Memo: Former South Group chief Hudler retires

Hudler

Following is a memo U.S. newspaper division President Bob Dickey sent today regarding long-time executive Carol Hudler. 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. Most recently, Hudler had been interim publisher at Florida's Pensacola News Journal.

Friends:

It is with mixed feelings that I share that our good friend and colleague, Carol Hudler is retiring from Gannett effective, Jan 31.

Carol found great success at every level of our industry. She served in advertising, marketing and senior leadership positions at the Kansas City Star; the Orange County Register; The Democrat & Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y.; the St. Paul Pioneer Press; The News-Press in Fort Myers, and the Tennessean.

Most recently, Carol has been my special assistant, overseeing strategic initiatives.

Carol is a dedicated, passionate professional who inspires colleagues to perform at their very best to serve readers, advertisers and communities. In 2003 Carol was name publisher of the year and received a chairman’s ring as a five time winner of a president’s ring.

Carol’s leadership skills were never more evident than when Hurricane Charley hit south west Florida in 2004 and a 100-year storm hit Nashville in 2010. In both cases Carol guided her team and community through a crisis and then led the rebuilding.

Carol has been a tremendous asset to our company. Please join me in wishing her all the best.

Bob

GCI extending Butterfly Project to 35 newspapers

As expected, the initiative to add dozens of editorial pages plus a local edition of USA Today will be expanded to another 31 dailies vs. the current four, according to a Gannett statement this morning. The rollout will take place during the first quarter. Corporate didn't identify the 31 titles.

Further down the road, GCI plans to extend the program to all of its 81 local newspaper markets, according to The New York Times.

Asked whether subscription prices would rise for readers getting the extra USAT content, Corporate's chief spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, told the NYT: “As we introduce enhanced products, consumers tell us they are willing to pay for the added value we’re bringing them.” (Translation: yes.)

The 35 papers that will be part of the Butterfly initiative have a combined circulation of more than 1.5 million on weekdays and more than 2.5 million on Sunday, according to USAT. That shows the 35 were chosen according to a metric other than circulation, such as annual revenue, because the highest-circulating 35 have combined volume of 2.4 million weekdays and 4.3 million Sundays.

This morning's announcement follows a relatively short test of the Butterfly Project since early October at four dailies in Fort Myers, Fla.; Indianapolis; Rochester, N.Y., and Appleton, Wisc. The expansion is designed to increase advertising and circulation revenue at the local level, plus ad sales and circulation volume at USAT.

Related: Corporate's press release highlighting this morning's UBS media conference.

USAT | Callaway brooks no resistance on Butterfly, telling his editors: 'stomp out any sort of whining about this or send the person to me and I will'

Here's an email from USA Today Editor-in-Chief David Callaway that doesn't end in his customary "cheers" sign-off.

Callaway

It seems newsroom staffers object to their longer, more labor-intensive enterprise stories being published only in the new USAT weekend editions now being inserted in four small Gannett dailies as part of the Butterfly Project test. That means some of their best work no longer appears in the regular national print edition with its 1.7 million print circulation. The combined weekend circulation for the four dailies is only around 600,000.

The kerfuffle was disclosed yesterday in Callaway's email to senior editors, where he endorsed an earlier note from Executive Editor David Colton to reporters and other newsroom staffers defending the Saturday and Sunday editions.

"Well said, David," Callaway wrote to his editing team, telling them: "Please stomp out any sort of whining about this or send the person to me and I will. All these great stories go on the Web and mobile as well, where the audience is five times the size. We are moving way too fast to have anyone on our staff who still doesn't understand this."

High-profile project
In his memo, Colton wrote: "These are closely-watched products, by the industry, by media critics and by our colleagues at USCP" -- a reference to the 81-title U.S. Community Publishing newspaper division.

He conceded "weekend content does soak up a lot of stories and packages, leaving Mondays and even later in the week hurting for print content."

But, he added, "treating Saturday and Sunday like major editions . . . will help us in the short run and for sure in the long run, when the Sunday USA Today may very well be treated as our platinum product."

Kramer

The Callaway-Colton emails spotlight the tension in the newsroom as Gannett's struggling flagship undergoes another turnaround meant to stem losses in advertising and circulation. Callaway came to USAT under Larry Kramer, who was hired as publisher in spring 2012. As outsiders, they've challenged many longtime employees -- some dating to the paper's 1982 launch -- to get with the digital times, and work more productively and cooperatively with other Gannett divisions.

Under previous publishers, USAT often operated quite apart from the rest of the company. It's housed alongside Corporate at the Crystal Palace headquarters in suburban Washington, complete with a gymnasium, cafeteria and other amenities that employees at the community dailies can only dream about. That's led to grumbling in the field that USAT employees are underworked and overly pampered -- a perception that will only be advanced by the current fuss over contributing to the Butterfly Project.

In that initiative started early this month, USAT is producing a daily standalone edition of national and foreign news for newspapers in Indianapolis; Fort Myers, Fla.; Appleton, Wisc., and Rochester, N.Y. The papers also added some local content as well, increasing page count with the USAT section by 50 to 70 pages a week.

Butterfly is a major bet on print newspapers when the industry has been losing advertisers and readers to the Internet and other digital products. Yet, even as Callaway and Colton touted the value of the new print editions, the paper today once more claimed it is the nation's top-circulating newspaper by including free tablet and smartphone app users.

For USAT, Butterfly gives the paper a weekend presence for the first time in its 31-year-history, creating another vehicle for ad sales and potentially adding millions of weekend and weekday circulation should the project be extended to other Gannett titles.

For the community papers, the USAT section is meant to add bulk and a well-known brand name after years of cutbacks in news have driven away readers and advertisers.

Butterfly already a 'go'?
Colton's note for the first time suggests the USAT Butterfly Project edition is likely to be added to yet more community dailies between December and March. Readers have told me earlier that about three dozen of the biggest 81 may get the USAT section if the test is successful.

Colton wrote: "Editors and publishers from 30+ Gannett sites will be here this Monday/Tuesday to discuss possible expansion of the Butterfly project. Having strong work to show them from this weekend’s editions will be a great look-what-you’ll-be-getting 'sell.'"

Combined, those more than 30 sites have Sunday circulation of 3.5 million -- underscoring Colton's prediction that Sunday's USAT could become the paper's "platinum product." Weekdays, those sites report a combined print circulation of 2.3 million.

Indeed, in a memo today, Kramer said USAT plans to count the new Butterfly editions in its next circulation report in the spring.

USA Today will count Butterfly edition circulation; move comes as it once more claims No. 1 circ rank

With print circulation tumbling again, USA Today Publisher Larry Kramer confirmed in a memo today that the struggling paper plans to include in its future circulation reports the new daily section inserted in four community dailies in the Butterfly Project trial that began this month.

USAT's honor box

That would add 360,000 in print weekday circulation and 579,000 on Sundays, for the first time giving the 31-year-old paper weekend circulation data to pitch to advertisers.

Until today, the paper had not said publicly whether it would include the standalone news section published at those papers in Indianapolis; Fort Myers, Fla.; Appleton, Wisc., and Rochester, N.Y.

The decision means USAT could expand circulation even more if the Butterfly Project is extended to perhaps three dozen of the largest 81 community dailies. They have a combined print circulation of 2.3 million on weekdays and more than 3.5 million Sundays. Corporate hasn't said how long the Butterfly test will be run.

Kramer's memo came as the paper disclosed it is once more claiming the No. 1 spot in newspaper circulation by counting free tablet and mobile phone use data on top of print edition sales. In doing so, the paper would overtake the current leader, The Wall Street Journal, and the second-ranked New York Times.

Muddying circulation waters
But the move makes it even harder to do an apples-to-apples comparison among papers, because the tablet and mobile phone users aren't paying readers. The WSJ and NYT figures are for their more valuable paid print and digital circulation.

Overall, this means circulation data will become even less meaningful to advertisers. USAT has long been dogged by critics who questioned the integrity of the paper's print circulation data because so much of it was to business travelers who got free copies given to them by hotels, airlines and other institutional buyers who bought in bulk at a steep discount.

With its new formula, USAT now says it has 2.9 million in circulation vs. 1.7 million in its March 31 report to the Alliance for Audited Media. That compares with 2.3 million for the WSJ and 1.9 million for the NYT, according to a report today in Capital New York.

However, USAT's new count masks another stunning loss of print circulation for the six months ended Sept. 30. It plunged 19% from a year ago, according to a Poynter Institute report today.

USAT's decision to count tablet and mobile data will help soften the blow of steep circulation losses the paper has forecast as a result of doubling its single-copy price to $2 on Sept. 30.

Digital age challenges
Kramer's memo arrives as the AAM (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations) released its Sept. 30 report to members this morning. Effective today, the AAM is no longer making public its top-25 circulation reports, however.

The industry has been wrestling with how to count circulation in the digital age, where papers have gained millions of readers who access websites for free. Historically, the industry had always counted paid circulation as most valuable. The shifting accounting has been a particular challenge for USAT, which doesn't charge readers for digital access to its website and digital apps -- unlike the WSJ and NYT.

AAM Executive Vice President Neal Lulofs told Poynter that the group's traditional method of counting circulation is no longer a meaningful metric for advertisers in today’s "complex multichannel, print/digital, paid/free, branded edition, bundled/paywalled, you-name-it environment."

The Butterfly Project, which has been in the works for more than a year, was seen as another way for USAT to regain traction in circulation and advertising while also giving an editorial boost to Gannett's community dailies. The standalone USAT section provides another platform to sell national advertising and adds dozens of pages of additional foreign and national news to the smaller community papers every week. The section is produced by USAT at its main office in McLean, Va.

USAT first lost the No. 1 spot in the September 2009 when the WSJ started included paid digital subscribers. USAT then fell to No. 3 when the NYT launched its paywall and also counted digital subscribers.

Kramer

Kramer's new tactic
Counting tablet and phone app usage is a new marketing strategy for the paper under Kramer, the paper's first publisher with a deep digital background. He founded the widely read financial news site MarketWatch before coming to USAT in May 2012. His mandate: to turn around the paper, which had been losing multimillion dollars in advertising amid steep circulation declines as the paper's bread-and-butter customers, business travelers and hotels, abandoned print newspapers.

Four years ago, USAT had downplayed its drop in the rankings 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."

Butterfly Project formally launches tomorrow

That's when The Indianapolis Star and The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc., start adding dozens of pages per week, including new daily, standalone USA Today national and foreign news sections. Some of the added pages will include more local news, although publishers haven't been specific about how much and what kind.

The two dailies will be joined by two more in Fort Myers, Fla., and Rochester, N.Y., on Monday as Corporate starts a pilot test of what's called the Butterfly Project. The initiative, under discussion at least since summer 2012, hopes to boost advertising sales, especially for national ads through the new USAT section.

Indy is adding 70 pages a week; Appleton, more than 48; Fort Myers, 70, and Rochester, about 60.

With tomorrow's debut, USAT will be publishing its first regularly scheduled print Sunday edition since the paper was launched in September 1982. Next weekend would bring the first Saturday edition.

If Butterfly is successful, it could be extended to about three dozen other U.S. community dailies from coast to coast with combined circulation exceeding 2.3 million weekdays and 3.5 million Sundays.

Depending on how it counts those abbreviated national editions, USAT could add millions in daily plus first-ever Saturday and Sunday circulation when it reports to the Alliance for Audited Media for the March 31 period. That would help the paper blunt losses after it doubled its single copy price to $2 last Monday.

Louisiana | Memo hints at creating regional dailies

This morning, the president of the five-newspaper Louisiana group offered the latest sign Corporate may be leaning toward creating single regional newspapers in place of individual ones serving specific markets.

Terzotis

In a memo, Judi Terzotis announced she'd hired Cindy McCurry-Ross from Corporate's News Department for the new position of regional editor.

"Cindy will work directly with the editors at each site to strengthen the news operations in the individual markets as well as build out a regional news network for the state," Terzotis wrote. (Full memo text, below.)

Costs should be substantially lower in a regional approach, where current newsrooms could be treated more like slimmed-down community-based news bureaus with fewer layers of highly paid editors and executive editors. 

Fewer reporters, too. For example, a reporter could be encouraged to write back-to-school features that touch on all five Louisiana markets rather than just one. Overnight, one reporter is doing the work of five. Bye-bye, four features writers. 

McCurry-Ross

In less dramatic fashion, this has already started under regional editors at three Central New York newspapers, another six in New Jersey, and 10 small dailies in Ohio. There, however, individual papers are still published under their historic flags. Other areas ripe for regionalizing are the 10 Wisconsin papers.

Gannett's most high-profile and longest-running regional is The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y. That experiment has been one of the company's messiest, however.

Westchester ranked No. 10 in weekday circulation losses among the company's 81 community dailies between 2005-2012. Sales fell 46% during the period, to barely 72,000 from 133,000.

Text of Terzotis memo
Good Morning,

I’m thrilled to announce the appointment of Cindy McCurry-Ross to Gannett Louisiana regional editor. Cindy will work directly with the editors at each site to strengthen the news operations in the individual markets as well as build out a regional news network for the state.

Cindy comes to us with a wealth of experience. For the past two years she has been on the corporate news staff working with Kate Marymont on key projects across USCP. Prior to her corporate stint, she was the assistant managing editor and senior managing editor in Fort Meyers. She’s a seasoned journalist that understands audiences and cares deeply about improving the communities we serve.

Cindy reports directly to me and will be based in Lafayette.

Please extend a warm Louisiana welcome to her! Please share this announcement with your staffs.

Judi

Judi Terzotis
President and publisher, The Times, The Daily Advertiser, The Daily World

Butterfly | 80% of Fort Myers' new pages for USAT; Florida paper is third to outline role in a pilot test

That's according to a Page One note to readers this morning, where Publisher Mei-Mei Chan offered fresh details about how The News-Press will be revamped starting Oct. 7 as one of four test sites for the big new Butterfly Project across the community newspaper division.

Chan

Chan said the Florida paper will add 70 pages a week, including a daily eight-page standalone USA Today news section, a major focus of the Butterfly experiment.

Chan is the first publisher to reveal the size of the USAT section. That detail wasn't included in stories last week about the project's launch at two of the other test sites: The Indianapolis Star and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in New York.

As I post this, the fourth site, The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc., still hasn't told readers about the changes in store even after the paper was first identified as a pilot site three days ago. (The paper is leading with a story and video about the appearance of a live chicken during a handgun control event downtown.) In a memo, staff was told the paper would gain more than 48 pages a week, including the USAT section.

Chan says the redesign will make room "for more coverage about local, regional and statewide issues."

Details still missing
But she doesn't offer any details on the type of coverage, including subject matter. She also didn't say how the additional news would be produced after the paper reportedly laid off six staffers in the newsroom in August during another round of Gannett-wide newspaper layoffs that claimed more than 400 jobs.

Gannett papers have been using more reader-generated blogs, photos and videos to fill space as managers chopped away at journalism resources. While that's free, it doesn't come near the quality of professionally-produced government watchdog and other such reporting.

In Indianapolis, Rochester and at USAT, publishers were equally vague about the subject matter and source of any local content to be added. The Star said only that it would add more than 70 pages weekly, and the Democrat and Chronicle will add around 60.

With Appleton adding at least 48 a week, the four papers would be adding a combined 13,000 pages a year -- a lot of costly newsprint when Corporate has recently been cutting back. Newsprint vies with labor costs as the company's biggest operational expense. In the second quarter, CFO Victoria Harker told Wall Street analysts newsprint consumption fell 15%.

Harker and CEO Gracia Martore will likely face many questions when they release the third-quarter earnings report in about three weeks. What's the Butterfly business model? How much advertising, including especially national, will it generate?

And is there another, parallel double-digit subscription rate increase in the works? Will it be a tiered model, where prices for the same delivery frequency will be set higher or lower according to data on average Zip Code household income? (You're seeing that possibility mentioned here for the first time.)

Publisher Chan's note on the bottom of Page One this morning.

Fort Myers incubator
Readers seldom like abrupt change. In Fort Myers, very early reaction was limited to just three comments -- all unhappy.

Mike Myers, who didn't provide his residence, wrote in a comment on Chan's note: "You've learned to spell in recent months; I'll give you that. But your content is lacking. Let's see how you improve on that."

Ken Franklin of Cape Coral agreed: "Along with what Mike Myers said, you should hire a competent copy editor to deal with frequent typos, grammatical errors, and other gaffes. And more staff photographers so you don't have to run file photos with important stories."

Corporate hasn't said how it chose the four test sites, which represent markets in the Northeast, South and Midwest, but not western states such as California.

But Fort Myers was an incubator for an earlier Gannett initiative that tested using mobile journalists who reported with smartphones, video cameras and other contemporary tech tools seven years ago. The paper's editor, Kate Marymont, later was promoted to editorial director for the entire 81-title community newspaper division.

Whatever the selection process, Butterfly adds even more pressure on the publishers and staff at the four papers to prove why the initiative shouldn't proceed to a wider rollout. Corporate has been considering Butterfly since at least summer 2012.

If the tests are successful, the USAT section would be added to about three dozen of Gannett's other biggest papers, according to my readers. Those dailies have combined circulation of more than 2.3 million on weekdays and more than 3.5 million Sundays. In total, Gannett publishes 82 newspapers and owns 23 TV stations, making it one of the world's biggest news groups.

An historic project
Weekday circulation at Fort Myers is 66,385, and Sunday is 91,150, according to the March 31 AAM report. (Find your site's circulation.)

Butterfly would be one of the biggest new initiatives in Gannett's recent history. But it's a risky bet on print's future amid declining circulation and advertising.

For USAT, Butterfly could help Gannett's struggling flagship recover hundreds of thousands in circulation volume that's likely to be lost when it doubles the single-copy price to $2 on Sept. 30. The paper has forecast a 35% plunge in newsstand sales and the near total disappearance of vending machine sales after the price hike, according to an internal company document.

It's unclear whether USAT will try to count the new daily section as paid circulation in its AAM reports. Rochester Publisher Michael Kane hinted at the possibility in his column last week: "We will effectively publish a national newspaper inside the D&C."

Earlier: Here's the Butterfly Project at a glance.

Related: spreadsheet shows circulation of 81 U.S. community papers 2005-2012.

Butterfly | Here's the new project at a glance

Early next month, Gannett will launch a pilot test of the Butterfly Project, a major bet on the future of print newspapers. It's one of the company's biggest initiatives in recent history.

What
The company will add a combined 13,000 pages annually to four of its 81 U.S. community dailies in New York, Florida, Indiana and Wisconsin. Most of that will be in the form of a new, abbreviated standalone edition of USAT inserted in the papers.

If tests are successful, the project would be extended to about three dozen other dailies from coast to coast with combined daily circulation exceeding 2.3 million weekdays and 3.5 million Sundays. Corporate hasn't provided a test timetable.

Why
Butterfly could generate millions of dollars in new national advertising revenue. It may also stem large circulation volume losses forecast by USAT when the struggling paper doubles its single copy price to $2 on Sept. 30.

Where

• The Indianapolis Star. Circulation: 156,850 weekdays, and 286,115 Sundays. Adding more than 70 pages weekly.
• The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.: 66,385 weekdays, and 91,150 Sundays. Additional 70 pages.
• The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc.: 35,986 weekdays, and 52,055 Sundays. Adding more than 48 pages.
• The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in New York: 101,885 weekdays, and 149,590 Sundays. About 60 more pages.

Related: spreadsheet shows circulation of 81 papers 2005-2012.

Fort Myers | It's a very s-l-o-w news night here

The top story on the homepage of The News-Press in Fort Myers is an advance -- an advance! -- for a chamber of commerce event tonight where Publisher Mei-Mei Chan will receive one of the group's annual Apex Awards for women.

With 342 employees, the paper is ranked 35th on a list of Lee County's 100 major employers.

The Florida paper's weekday circulation is 66,385, and Sunday is 91,150, according to the March 31 AAM report. (Circulation database lookup.)

Fort Myers is one of four papers to be redesigned early next month under the Butterfly Project test to include a new daily USA Today section of world and national news. The other dailies are in Appleton, Wisc., Indianapolis, and Rochester, N.Y.

Spoiler alert: Parsing those Butterfly communiqués

In  The Manchurian Candidate, Lansbury (left) also massaged text.

Yesterday's big news about the Butterfly Project reminds me of a pivotal scene in 1962's Manchurian Candidate, a Cold War political thriller about a plot to take over the White House.

Angela Lansbury plays Eleanor Iselin, a Communist agent married to a conservative U.S. senator set up to steal his party's presidential nomination with a speech carefully crafted from afar. "It's the most rousing speech I've ever read,'' she says. "It's been worked on here and in Russia for over eight years."

Now, bear with me as my critics howl. After all, this isn't the first time I've compared an examination of Corporate's communiqués to Kremlinology.

For the Butterfly Project, four such dispatches arrived yesterday via Indianapolis; Rochester, N.Y.; Louisville, Ky., and USA Today outside Washington. They all reported that Gannett is adding a whole lot of news to its community dailies.

But a closer reading reveals columns, a story and a memo that are long on promises, yet short on important details -- from how much news is being added, to whether it's serious or fluff. Moreover, some of the language employed sounds like everyone's working from scripted talking points from Corporate headquarters.

At its most basic, Gannett announced that in early October, it will start testing a redesign of four newspapers that will add a new daily section of national news produced by USAT. In addition to Indianapolis and Rochester, the others are in Fort Myers, Fla., and Appleton, Wisc.

If the Butterfly Project is successful, it would be extended to about three dozen of Gannett's other biggest community papers across the country, according to my readers. The idea is to improve the content of the company's dailies to stanch the growing losses of circulation and advertising revenue.

Butterfly would also shore up USAT's circulation volume as it faces the threat of staggering retail sales losses when the cover price is doubled to $2 on Sept. 30.

So, what, exactly, were we really told?

Indianapolis
The headline over yesterday's story said: "Indianapolis Star announces plan to boost local, national content in partnership with USA Today."

Crotchfelt

Publisher Karen Crotchfelt said the Star would add more than 70 pages to the paper per week, including the USAT section. That's pages of something, including hopefully lots of paid advertising. But it's not necessarily all news, and certainly not all local news, since it will include USAT's world, national, sports, business and entertainment news.

Star correspondent Tony Cook, stuck with a politically dicey story, also reported that a revamped Sunday business section will emphasize jobs, the workplace and the economy. "Daily local business coverage will be integrated into the front local section," he says.

Integrate is another red flag because it doesn't mean there will be more of it, or even the same amount now being published.

Indeed, one of the more candid remarks in the story was a quote from Editor Jeff Taylor, who told his paper: "We’re adding a whole lot more of the stuff that, frankly, has been disappearing from the paper over time. Now we have a chance to give that back to people."

Stuff, of course, isn't news.

Rochester
Publisher Michael Kane's note to readers was headlined: "Democrat and Chronicle content improvements change the game."

Kane

Like the Star, Kane wrote about a partnership with USAT that will add 60 or so pages a week to the paper, including more local news.

A reporter schooled in pinning down details would ask: how much more in inches, and exactly what kind? Will it be deeply reported watchdog news, or reader-generated blogs and videos that don't adhere to professional journalism standards?

Kane assigned this important story to himself, however, so those questions don't get asked or answered.

Kane also mentions that the paper has "committed to even more watchdog and investigative work."

Oy, vey. If I had a nickel for every time a Gannett publisher has said that, I'd be a very rich man. (Kane's pledge is all the more curious after his paper laid off its political reporter in August while she was covering President Obama's visit to the area.)

Finally, it's worth pointing out that Kane stoked speculation that USAT could try to count the new section as paid circulation to the industry's Alliance for Audited Media next year. Tellingly, he wrote: "We will effectively publish a national newspaper inside the D&C."

Louisville
The Courier-Journal isn't one of the four dailies getting the Butterfly treatment. But Publisher Wesley Jackson nonetheless weighed in with a note to readers of his own about similar new changes. The headline: "Amid The Courier-Journal's evolution, dedication is the same."

Jackson

In a way, Jackson comes closest to the unvarnished truth among yesterday's announcements. Clocking in at about 800 words, his note can be boiled down to this: Content is getting moved around in print and online.

For example, he says: "We’re combining news sections in print and moving local news up front." Why is this a good thing for readers? Is it like "integrating" in Indianapolis?

Presentation will be more "robust." There will be more "voices" in the online editorial section. (Random op-ed rants from readers? Embarrassing letters to the editor like this? He doesn't say.)

Several things seem guaranteed. There will be more entertainment news, and health and fitness will be "sporting a fresh new look."

Sunday's features will focus on style and travel, he says: "Readers will be able to pair their interest in the hottest retail buys and style makeovers, with the popular Sunday coupons and store inserts." Sounds like advertorial to me, but Jackson doesn't offer enough specifics to know for sure.

"Overall," Jackson wrote, "our aim is to give print readers more of the in-depth, community-focused news, features and sports content they consistently tell us they want and that no other news provider in this region can match."

Today's C-J detail, Newseum

Again, how much more, in inches or some other very specific yardstick? Also, it's worth noting, content that no other provider can match may be news so weak, they don't want to even try.

Finally and unfortunately, Jackson says something that simply isn't true: "Our emphasis on public service has never wavered, and it never will."

Traditional public service journalism is expensive investigative work that forms the core of government watch dogging.

When I worked at the C-J in 1996-2000, I was on an investigative team of four full-time reporters and a full-time editor. That was in addition to at least one full-time investigative reporter on the Metro desk.

As well, the paper had a statewide network of news bureaus, including one at Hazard, Ky., in a part of the state with a particular history of government corruption, environmental and workplace dangers by powerful coal mine operators, and years of deep poverty.

Yet, most if not all of those resources were eliminated in multiple rounds of cost-cutting over the past decade. This is not wavering?

USA Today
My esteemed colleague (to use an honorific popular elsewhere in Washington) Publisher Larry Kramer sent staff a memo of his own about the key Butterfly role of Gannett's struggling flagship.

Kramer

From Corporate's Crystal Palace in a suburban office park outside D.C., he wrote of Butterfly:

"By partnering with our local markets, it helps us expand our circulation and allows our local partners to focus more on the regional coverage that their readers want."

The word partner appears three other times in his memo.

I've been noodling over why that word keeps coming up. My best guess is that it sounds full of bonhomie, as though Butterfly is something everyone happily and enthusiastically agreed to -- rather than a cost-cutting drive crammed down the chain from Corporate HQ.

Readers at the community level already suspect a multinational conglomerate is controlling their news from afar. A partnership sounds entirely different.

Cost-cutting, after all, is the name of the game here. For decades, Gannett has been trimming the space it devotes to news as it tried to satisfy Wall Street’s insatiable appetite for high profits quarter after quarter. And that was mostly during good economic times.

Dialing for dollars
It seems highly unlikely Corporate would only now reverse course, and provide a net increase of newshole when the industry is still reeling from a record contraction of circulation and ad revenue.

Martore

In about three weeks, CEO Gracia Martore will brief Wall Street during the quarterly earnings conference call. Stock analysts are already forecasting declines in revenue and earnings during the current quarter, which ends about Sept. 30. Indeed, their revenue outlook is even more bleak for the fourth quarter.

Broadcasting’s sales will be down from a year ago because the 23 TV stations don’t have last year's Olympics and political advertising to bolster results. The long-suffering newspaper division has now cycled through a big subscription price increase disguised as a paywall.

Digital Segment revenue from employment site CareerBuilder is threatening to flatline because of the weak job market. And the $1.5 billion deal for TV company Belo, assuming it's consummated by year's end, won't produce results until 2014 at the earliest.

For several quarters, Martore has warned Wall Street new investments in sales and technology will produce uneven financials. “Our transformation plan,” she said in July during the second-quarter call, “is a complex and multifaceted process, and we do not expect linear growth each quarter.”

Pension funds and other big investors controlling Gannett want to hear revenue is still growing and the company's famously disciplined spending remains locked down.

But they don’t want to hear about a Butterfly Project that will do the reverse. That’s because bottomline-obsessed shareholders hate six words more than most any other:

"We are investing for the future."

Related: Watch the trailer for The Manchurian Candidate.

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.

Bulletin: Indy Star confirms launch of 'Butterfly'; project could add new daily USA Today section to dozens of other Gannett community newspapers

In a story published just minutes ago, The Indianapolis Star has confirmed Gannett is testing the roll out of a new USA Today section at a handful of community newspapers that for the first time could give the national daily a print weekend presence across the nation.

Today's USAT detail, Newseum

The Star story is the first public acknowledgement of a plan -- dubbed the Butterfly Project -- that's been in the works since at least summer 2012. The story follows my post about the project two days ago.

The project, if successful, would be one of the biggest new initiatives in Gannett's recent history. Still, it's a risky bet on print's future amid declining circulation and advertising, even as the century-old company battles to become a digital powerhouse. Moreover, it's a direct challenge to USAT's two biggest national competitors: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Corporate's chief spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, told the Star: "We're always innovating and looking for new ways to engage our consumers. With more than 100 local media organizations nationwide, we’re well positioned to pilot new concepts such as this one."

The new daily section will launch in the Star Oct. 6. The paper said it would be piloted in a "few" other markets; it didn't give a timetable for those tests. I've been told the number of test sites would be five or six, including one in Wisconsin.

[Updated at 6:42 p.m. ET.] The section will be tested at four sites, USAT Publisher Larry Kramer told employees in a memo today. The other three are The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc.; New York's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and The News Press in Fort Myers, Fla.

New Star pages: 70 a week
The USAT content will include world, national, and business news and features. The Star didn't say how big the section will be. Readers have told me it could number up to six pages daily, with more on Sundays.

Crotchfelt

Equally important, the section will be accompanied by a big increase in the Star's local news, focused on the suburbs, the Star says. In total, 70 pages will be added to the paper each week with the USAT section. "Our mission is local," Publisher Karen Crotchfelt told the paper. "Local leads, and it always will."

If the Butterfly Project tests are successful, the USAT section would be added to about three dozen of Gannett's other biggest papers, according to my readers. Those papers have combined circulation of more than 2.3 million on weekdays and more than 3.5 million Sundays. In total, Gannett publishes 82 newspapers and owns 23 TV stations, making it one of the world's biggest news groups.

They are in some of the nation's most populous states: New York, California, Ohio and Florida. The papers include The Arizona Republic in Phoenix (300,000 weekdays); Asbury Park Press in New Jersey (100,000) and the Pensacola News Journal in Florida (37,000). The Indianapolis Star's weekday circulation is about 155,000.

Of considerable interest to USAT's national rivals is whether the paper will try counting the new daily section as paid circulation when it submits figures to the industry's Alliance for Audited Media, formerly known as the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

At the Star, correspondent Tony Cook writes, "the investment in the print edition represents a divergence from recent trends in the industry. Many publishers have made significant cuts to their printed product in order to invest in their digital products."

Boost for USAT
For USAT, Butterfly could help Gannett's struggling flagship recover hundreds of thousands in circulation volume that's likely to be lost when it doubles the single-copy price to $2 on Sept. 30. The paper has forecast a 35% plunge in newsstand sales and the near total disappearance of vending machine sales after the price hike, according to an internal company document I obtained this week.

Today's Star detail, Newseum

USAT's circulation sank 8% to 1.7 million during the most recent reporting period, ended March 31. At the same time, its two national competitors surged ahead. The Wall Street Journal jumped 12% to 2.4 million, and The New York Times soared 18% to 1.9 million. Those figures include digital subscriptions; USAT doesn't charge for online access.

A fully extended Butterfly also could give USAT an even bigger national footprint to compete with the WSJ and NYT. Since it was started in September 1982, USAT has only published on weekdays. The WSJ now publishes every day but Sunday. The NYT publishes everyday, and has transformed itself into a truly national broadsheet over the past two decades, elbowing its way onto USAT's turf.

The new single-copy pricing at USAT is part of a broader strategy at Gannett's other 81 dailies favoring revenue over volume. Last year, after raising single-copy prices weekdays and Sundays, then boosting subscription rates, Gannett said circulation revenue companywide rose $53 million, or 5% -- the first such annual increase since 2006.

Ad strategy unknown
USAT has been losing circulation since 2008, when the paper gave up its lead as the nation's top-circulating daily to The Wall Street Journal. That came after major bulk buyers, hotels, stopped providing free copies to their guests as the paper's most important business traveling readers switched to smartphones and tablets.

Murcko

The Star story doesn't say what kind of advertising will be sold in the USAT section. But it's logical the section would carry national advertising sold by Corporate's team led by national sales chief Mary Murcko.

The addition of local news in the Star -- and the possibility the same could happen at other Gannett dailies with a full Butterfly roll out -- comes after a published report this summer saying the community papers were in line for another round of subscription price increases.

In July, Des Moines TV station KCCI said The Des Moines Register had started notifying 80,000 subscribers of a rate hike as high as 40%. The paper's marketing chief, Kurt Allen, told the station the increase is a "Corporate initiative, across all Gannett properties."

A rate hike carrot?
Restoring local news reduced during cost-cutting since 2008 could be used to sell readers on any subscription increases.

Whatever Butterfly's timetable, Gannett Digital is set to launch redesigned websites and mobile applications at 35 community news sites by the end of the year. The new look closely mirrors the radical redesign USAT adopted a year ago this month.

Butterfly comes at an already busy time for Corporate. Gannett is completing the purchase of TV company Belo by year's end. The deal, for $1.5 billion in cash and assumption of $715 million in debt, would nearly double the number of stations in the Broadcasting division.

Gannett's shares surged with the Belo deal's announcement in June. Early this afternoon, GCI was down 30 cents, or 1.2%, to $25.53. Markets overall were flat.

Related: spreadsheet shows circulation of 81 U.S. community papers 2005-2012.

Good reads for the new social media policy debate

Two earlier posts give context in the current discussion about Gannett's new social media policy:

• In January, federal workplace regulators said employees have a right to discuss work conditions freely and without fear of retribution -- whether the discussion takes place at the office or on Facebook and other social media such as Gannett Blog.
• In August 2012, a reporter at The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., reportedly lost his job after posting comments critical of Chick-fil-A customers on his personal Facebook page.

With Fort Myers, estimated layoffs now top 300; Florida daily launched 'mojos,' Information Centers

[Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET with latest figures.]

Word came overnight that The News-Press in Fort Myers has just laid off six in its newsroom, bringing total jobs cut at the Florida daily to 10, according to Facebook postings and Gannett Blog readers.

Today's Page One, Newseum

Gannett-wide, that means an estimated 314 newspaper jobs have been eliminated through layoffs or other means across at least 50 worksites over the past week, as the company enters what may be the final stage of this latest round of cost-cutting.

Fort Myers is noteworthy in Gannett's transition to digital journalism. There, the company fine tuned the concept of mobile journalists -- dubbed "mojos" -- showcased in a glowing Washington Post story in December 2006. By then, the concept had spread across the U.S. newspaper division, as newsrooms were renamed Information Centers.

The Post's Frank Ahrens wrote:

"The mojos have high-tech tools -- ThinkPads, digital audio recorders, digital still and video cameras -- but no desk, no chair, no nameplate, no land line, no office. They spend their time on the road looking for stories, filing several a day for the newspaper's Website, and often for the print edition, too. Their guiding principle: A constantly updated stream of intensely local, fresh Web content -- regardless of its traditional news value -- is key to building online and newspaper readership."

Back then, the News-Press' weekday circulation was about 88,000. Following the path of the overall newspaper industry, sales plunged to 61,000 by the end of last year.

Earlier: Gannett collects $105,000 from Lee County to create 35 jobs at News-Press, TV station says.

Is your site here?
Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing newspaper division employed about 18,000 workers at the beginning of the year.

In the current round of layoffs, all in response to continued declines in advertising revenue, a large swath of the East Group newspapers remains uncounted. Notably missing are most of the dailies in New York and New Jersey. To be sure, it's possible publishers there have been able to cut costs through other means, such as reducing page counts or eliminating travel. But that seems unlikely.

Please check this read-only spreadsheet, then post your latest information in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Westchester daily eliminates 26 jobs -- 11% of all, pushing Gannett-wide layoffs, other cuts near 300

[Updated at 6:53 a.m. ET with latest figures, East Group details.]

Gannett's newspaper layoffs and other job losses jumped yet higher late yesterday, to an estimated 280 across at least 45 sites, as The Journal News in Westchester officially confirmed it had imposed especially deep cuts.

Hasson

The N.Y. daily said it eliminated 26 jobs -- fully 11% of its workforce. Of those, 17 came from the newsroom, dropping total employment to 206 vs. 232. "The reduction in our payroll is necessary as we adjust to the changing marketplace,” Publisher Janet Hasson told the paper.

This latest round of layoffs is the largest since June 2011, when the company eliminated 700 newspaper jobs. The company had about 18,000 employees in its U.S. Community Publishing division at the end of last year.

The Journal News was one of the larger newspapers that hadn't previously been counted in this spreadsheet showing site-by-site totals. Its weekday circulation is 66,000, and Sunday is 86,000, according to the March 31 AAM report. Indeed, of 82 newspaper sites nationwide, we've heard from just over half. Many of those missing are in the East Group, and have relatively small circulations.

It's important to note that layoffs won't necessarily hit all sites across the USCP. Some have been able to hit cost-cutting targets from Corporate by eliminating travel, page counts and other expenses.

MIA: the East Group
A sampling of other papers still not included at the moment includes many in the East: The News-Press at Fort Myers, Fla.; the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, and The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.

Today's paper, Newseum

As well, I don't have any information about five of the six New Jersey dailies. And beyond Westchester, I haven't seen anything for the other five N.Y. papers. Conspicuously absent, for example, is the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. East President Michael Kane also is publisher of that paper, and his group is based in Rochester.

Officially, at any rate, USA Today isn't included in this round, nor are the 17 dailies in the U.K. Newsquest division. And for the most part, other company divisions have been spared, including the broadcasting division, Gannett Publishing Services and CareerBuilder.

However, Gannett Government Media, publisher of Army Times and other titles, laid off 17 in early July, after ordering third-quarter furloughs just two weeks before.

Gannett, the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher, employed just under 31,000 worldwide across all divisions at the end of last year, according to the latest published data.

Earlier: Gannett launches stealth round of layoffs; more than 100 expected in days ahead.

Related: Corporate's list of all national and international sites.

Is your site here?
Please check this read-only spreadsheet to see the latest figures for your site. Then post any new information in the comments section, below. Or write confidentially to jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

Urgent: Hollingsworth to Nashville, but remains group chief; Hudler now special assistant to Dickey

That's according to a just-issued press release. The edited text:

Hollingsworth

Gannett announced today that Laura Hollingsworth, 46, has been named president and publisher of The Tennessean. Hollingsworth comes to Nashville from Des Moines, where she was president and publisher of The Des Moines Register since 2007. She will continue to serve as U.S. Community Publishing group president of the Central Group, formerly the Midwest Group, overseeing 25 markets in the central region.

The current president and publisher of the Tennessean, Carol Hudler, has been named special assistant to U.S. Community Publishing President Bob Dickey. She will oversee strategic initiatives for USCP that aim to better serve our business clients.

Hudler

The move is effective May 13, according to a just-posted Register story, which says Hollingsworth's successor hasn't been announced. (Here's Nashville's story.)

"Laura has a deep commitment to community journalism and will expand our digital capabilities, as she has done in Des Moines. She is a proven leader who will continue to use her strengths to achieve great results," said Dickey. "And, we welcome Carol to her new role directly reporting to me, where she will help strengthen our brands and high-quality products for community-focused journalism."

Laura Hollingsworth
Prior to being named president and publisher of the Tennessean, Laura Hollingsworth served as president and publisher of the Register since 2007. She oversees 25 markets in the Central region and has been a regional group president since 2008. She joined Gannett in 1989. Hollingsworth worked at newspapers in Wisconsin, Washington, Illinois and Michigan prior to joining the Register in 2002 where she served as the vice president of advertising and as general manager.

Carol Hudler
Prior to being named special assistant to the USCP president, Carol Hudler was president and publisher of the Tennessean, a position she held since 2009. Before that, Hudler was the president and publisher of The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla. Hudler has worked in a variety of advertising, marketing and general management positions, including at the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, the Orange County (Calif.) Register, the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram, the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press and the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. She is a board member of the Newspaper Association of America.

Federal regulators are ordering employers to scale back policies that limit what workers can say online

Employees have a right to discuss work conditions freely and without fear of retribution, The New York Times reports today -- whether the discussion takes place at the office or on Facebook, or other social media such as Gannett Blog.

“Many view social media as the new water cooler,” said Mark Pearce, the National Labor Relation Board’s chairman, noting that federal law has long protected the right of employees to discuss work-related matters. “All we’re doing is applying traditional rules to a new technology.”

The board’s rulings, which apply to virtually all private sector employers, generally tell companies that it is illegal to adopt broad social media policies -- like bans on “disrespectful” comments or posts that criticize the employer -- if those policies discourage workers from exercising their right to communicate with one another with the aim of improving wages, benefits or working conditions, the NYT says.

But the agency has also found that it is permissible for employers to act against a lone worker ranting on the Internet. And one example involves a reporter for The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, which is published by a company owned equally by Gannett and Lee Enterprises.

Frustrated by a lack of news, the reporter posted several Twitter comments. One said, “What?!?!?! No overnight homicide. . . . You’re slacking, Tucson.” Another began, “You stay homicidal, Tucson.”

The newspaper fired the reporter, according to the NYT, and board officials found the dismissal legal, saying the posts were offensive, not concerted activity and not about working conditions.

Earlier: News-Press reporter leaves Fort Myers, Fla., paper after being disciplined over Chick-fil-A post on Facebook last August.

How do you feel about posting online comments critical of the company? 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 | In battle for readers, will a national news audience buy Gannett's 'hometown advantage'?

Let me first quote two key paragraphs from Alan Mutter's excellent new analysis of the challenges USA Today still confronts after redesigning its website and print edition:

"As USA Today commences its fourth decade, there is reason to wonder if its business model will be viable for another 30 years, given that it has lost its utility to its primary targets: business travelers and the advertisers seeking to reach them. Further, nearly two-thirds of its coast-to-coast circulation is built on free copies distributed by hotels and other businesses, meaning that barely more than a third of its readers actually think enough of the paper to pay for it."

And:

"Coinciding with its birthday, USAT put its web and mobile offerings in new and appealing Zite-lite packages. The actual content contained in those new packages, however, consists of a thin mix of aggregated and featherweight articles that seem to have been chosen more for their pageview-generating potential than for their journalistic significance. The result is that the aggregation is less complete than you get at The Huffington Post, less illuminating than you get at Real Clear Politics, less stimulating than you get at Drudge Report and less newzy, breezy and sleazy than you can get at TMZ."

Getting what they pay for
Piggybacking on Mutter's argument, I've tried to focus more discussion on the paper's competitively weak editorial content over its shiny new look. One measure of that weakness: USAT is (I believe) the only Gannett daily (other than Detroit) that's not erecting a paywall. Why?

The answer appears to be management doesn't think readers are willing to pay for the content USAT so far is delivering. Publisher Larry Kramer has promised some editorial improvements, but none of them sound like the sort of sweeping changes that will make USAT really stand out in a very crowded market.

Callaway

Its exclusive niche is of dubious value: news and video from Gannett's 81 U.S. community dailies, 23 TV stations, and specialty publications like Army Times. In his column introducing USAT's redesign, new top editor David Callaway wrote about the value of Gannett's companywide "5,000" journalists -- a figure I still find of curious origin.

"That's a reporting army, Callaway says, "almost twice the size of what is now Thomson Reuters, which has traditionally billed itself as the world's largest news organization."

The national news desk
Then Callaway inserts an important caveat: "Numbers aren't enough: The trick is to make them work together."

This is where the still developing national news desk comes into play. Callaway calls it "a hub-and-spoke news desk where the senior editors from news departments such as video, graphics, breaking news, and enterprise will work together and across platforms to deliver national news, charts and visuals to every local Gannett paper and TV station across the country."

In other words, it's back to the future: Gannett News Service, which became ContentOne, which then became Gannett News Network after founder Tara Connell's retirement in May 2011.

The national desk may benefit the community dailies and TV stations, but how will it strengthen USAT's hand? Callaway writes: "We'll use the best of what is coming from Gannett papers such as the Detroit Free Press, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and KUSA-TV in Denver, the top-rated TV station in the country, to leverage their scoops and unique reporting across all of our media."

Look: I love the dailies and stations. And the larger ones, including my alma mater in Kentucky's Louisville, do incredible good work -- with community news. Collectively, they are Gannett's "hometown advantage," as CEO Gracia Martore reminded Wall Street media stock analysts at a conference in June.

Dateline: Lafayette, La.
But do USAT's readers really want local-local news from Fort Myers, Fla.; Portland, Maine; Great Falls, Mont., or Lafayette, La.? Is that really the sort of aggregation that will power USAT's much-needed competitive edge for its next 30 years?

We're now going to find out. I'll close with Mutter: "Even though there’s still a bit of time for Kramer to determine how to leverage the waning power of the print brand in the digital world, there can be no doubt that my esteemed friend knows there is little time to waste."

Related: Newspaper design blogger Charles Apple's super-detailed critique of a super-big Page One graphic.