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.

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.

Pop Quiz | Why is it called the Butterfly Project?

Because calling it the Pigs Fly Project would mean Corporate was really serious about adding more local news.

(Plus, When Hell Freezes Over Project is kind of wordy.)

Pop Quiz | Hint: It's certainly not Gannett Blog

USA Today media columnist Rem Rieder says one of these is "widely regarded as the world's premier news organization." Which one?

1. Financial Times
2. Fox News
3. Gannett Blog
4. Hello! magazine
5. The Huffington Post
6. The New York Times
7. L'Osservatore Romano
8. PBS NewsHour
9. USA Today
10. The Wall Street Journal

Pop Quiz | Match the quote and the USAT publisher

[Publishers: Hunke vs. Kramer]

Gannett's chief executives sounded very upbeat when the company appointed a new publisher for USA Today in 2009, and then again yesterday morning. Which of the following quotes is CEO Craig Dubow praising Dave Hunke -- and which is Gracia Martore talking up Larry Kramer?

“We are thrilled that _____ is joining our team. He will play a critical role as we transform the company and execute on our strategic plan.”

“_____ is a highly talented, multi-faceted leader, who drives excellence throughout his organization while making the tough business decisions. At the same time, he has the courage to be innovative and take chances.”

Here's the one that applies to Hunke, and the one for Kramer.

Pop Quiz | Can you identify Gannett's lounge?

The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., has just started a major newsroom redesign that will feature a new employee lounge, complete with couches and a coffee table.

The Sun isn’t the only site getting kick-back space for workers. “This mandate came from Corporate,’’ says Anonymous@8:44 p.m. “Sites are supposed to create friendly relaxing places with sofas, chairs.”

And not a moment too soon, judging from the following photos!

These are real employee lounges at Facebook, Gannett and Google. Can you match the companies and the photos?

[Lounge at company A]

[Lounge at company B]

[Lounge at company C]

For answers, check out the comments section, below.

Earlier: In Nashville, Tenn., a hullabaloo over an Ikea desk lamp.

Pop Quiz | What's wrong with this paragraph?

Following is from the "Our Company" page on Corporate's website:

As Gannett builds on its valuable local brands and strong journalism, it also is expanding its mobile and digital businesses. It is a digital leader with a portfolio that includes a network of hundreds of local and national media organization web sites that reach 52 million unique users monthly; CareerBuilder.com, the nation’s top employment site which is expanding rapidly internationally and is already in 18 countries outside the U.S.; and Gannett Digital Media Network, which includes top brands such as USATODAY.com, 81 local MomsLikeMe.com sites; HighSchoolSports.net, a top digital sports brand; and action sports network BNQT.

Pop quiz | It's digital déjà vu all over again

Corporate is once more rolling out a new digital-focused campaign for its U.S. community newsrooms. As with previous efforts, management is using memos to tell employees about the goals.

But if some of the language sounds familiar, well, that's because it is.

Following are quotes from two such memos -- one issued this morning, the other in 2006. Can you match the year to the quote?

"[We will] give readers content they want, when they want it, and on the platforms where they want to read it."

"We will deliver the content our audiences want at any time, anywhere and to any device."

Pop Quiz | Gannett Foundation spending in 2010

Sharpen your No. 2 pencils, boys and girls: It's time for the first Annual Gannett Foundation Pop Quiz™, a multiple-choice test on how the company's charitable arm squandered spent millions of dollars last year.

It's based on the non-profit's public 2010 tax return, which the foundation gave to me Friday under great duress under federal open-records laws.

An overview
The foundation donates in four broad categories:

• Community grants to non-profit organizations that request money, such as youth groups, and to disaster relief funds in places where GCI does business 
• GannettMatch grants, where the foundation matches employee gifts dollar-for-dollar of $50 up to $10,000 per year to eligible non-profits 
• Madelyn P. Jennings college scholarships for children of full-time GCI employees. (Overall, the company has more than 30,000 full-time and part-time workers.)
• Executive grants. Current and former hugely overpaid Gannett Management Committee members may earmark up to $15,000 a year to any eligible non-profit in the U.S. or U.K. The non-profit doesn't have be where GCI does business. And unlike under GannettMatch, these stingy executives aren't required to pony up any money of their own.

The bottom line
Last year, the foundation donated $6.9 million vs. nearly $4 million in 2009. Of that, $971,000 was individual community grants, and $1.3 million matched employee contributions.

As in previous years, the foundation made its single biggest award to the Rochester Area Community Foundation in the New York city where GCI was headquartered for decades: $4.5 million, way up from $1.5 million in 2009.

How much did the foundation spend on Jennings scholarships and executive earmarks? Take the quiz, and find out!

The quiz
These questions are all about activity last year, and are based on the IRS Form 990-PF. Choose only one answer per question. (Answers are at the bottom of this post.) You may now begin.

1. In total, how much did the foundation spend on Jennings scholarships for children of those thousands of employees?

• A. $133,000
• B. $39,000
• C. $37.1 million

2. Overall, executives earmarked how much for their favorite charities? 

• A. $150,000
• B. $39,000
• C. $255,000

3. CEO Gracia Martore earmarked how much for her alma mater, Wellesley College? 

• A. $10,000
• B. $15,000
• C. $10 million (the savings from this year's first-quarter furloughs)

4. How much did the foundation match in employee gifts to Wellesley? 

• A. $15,000
• B. $10,000
• C. $400

5. Which one of these non-profits didn't get money earmarked by an executive?

• A. Tappers With Attitude, a tap-dancing group in Silver Spring, Md.
• B. The Adopt-A-Blue-Ball Rescue League in McLean, Va.
• C. Penn State University in Happy Valley, Pa., now embroiled in a child sex-abuse scandal

6. The book value of the foundation's investments in Sandler Investment Partners IV and 21st Century Partners is $11.7 million. What was the market value at the end of 2010?

• A. $3.8 million
• B. $209,704
• C. $15.2 million

7. The foundation's executive director was:

• A. Gracia Martore
• B. Bernie Madoff
• C. Robin Pence

8. Which of the following executives didn't earmark any money for charity?

• A. Bob Dickey
• B. Dick Clapp
• C. Montgomery Burns

9. How many shares of Gannett stock did the foundation own outright at year's end? 

• A. 232,000
• B. 125,000
• C. zero

10. How much did the foundation give the Craig and Denise Dubow scholarship fund at Western Carolina University in North Carolina? 

• A. $7,500
• B. $0
• C. $15,000

Execs' pet charities
This spreadsheet lists all 2010 executive earmarks. And this one lists those in 2009.

Quiz answers

1. B
2. C
3. A
4. C
5. B
6. B
7. C
8. C
9. C
10. B

Earlier: Freedom Forum's new chairman keeps a Neuharth firmly in control.

Pop quiz | How quarterly numbers can deceive

Today, Corporate reiterated its position that Gannett is on the road to prosperity. In the first-quarter earnings report, CEO Craig Dubow told investors: "We accelerated the pace of our strategic transformation efforts to further strengthen and position our company for growth."

That would be a big improvement from two years ago, when the world's economy was poised to fall off a cliff amid a credit crisis that created the Great Recession. GCI has long since bounced back, we've been told.

So, which of the following was the company's total operating revenue during that scary quarter back in 2009?

A.)  $1,251,261,000

B.)  $1,322,405,000

C.)  $1,378,478,000

(Note: Clicking on the links, above, will provide the correct answer.)

Pop Quiz | Testing the conventional wisdom

Imagine you've assembled a group of 500 Gannett workers who are representative of the entire 35,000-employee workforce. Many of them work at daily and weekly newspapers in the U.S., Guam and the U.K. Still more work at the 23 television stations. Some are at CareerBuilder, PointRoll, and Captivate. Then there's Gannett Digital, Clipper and the Gannett Healthcare Group magazines. Don't forget Army Times Publishing, Gannett Offset, and the Centers of Excellence, plus the Regional Toning Centers, the Gannett Production Centers, and many other worksites I don't have room to list. Finally, there's Corporate itself; being representative of the global workforce, these 500 include about 10 folks from the Crystal Palace's Gannett Tower.

By occupation, the group would include assistant circulation managers; TV master control technicians; payroll clerks; magazine photo editors; press operators; advertising design artists; software engineers; security guards; advertising sales people; TV camera operators; receptionists; newspaper reporters and editors; truck drivers, and many, many other positions.

Now, give each of them paper and pencil, and ask them to write down the name of Gannett's CEO.

Question: How many would answer correctly?

Pop Quiz | His views through rose-colored glasses

CEOs always talk to Wall Street in the most glowing terms possible -- no matter how bad their companies' financial results. Craig Dubow is no exception. Following are excerpts of statements he made at the annual end-of-year media stock conferences since he became chief executive in 2005. These include last Wednesday's UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.

One of his remarks below came during the worst year in Gannett's history. Another came during a year of record revenue results. Across the six conference dates, GCI's stock closed at a low of $8.61 and a high of $60.33. Can you match the quote to the year in 2005-2010?

1.

"This past year went very quickly for those of us at Gannett, mainly because we have been very busy. . . . We knew this was a time of great opportunity for us, and we stepped up."

2.

"This has been an exciting, challenging year for Gannett. And while we couldn’t have foreseen all that has happened -- particularly in the economy -- we knew Gannett had to change to appeal to more customers and more advertisers."

3.

"We, as a company, have faced tough times before and know how to manage through them."

4.

"All of those pessimistic news reports are really missing the point of a period like this in our industry. Underlying it all is huge growth, both in the number of people using various forms of media and in the opportunities for a company like Gannett -- one that knows how to seize the day, then manage well."

5.

"We told you some time ago about our plan to position ourselves for the future in an ever changing media landscape. That plan, simply, is to enhance our profitable core operations and build a world class digital business. . . . We have come a long way toward achieving those goals despite these trying economic conditions."

6.

"Although the economy has been moving at a somewhat uneven pace, at Gannett we are moving steadily ahead with important changes to our business operations. In fact, [this] has been a significant year for us on several fronts and we are a stronger company now than we were just twelve months ago."

(For answers to this quiz, click on the numbered hyperlinks.)

Related: remarks at last week's UBS event by Dubow and all the other GCI executives

Pop Quiz | What product does this business sell?

In a written statement announcing the appointment of a new manager, a top executive of a U.S. company said the following yesterday:

"________ is an experienced advertising executive with a solid track record of building sales and competitive market share. He will be an important member of our team as _______ continues to expand the ways we provide business clients with customized solutions and engage consumers."

Pop Quiz | Name USAT's top ad revenue loss

As USA Today gears up for another downsizing, identify the source of advertising -- such as technology -- where the paper has lost the most ad revenue, in aggregate, so far this year. (Hint: It's synonymous with the paper's single-biggest reader demographic, and it's not technology.)

Pop Quiz | Which comment got taken down?

Here's a test of comment moderation at two of the nation's biggest newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

At about the same time last night, I reported as abusive two very similar comments about Chelsea Clinton's personal appearance, posted by readers on stories on the websites of the WSJ (here) and USAT (here). The Journal took its down; as I post this, USAT's, seen below in a screenshot, has not. Click on the image for a bigger, more readable view.

USAT | Pop quiz: Can you find the missing number?

Gannett just filed its second-quarter 10-Q report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a document rich with details -- except when they aren't there. See if you can find the financial information about USA Today in the first-quarter's 10-Q that isn't included in the second quarter's.

Here's the relevant text from the first-quarter 10-Q, filed on May 4:

"National advertising revenues declined 3% for the quarter. National advertising revenues increased 8% in the U.S. Community Publishing group and were up 2% in the UK in local currency for the quarter. Ad revenue at USA TODAY, including USATODAY.com, was down 11% for the quarter. Advertising demand at USA TODAY continues to be impacted by the soft travel and lodging markets. Several categories at USA TODAY improved during the quarter including automotive, technology and retail. These revenue gains, however, were more than offset by weakness in the travel, entertainment, financial, telecommunications and pharmaceutical categories."

Now, here's the text from the second-quarter 10-Q, filed today:

"National advertising revenues declined 4% for the quarter and year-to-date period. Domestically, national advertising revenues decreased 2% for the quarter and 3% year-to-date due to lower results at USA TODAY, partially offset by a double-digit increase in national advertising at U.S. Community Publishing. Advertising demand at USA TODAY continues to be impacted by softness in the travel-related categories. The automotive, retail and packaged goods categories improved during the quarter at USA TODAY while the entertainment, travel, telecommunications and pharmaceutical categories lagged last year. Paid advertising pages at USA TODAY totaled 580 compared with 602 in last year’s second quarter."

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.

Jackson | Death Inc. Pop Quiz Edition!

Spotted moments ago on Amazon's homepage, this is a . . .

• Thoughtful public-service advisory
  
• Touching memorial to an entertainment legend
  
• Shameless grab for bucks
  

A safe prediction: Somewhere, factories are adding shifts to crank out Michael Jackson limited-firing-days commemorative plates.

Got more examples? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. Or write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.

Pop Quiz | How much does this Gannett job pay?

Here's a clue: This job is at a newspaper with circulation of 65,000 to 70,000 daily, and 80,000 to 85,000 Sundays.

Posted: April 3
Job type: engineering/information technology
Requirements: four-year degree, at least three years' experience
Base pay: $ __________

Description: Responsible for the design and creation of all visual elements of [_______.com]. This includes responsibility for the overall look and feel of the website, including lead development of content and architecture plans, presentation design and coordination of all materials to prepare for production. Develop and maintain advertorial content, special project news content, advertising banner positions and marketing/promotional campaigns. Assist with the positing of non-editorial content including assembling and organizing information, editing and packaging content, and creating web-only supplements including forms, photo galleries and databases.

Requirements: Qualified candidates will be proficient in Adobe design products, specifically Flash and DreamWeaver; have a working knowledge of PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, with the ability to create new projects as well as manipulate existing ones; have ability to learn and adapt to new computer languages; and be able to work in a fast-paced environment and meet deadlines while understanding the importance of being a part of a team. Bachelor’s degree in related field or equivalent experience required.

(Give up? Here's the answer.)

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.

[Image: Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, $359.99 at Amazon]