is it discounting digital subscriptions now? Shouldn't this promotion come with the relaunch, when there's something new to sell?

Screenshot shows promotion of digital-only subscriptions.

Nov. 4-10 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Salisbury | An extra $1.74 for Thanksgiving edition

I suspect this is going on at other newspapers as well.

The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md., is charging readers an extra $1.74 for the Thanksgiving edition because it's a much larger paper, so delivery by carriers will cost the paper more.

One reader on the EZ Pay plan might have missed the extra charge if they hadn't read their bill closely, according to SBY News. (Under EZ Pay, the monthly subscription cost is automatically deducted from a bank account or credit card.)

How much more is your site charging for the Thanksgiving edition? 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 green rail, upper right.

Stock | Twitter busts into the billion-dollar club

Twitter's stock soared 80% to $47 a share this morning on its first day of public trading, giving the seven-year-old San Francisco company a $25 billion market value after debuting its closely watched initial public offering at $26 a share.

Market capitalizations for Twitter, Gannett and other companies:

$341.8 billion

Google

$163.0 billion

Amazon

$119.6 billion

Facebook


$68.9 billion
eBay


$25.5 billion
Twitter


$19.9 billion
Netflix

$6.7 billion
Groupon

$6.4 billion

Gannett

$2.0 billion

New York Times Co.

$1.4 billion

Belo Corp.

Nov. 4-10 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Broadcasting hires VP of business development

Corporate announced today that Joe Hurd has been named vice president of business development for the broadcasting division. Hurd comes from the 30,000-student web-based UniversityNow, where he was vice president of public policy and communications.

Hurd

Before UniversityNow, Hurd was senior director of trade policy and export promotion for the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Obama Administration. Hurd has also worked in senior business development and international sales/operations positions for AOL Time Warner, Friendster and VideoEgg, according to Corporate. In addition, he practiced corporate and securities law with the London-based Linklaters law firm. Hurd has been the managing partner of consulting firm Katama Group since 2003.

He has an impressive academic background, according to Corporate. Hurd has a bachelor of arts from Harvard, a masters in international affairs from Columbia, and a law degree, also from Harvard. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and board member of the American Swiss Foundation and Bullis Charter School.

Corporate has just filed its quarterly 10-Q report

Filed late this afternoon with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the third-quarter 10-Q is the more detailed version of the earnings press release Corporate issued on Oct. 21.

Cincy | Appeals court says defamed cop is owed $100K after news weekly said he had sex at work

The Cincinnati Enquirer's weekly Milford-Miami Advertiser acted with malice when it reported three years ago that a local police officer had sex on the job, according to a federal appeals court, which awarded the officer $100,000.

Page One detail: Enquirer

The police department in Miami, Ohio, had fired Sgt. James Young in 1997 after a woman accused him of forcing sex on her, according to a story today by Courthouse News Service. But an arbitrator rescinded the termination after DNA testing ruled out crucial evidence.

When a different police officer found himself suspended 13 years later, the Advertiser reported on the case and included several statements about Young for context. The article said Young "had sex with a woman while on the job" and forced her to perform oral sex him.

Claiming the newspaper included these remarks despite knowing details of his firing and appeal, Young filed a defamation suit against Gannett, according to Courthouse News. After a trial, a jury ordered the Advertiser to pay Young $100,000 in compensatory damages.

Last week, a divided three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit affirmed that order. Courthouse News did not say whether Gannett would pursue further appeals.

The Advertiser is published by the Enquirer's chain of Community Press and Recorder weeklies.

Related: Read the circuit court's 15-page decision.

Pensacola | Hudler resurfaces as 2nd interim pub

Carol Hudler, special assistant to U.S. newspaper division president Bob Dickey, and former president of the now-defunct South Group of community papers, has just been named interim publisher of the Pensacola News Journal.

Hudler

She replaces interim publisher Rebecca Boles, who quit earlier this month for a public relations job at Gulf Power Co. Boles, in turn, had replaced Kevin Doyle, who announced his retirement in August.

A search for a permanent publisher is continuing.

Hudler was president of the Nashville-based South Group of newspapers and publisher of The Tennessean until May, when the newspaper division reduced the number of regional groups to three from four, eliminating Hudler's group in the process.

Her assignment as Dickey's special assistant suggested Hudler had been placed into a management holding pattern, pending another suitable opening in the company. Today's announcement appears to be the outcome.

Pensacola's weekday circulation is about 32,000, and Sunday is 48,000, according to the Sept. 30 AAM report. (Look up your site's circulation.)

What Banikarim is watching on TV and in movies

In a new AdAge article about what "media pros" read and watch on TV and in movie theaters, Gannett Chief Marketing Officer Maryam Banikarim is featured in a "sponsored" tip -- presumably because USA Today is the story's lead sponsor.

Banikarim

"I love TV," she tells the industry trade site. "Always have. Always will. I have a penchant for mysteries -- Wallander, Homeland and the one I just finished binge watching on a five-hour plane ride: Broadchurch. If we're watching TV as a family it's either Modern Family, The Voice or The X Factor. With the holidays nearing, one of my favorite things to do is go to the movies -- the newest Hunger Games and August Osage County are already on my list. I've been having a good deal of plane time of late, and I just finished Amy Hatvany's Safe with Me. I couldn't put it down. That book is a movie waiting to happen. Wait, did I just come full circle?"

IT warns of 'deliberate' campaign to infiltrate network to 'embarrass' or 'disrupt our business'

Amid earlier reports of cyberattacks against The New York Times and other major media, Corporate's information technology department this morning warned employees in an email that Gannett, too, believes it's vulnerable: "We know there is a very deliberate campaign to infiltrate our company’s technology infrastructure in order to embarrass us and disrupt our business."

The email doesn't give any details, including whether IT has already experienced attacks. And it doesn't reveal identities of suspected attackers or their reasons for targeting the company. Employees were advised to take precautions when asked to provide information or perform certain tasks. (Full email text, below.)

Media organizations have long drawn critics on a range of local, national and foreign issues, and their protest methods certainly predate computer networks.

But modern IT systems make it easier to cause major disruptions through computer viruses when large companies like Gannett link all their operations on a single network.

Text of email
Gannett Information Technology has been informed that a Gannett location received several reports of employees receiving calls on their work and cell phone numbers from unknown persons asking these employees to provide or update personal information. These cold-callers may be masquerading as technical support or security personnel asking you to go to a web site, type a command into your computer or ask for information pertaining to network equipment such as printers or computers.

When receiving calls where someone is asking you to provide information or perform certain tasks, please take precautionary measures. Always ask for the callers full name and let the caller know that you will call him or her back through your normal IT support channels. Then, contact your local IT support (xXXXX) to verify the request. If the call is legitimate, they will know about the activity and be able to verify the identity of the person.

We know there is a very deliberate campaign to infiltrate our company’s technology infrastructure in order to embarrass us and disrupt our business. We need your continued help to thwart these efforts.

REMINDERS

• Please continue to be cognizant of Gannett's Byte Back program.
• DO NOT provide personal or company information to unknown persons without first verifying their identity
• End User awareness is critical to successfully defeating these types of attacks

Thank you for taking the necessary steps to keep our systems and data secure.

Nov. 4-10 | Your News & Comments: Part 1

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Oct. 28-Nov. 3 | Your News & Comments: Part 4

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)

Sponsors | $60, and a gift from Boom-Z-Boom

I'm happy to acknowledge a $60 gift I got today via snail mail from a reader in Washington, who said in a note: "Thanks for the good work and a good forum. Keep it up!"

With advertising, that brings my income so far this quarter to $634, as follows:

• Reader donations: $140
• Advertising: $494

I'm also belatedly acknowledging a very special donation: $300 from Naja Hara. Longtime Gannett Blog readers may know Hara as Boom-Z-Boom, the stage name she used when she was an exotic dancer in Rochester, N.Y. (On her website, you can read about her close relationship with Al Neuharth, the legendary Gannett chairman and CEO who died in April.)

Through her publicist, Hara told me: "It is my belief that Gannett Blog provides not only necessary information about Gannett Corp. activities but also provides a worthy platform for those individuals to air their grievances within that company. I believe that those who use this blog should appreciate it, as I do. Thank you for your hard work."

I'm trying to earn $4,000 quarterly, through donations of $5 per reader, plus advertising sales. Please use the "Donate" or "Subscribe" tools in the green rail, upper right. Or mail cash and checks payable to: Jim Hopkins, 584 Castro St. #823, San Francisco, Calif., 94114-2594.

The truth about USAT's big new circulation pitch

USA Today just made a dramatic change in the way it reports circulation, adding free digital app users to paid sales so it could once more claim the No. 1 circulation spot among U.S. newspapers. The move boosted USAT's total as of Sept. 30 to a record 2.9 million from 1.7 million a year ago -- a 68% increase.

USAT's free iPad app

The two other national newspapers left their formulas unchanged. That resulted in a smaller 14% annual gain for The New York Times, to 2.1 million. The Wall Street Journal saw a 1% decline to 2.3 million. (See this spreadsheet for a complete breakdown.)

But comparing the three papers' figures is hardly apples-to-apples. The NYT's iPad app lets users read only three articles daily for free; after that, they must pay for a digital subscription. The WSJ app also gives readers limited access for free before requiring a paid account.

Not so with USAT, which gives readers free access without any limits. That means more than half the paper's circulation is now unpaid digital. And that doesn't begin to count all those copies provided gratis by hotels, airlines and other bulk buyers.

Why this matters 
Historically, the industry told advertisers paid circulation was more valuable than free because readers were more engaged with something they'd spent money on. Indeed, when USAT lost the top circulation spot in 2009, it downplayed the shift by emphasizing that it remained the top selling print paper, partly as a result of its big single-copy sales.

"Single copy newsstand sales," the paper said in a press release, "reflect customers who actively seek out the newspaper each day and pay full newsstand price, which is widely considered the most valuable circulation by advertisers."

Starting next spring, USAT plans to change its strategy again under the Butterfly Project. It will start including potentially millions of circulation when it likely expands distribution of its new daily local edition to about three dozen of Gannett's community dailies.

In announcing that change last week in a memo to staff, Publisher Larry Kramer didn't say whether those editions would be counted as paid.

But to do so, Gannett effectively would be counting each of those dailies twice. For example, The Indianapolis Star would count as one. And the USAT edition -- which is now the Star's second section -- would also get counted as one.

Related: Poynter Institute says USAT's news coverage is "misleading."

Earlier: Find your newspaper's newest circulation figures.

Here's the latest circulation data for your paper

U.S. newspapers across Gannett just revealed their latest circulation numbers in a report from the industry's Alliance for Audited Media, formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The report went to AAM members. But a thoughtful Gannett Blog reader has given me a copy. I've uploaded the 140-page .pdf report to Google Documents, were you can read and download a copy for free.

In a new interview, news chief Marymont discusses everything about Design Studios -- expect for this

Three years after expressing concerns in an open letter about Gannett's plans for five page production design hubs, the Society for News Design has swung back with a new interview with the chief of Corporate's News Department, Kate Marymont.

Marymont

In 2010, SND worried cost cutting would crush creativity, a concern Marymont addressed at the time in a Q&A with the professional association.

In the latest interview conducted by email, Marymont offered a detailed update on how the transition worked and lessons learned. But there was one question of especially high interest to employees that she still wouldn't answer:

SND: In your original interview with SND, you said: "We don’t know how many jobs might be eliminated. We are just beginning this project and a first step is to survey and analyze the work done at each site." Now that we are three years into the process, how many jobs were eliminated in the transition to the studio system?

Marymont: Gannett’s policy is that we don’t provide details on personnel or staffing matters. However, we certainly found savings as we introduced efficient ways to produce commodity information and refine workflows. We took some of those savings to build a management team at each studio to recruit and continue to train great staffs. We also are investing hours in building digital skills at the studios.

What the record shows
In fact, Gannett does detail staffing information, although generally when those figures are favorable to the company's image -- a tactic common across Corporate America.

For example, when the design hubs were announced, The Courier-Journal said in a story that it would add 75-100 jobs at its hub in Louisville, Ky. The Des Moines Register expected to hire 35 to 60; and The Tennessean planned up to 70 jobs in Nashville.

But in their hiring accounts, the papers and Corporate did not say how many jobs would be eliminated at the papers served by the hubs.

Gannett has detailed staffing elsewhere, sometimes at the most microscopic level, as when newspaper division President Bob Dickey told Wall Street the paper in Lafayette, Ind., had added two newsroom jobs in 2012. Those were among 60 other local news hires with plans for as many as 240 total, he said.

On another occasion, Corporate told Wall Street Gannett employed more than 300 local sports reporters and 50-plus sports columnists. Also, executives regularly mention the company employs 5,000 journalists companywide out of a global employment of about 30,000.

Oct. 28-Nov. 3 | Your News & Comments: Part 3

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Earlier editions.)