Cherry Hill Confidential | Issue 09.30.12

This thread is exclusively for news and comments about the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., where I hear there's suddenly been considerable upheaval in management.

Earlier: Salinas Confidential.

Salinas Confidential | Issue 09.27.12

This thread is exclusively for news and comments about The Salinas Californian, where I hear there's suddenly been considerable upheaval in newsroom management.

Coming soon: Cherry Hill Confidential!

Earlier: Let them eat employee-supplied cake.

Salinas | Let them eat employee-supplied cake

Paula Goudreau, general manager of the Salinas Californian and sister properties, sent the following memo to employees on Tuesday, about a planned visit next week by CEO Gracia Martore and U.S. newspapers division President Bob Dickey, according to one of my readers.

What's striking about the memo: Gannett is now so strapped for cash that employees apparently are supplying food for a company function. Here's the text:

Hi all --

Just to get into your calendar. Our corporate visitors will be here next week Thursday, August 23rd. We will hold a town hall meeting in the conference room starting at 11:00. Immediately following, we will have one of our traditional potlucks. [XXXXX] will coordinate sign-ups for food. Please be sure to spend some time cleaning up your desk/office. Please have this done no later than cob Monday, August 20th (that gives you the week-end to clean up your area). If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

By the numbers
The Californian's circulation is 9,355 on weekdays, and 11,853 on Saturdays.

Salinas | GM Feinberg said out after three years

Terry Feinberg, general manager of one of Gannett's smallest dailies, the Salinas Californian, has left the paper after more than three years in that post, according to a reader and the paper's website.

In an e-mail, the reader says Feinberg was replaced yesterday on an interim basis by Advertising and Marketing Director Dana Arvig.

As I post this, Feinberg's LinkIn profile still shows he's GM, a position he's held since May 2008.

The paper's website shows a headline for today's edition: "General manager of Californian departs." Oddly, however, I'm prompted for a login and password when I click on it.

The Californian's weekday circulation is 9,037.

Feinberg's departure comes a day after another top newspaper executive announced his exit: Mark Mikolajczyk, Florida Today's publisher since 2006, said Monday he's leaving for a job as president of subsidiaries at Craig Technologies of Cape Canaveral.

The news of Mikolajczyk's leave has prompted unusually large number of Gannett Blog comments on this post.

A cookie cutter future for the smallest newspapers

Editors of Gannett's top newspapers are scheduled to meet Aug. 16-18 at Corporate's headquarters in McLean, Va., to revamp their newsrooms, following the latest round of layoffs. The meeting for the benefit of the "T-31" papers has exposed a divide within the U.S. newspaper division and its 80 titles, prompting renewed speculation about the future for the smaller ones.

To the best of my knowledge, Corporate has never publicly disclosed a list of the T-31s, defined as the largest revenue producers; I posted one earlier this month, which I assembled with the help of a Gannett Blog reader.

The NT-31s (for "not top") are the other 49 community papers, and are spread across the nation: from Gannett's first newspaper, the Star-Gazette in Elmira, N.Y., to the 10 titles in the Media Network of Central Ohio, to The Californian in Salinas.

Conventional wisdom suggests the NT-31s will continue to be starved of resources through layoffs and other austerity measures, much like what's happening to the larger dailies.

But given their already shrunken capacities, the NTs will be among the first to go Web-only, perhaps after a period where they become zoned editions of larger nearby Gannett papers. Call it a cookie cutter future. (A featured example, discussed below, is today's editions of three NTs in New Jersey; I've embedded images of their front pages, left.)

The best summary of where the NTs may be headed came July 12, from Anonymous@1:08 p.m. Following is the text.

'Why you get forgotten'
I am so very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but . . . the company decided a couple of years ago that you ain't worth the time, money and fuss. That's why you have editor/ad directors/GMs and not publishers. That's why you don't get included in company meetings. That's why you get forgotten about in conference calls. While your margins remain good, the actual dollars you have in play remain low. So, even though Muncie, Ind., has a much higher NIBT return than Indianapolis, the cash flowing through The Indianapolis Star's ledger makes them and the other T-31s worth the most of Corporate's attention.

For example, at Corporate, we track the NT-31s as a single entity, rolling up all the numbers into one spreadsheet, as if the combination was a single site. Of course, the NT-31s still have their own unit numbers (for now) and Evan Ray still digs into them when he sees group performance taking a dip.

Future: strip shopping malls
But, harsh reality here: The NT-31s will soon be like bank branches in strip shopping centers. They will have a sign, a front counter, maybe a person or two -- but all other real functions will be at the main office somewhere else.

Sure, we will always look for ways to spotlight a few of you folks: You get your share of the President's Rings, for example, and one or two of the Freedom of Information award finalist spots. Hey, what about Guam! Let's give them a shout-out 'cause they are interesting and fun! Keep hope alive.

But, truthfully, your value to the company has been relegated to giving street cred to the National Network Footprint of Gannett, so we can say we have XX properities in XX states serving XX audience. So, we really need to get your expense numbers as low as possible. Fewer FTES, just enough lifeblood to keep you alive but not strong enough to do much more than that. Keep your salaries low, your expenses lower, your management lowest.

So, long answer to a short question: The NT-31s will get the Passion Topics rollout in webinars, PowerPoints and conference calls -- with regional training for those clustered near T-31 sites.

Now, if you want to start another thread: How many of the NT-31 sites make more money (not just percentage NIBT, but total cash) than some of the T-31s? I bet there are a few of those small sites that do better at the end of the day than a few of those so-called larger-market sites.

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.

[Images: today's editions of three NT-31 newspapers in New Jersey that have become satellites of one, larger N.J., paper: the Asbury Park Press, Newseum. The three are the Courier News in Somerville, N.J.; the Home News Tribune in East Brunswick, and the Daily Record in Parsippany. The combined staffing in their newsrooms was cut nearly in half, to about 53, in February. Today, for example, all the papers have substantially the same front pages]

All shook up: As Newseum's operating costs soared to $250,000 a day, Freedom Forum's finances sank

[This year's Presley exhibit is a stretch for a news museum]

Four months ago, the Freedom Forum journalism foundation issued a late-afternoon press release that nearly begged to be ignored. Under a snoozer of a headline, it announced seemingly routine management promotions at the non-profit foundation and its signature project, a Washington museum about news history called the Newseum.

Overby

"These changes,'' Chairman and CEO Charles Overby said, "strengthen the entire management team and reflect the good work that has been done to promote our priorities of the Newseum, the First Amendment and diversity in newsrooms."

The release barely hinted at the real news. Freedom Forum and the Newseum had undergone a stunning management shakeup that left several high-paying jobs vacant. They included that of its just-departed president, former USA Today Editor Ken Paulson, who got $443,185 in salary, benefits and expenses in 2009. Moreover, the statement didn't disclose that both institutions had fallen into greater financial straits than previously reported.

Now, newly released public documents reveal the untold story. Annual spending by Freedom Forum and the museum has skyrocketed, contributing to $224 million in foundation overspending during 2007-2009 alone, further weakening its crucial income-producing endowment.

The museum is the culprit. In 2007, a year before unveiling a $450 million expansion that cost nearly twice initial projections, the Newseum's annual operating costs totaled $36 million -- an average of $99,000 a day. In 2009, they soared to $92 million, or $250,000 a day, the documents show.

A glittering fortune, gone

This is a story about what happened to a glittering fortune -- one amassed by generations of Gannett employees, only to be drained from the company's charitable arm, the original Gannett Foundation.

Neuharth

It's also about Allen H. Neuharth, who launched Freedom Forum in 1991 after he retired as Gannett's chairman and CEO. The foundation, the company, and his most famous creation -- USA Today -- are the 86-year-old's legacy. Now, in the twilight of his life, crushing economic forces are threatening all three.

Freedom Forum tax documents and annual reports reveal extraordinary spending on construction, interest payments, salaries and bonuses. Coupled with bruising stock market declines, the endowment's non-real estate assets plunged to $400 million in 2009 from $900 million in 2000, when the Newseum expansion started.

Meanwhile, as museum staff got laid off, top executives received six-figure bonuses in 2008 for completing the museum, even though it opened years later than first forecast. Overby, for one, got a $375,000 cash bonus, bringing his total pay that year to $991,044 in wages, benefits and expenses. Including expenses over the past decade, Freedom Forum has now paid him $7 million.

These details emerge in nearly 10,000 pages of IRS reports Freedom Forum and the Newseum filed in 2000-2009. The 2009 report was filed Oct. 29. I obtained copies of the documents under federal open records laws. They're the only comprehensive source of financial information such non-profits are required to make public.

To be sure, Freedom Forum and the Newseum may have other financial resources to tap, including potentially millions in outstanding donations, plus a smaller endowment held by the museum itself worth $27 million at the end of 2009. Still, barring an exceptional reversal in fortunes this year and in the immediate years ahead, it's unclear how much longer the two institutions can be sustained.

I asked Freedom Forum officials about the financial condition of the foundation and the museum, in e-mails last Wednesday and on Dec. 8. They declined to comment, other than to acknowledge receiving my requests.

This isn't the first time Freedom Forum's spending has been in the spotlight. In a 1994 settlement with the New York attorney general's office, it agreed to curtail what the general called runaway construction spending on the foundation's first headquarters.

In 2002, when Columbia Journalism Review reported big cutbacks in international programs to finance the Newseum, Overby told writer Russ Baker: "I have found that there are three things that everybody knows how to run. They know how to edit a newspaper, they know how to coach a football team, and they know how to run a foundation."

An electric chair, and Elvis
Signs of the museum's stumbling aren't confined to IRS documents. Consider the Elvis Presley exhibit mounted last spring. "Elvis! His groundbreaking, hip-shaking, newsmaking story," was nominally about how the rock 'n' roll singer was portrayed in the news media. Yet, the Newseum's promotional materials focused more on Presley's personal property from his Graceland home.

The museum said those mementos included his white jumpsuit for the 1973 "Aloha from Hawaii" concert, plus a coat and belt he wore to his 1970 White House meeting with President Nixon. The Newseum appeared to be really stretching for ticket sales.

Newseum's exterior

The Presley show joined other exhibits built around an expansively eclectic collection of news industry artifacts, owned and borrowed -- and all displayed in the 250,000 square-foot museum. They include 35,000 historic newspapers, a collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning photos, plus pieces of the Berlin Wall, and the electric chair in which convicted Lindbergh baby kidnapper Bruno Hauptmann was executed.

Certainly, ticket sales never pay the freight at cultural institutions, especially in Washington, where admission is typically free to better-known places like the Smithsonian Institution. Last year, for example, the Newseum sold just $7 million in often-discounted $20 tickets. That's why contributions and earnings from endowments are so crucial.

Freedom Forum started with a $650 million endowment. At the time, 1991, Neuharth had taken control of the original Gannett Foundation after retiring as Gannett's jet-setting CEO. The foundation was established by Founder Frank E. Gannett in 1935 for the benefit of food pantries and other non-profits in communities where the company did business nationwide. Its endowment comprised GCI stock, which Neuharth moved to sell in order to boost the foundation's growth. Gannett agreed to buy it back under pressure, rather than risk its falling to an unfriendly investor.

Neuharth soon went on a spending spree that drew the attention of New York's attorney general. In a settlement on Dec. 28, 1994, Neuharth and other governing trustees paid $175,000 in restitution to the foundation for inappropriate spending. Those expenditures included a massage table in Neuharth's office, and the purchase of 2,000 copies of his autobiography, Confessions of an S.O.B., in an "apparent attempt to improve its bestseller standing," according to a settlement summary. By this point, Neuharth had relinquished the Gannett Foundation name, returning it to the company.

Optimism vs. reality
The reconstituted Gannett Foundation never recovered. It had just $15 million in assets at the end of last year, when its annual spending fell to only $4.1 million. Neuharth's maneuvers would forever deprive scores of communities of hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable support -- from the Rust Belt in Elmira, N.Y., to the farm town of Salinas, Calif., that inspired John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.

Jan Neuharth

Neuharth named his new philanthropy Freedom Forum, and gave it a lofty mission: "free press, free speech, and free spirit for all people." His lieutenant for many years in Gannett, Overby, 63, has been CEO from the start; he became chairman of the nine-member board of trustees in 1997. Most of the trustees are close Neuharth friends or associates, including his daughter, Jan Neuharth. Other trustees include PBS correspondent Judy Woodruff. Former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker is listed as board secretary.

At 86, Neuharth himself remains active, the foundation says. As founder, he got paid $216,094 in wages plus $262,235 for expenses last year. The 2009 IRS report says he worked 40 hours a week, but it doesn't detail his duties or expenses.

The original Newseum opened in 1997 next to Freedom Forum's first home, across the Potomac River from D.C. in Arlington, Va. Within three years, Overby cited capacity limits in announcing plans to build a bigger home at a location with more foot traffic.

In a June 2000 column, Overby said administrators chose D.C. over other sites in New York City and Northern Virginia. The location would be on Pennsylvania Avenue, across from the National Gallery of Art, "positioned between the Capitol and the White House on an avenue famous around the world,'' he said. Eventually, the project would include a Wolfgang Puck restaurant and a residential apartment tower. Overby suggested an opening in 2003 or 2004.

"If all goes well," he wrote, "Washington will have a major new tourist attraction in three or four years. And the First Amendment and a free press will have an enduring center that teaches and entertains."

All did not go well.

Freedom Forum paid a D.C. record $100 million for the Pennsylvania Avenue property; it included an office building that was razed. In that year's 2000 annual report, the foundation said "the entire project, including the land purchase and construction of the Newseum and housing, is expected to cost about $250 million."

Prichard

A year later, in late 2001, then-President Peter Prichard told CJR: "We said originally we thought the whole project would cost $250 million. I think it will probably cost somewhat more than that, but we don't know yet. We're actually in the process of trying to figure all that out now."

By 2002, the price tag had grown to $400 million, and the completion date had been pushed back to late 2006, that year's annual report said. It eventually opened in April 2008 at a cost Freedom Forum now puts at $450 million.

The trustees had confronted runaway construction before, in their 1994 battle with New York's attorney general, Oliver Koppell.

In the settlement, Koppell said trustees had "failed to exercise appropriate cost controls" around construction -- in that case, of the foundation's original headquarters in Arlington. In response, they agreed any future construction would be completed "within the budget's limits, and that projected costs are not exceeded without adequate justification."

Overby signed the agreement for the foundation. Its provisions effectively remained in force only three years, however. I obtained a copy of the settlement documents under New York open-records law. (Download your own copy, which I've published here for the first time.)

Debt load skyrockets
None of the IRS reports or other publicly available documents explain the cost increases or delayed delivery. But the IRS reports reveal the impact on Freedom Forum's balance sheet. (Here's a spreadsheet of select figures for 2000, plus 2007-2009.)

The 2000 report says the foundation had no mortgage debt; instead, it lists $89.9 million in "loan agreements." That year, it paid no interest. By 2007, however, mortgage debt -- presumably tied to the Newseum construction -- had soared to $362 million. Expenses that year included $1.1 million in interest.

Then the numbers suddenly started gyrating. In 2008, the year the museum opened, Freedom Forum paid a whopping $20.1 million in interest, only to see that drop to $6.2 million last year.

It was the opposite story at the Newseum. It is a legally separate entity from Freedom Forum, so files its own tax reports. By 2007, the museum also carried a mortgage, valued at $35 million. That year, its expenses included a $785,373 interest payment.

But last year, the report says, Newseum's interest expense suddenly ballooned to $23.5 million, even though its mortgage debt remained virtually unchanged. The IRS reports don't explain why the $20 million-plus interest expenses see-sawed between Freedom Forum and the Newseum. (Here's a spreadsheet of select Newseum financial figures for 2007-2009.)

The 2009 IRS reports for Freedom Forum and the Newseum don't identify the mortgage holders.

The cost overruns could be due to a lack of trained museum experience at the top. The foundation hired consultants to plan and develop the Newseum's expansion. Yet, overseeing the project were Freedom Forum and Newseum executives whose prior experience was in Gannett newsrooms. Long-time CEO Overby edited newspapers in Tennessee, Florida and Mississippi, and was on USA Today's management committee. Prichard was USAT's top editor before becoming museum president. So was Paulson.

Other unannounced departures
Freedom Forum's Aug. 11 management shakeup got little attention from major news media. The foundation's statement described Paulson's exit from the president's job only in passing. And it didn't mention two other executive departures. The Newseum's executive director since its 1997 start, Joe Urschel, has stepped down from his $276,000 post. And a former Neuharth chief of staff, Senior Vice President Chris Wells, has left her $291,000 job. Like Paulson's, those two positions haven't been filled.

Paulson

Paulson was named chief executive of the First Amendment Center, a foundation project in Nashville, Tenn. He had been in line to succeed Overby. It appears Overby is now running both Freedom Forum and the Newseum with other deputy directors who survived the shakeup.

There's been other evidence of money woes. Last year, Overby was among several managers who took pay cuts -- a rare move for him, long among Washington philanthropy's highest-paid executives. Yet, even with that wage reduction, documents show Overby has collected $6.1 million in salary and retirement benefits, plus $819,000 for expenses, in 2000-2009. (Since 2001, he also has been on the board of directors of the controversial for-profit prisons operator, Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville. CCA paid him $164,640 in fees last year alone.)

Also last year, Freedom Forum eliminated virtually all donations to non-profits that have been especially dear to Neuharth, and to Overby and the foundation's other trustees. In recent years, many of those headline-generators went to causes with little or no connection to journalism. They included more than $70,000 to a Cocoa Beach, Fla., adoption agency controlled by Neuharth's third wife. Last year, her Home At Last agency got zilch. Also cut out: gifts to the United States Equestrian Team; Neuharth's daughter, Jan, is an equestrian enthusiast in Middleburg, Va., an hour west of Gannett's corporate headquarters.

Freedom Forum's endowment, meanwhile, has a long way to grow before it can comfortably support itself and the Newseum. Last year, the foundation spent $28 million on operations, plus another $52 million grant to the Newseum. Assuming no change in spending, to produce that $80 million this year, the endowment would need to have grown 20%, to $480 million, just to avoid further erosion of its principal. That seems unlikely. Overall stock markets are up 12% this year, based on the widely watched S&P 500 index. (See the spreadsheet for a breakdown of investment assets.)

The foundation's money managers, led by Goldman Sachs, got paid $2.2 million in fees last year.

Freedom Forum's income from outside donors and other sources also appears tepid. The foundation itself doesn't solicit contributions from the public. But the Newseum does. It got $5.4 million in gifts in 2009 beyond the $52.4 million from Freedom Forum. It took in another $26.4 million from facilities rental, ticket sales and concessions. Combined, that revenue still fell short by about $8 million of its $92 million in operating expenses.

To be certain, the museum may have other resources on which to draw. It listed $53 million in grants receivable at the end of 2009, the tax report for that year says. But it doesn't identify the source of that money, including whether any is due from Freedom Forum itself. The museum has 16 "founding partners" who pledged at least $117 million in gifts toward the new building. The biggest, $25 million, came from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Some of these gifts may be coming via installment payments, so could be part of the $53 million.

Also, the Newseum has its own endowment, comprising $27 million in publicly traded securities at the end of 2009. The value of those securities was much higher at the beginning of the year: $48 million; the tax report doesn't explain the $21 million value change, however.

What's Neuharth thinking?
Even the museum's closest boosters have hardly ponied up. Neuharth has contributed only $60,000 to the Friends of the First Amendment Society, which the museum calls "the premiere giving society for donors who contribute $1,000 or more to the Newseum." Members have donated a little over $1 million since it was established in 2007. Among Freedom Forum and Newseum trustees, only two have given $30,000 -- Bette Bao Lord and Wilbert Norton. Neuharth's daughter, Jan, falls in a category of those giving $10,000 to $19,999.

Overby will soon turn 65. With no clear successor after Paulson's departure, it's now reasonable to assume trustees are looking outside Freedom Forum for a new CEO. I asked the foundation if a formal search had begun; that was among my questions it did not answer. Neuharth would almost certainly be involved in any succession planning.

He keeps a close eye on another part of his legacy: USA Today. Last July, Neuharth sharply criticized Publisher Dave Hunke over a full-page Jeep ad that wrapped the front page, calling it the worst mistake made in the paper's 28-year history. USAT is now undergoing a reorganization to boost revenue after steep advertising and circulation losses.

Neuharth still writes his weekly "Plain Talk" for the paper from his sprawling oceanfront estate in Cocoa Beach, called the Pumpkin Center. He's paid $100,000 a year for the column, under an agreement-for-life with Gannett. At the height of his luxe Corporate rule, Neuharth enjoyed living in the limelight.

Now, amid Freedom Forum's missteps, the light has grown harsh -- and perhaps unwelcome. "Most of us have gotten very nosy about everything and everybody,'' he wrote earlier this month. "But many of us fail to realize how nosy others are about us."

Related: Download free copies of the 2009 tax reports. Here's Freedom Forum's. And here's the Newseum's.

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.

Salinas | 15 staffers lose jobs as printing shifts

The 139-year-old Salinas Californian has moved production to a non-Gannett paper in San Jose, Calif., in a change that eliminates nine full-time and six part-time jobs, and follows similar consolidations across GCI. It also moves USA Today's printing to the new site.

The shift about 60 miles north apparently took place two days ago, according to a Californian story that first disclosed the new arrangement earlier this month. A Gannett Blogger alerted us to the change in a comment yesterday.

In its story, the paper said General Manager Terry Feinberg had "pointed to the faltering economy and aging production equipment — in need of costly repair or replacement — in the decision to outsource printing."

[Updated at 6:12 a.m. ET on Sept. 22: Feinberg told Editor & Publisher that San Jose's Southwest Offset Printing, which got the contract to print the Californian, "ended up making offers to five of our guys, and three of them accepted."]

The move follows speculation in May that the paper was on the verge of shifting to a bi-weekly printing schedule.

The paper is one of the smallest of Gannett's 82 U.S. dailies. It circulates 10,791 copies on weekdays, and 13,100 on Saturdays, according to ABC data as of March 31. It doesn't publish on Sundays, according to ABC.

The Californian is a descendent of the Salinas Index, first published March 31, 1871, and so has a storied past. John Steinbeck, a Salinas native, first was published in the Index sometime before 1920.

[Image: yesterday's front page, Newseum]

Salinas | A daily's switch to bi-weekly publishing?

A reader who sounds plugged-in says management of the small Salinas Californian may soon present to Corporate plans to switch the daily to bi-weekly publishing, if certain targets -- possibly, revenue -- fall below a set threshold. The plan was requested by Corporate, I'm told. In a related move, my reader says, the Californian is considering outsourcing its printing as well.

The paper is one of the smallest of Gannett's 82 U.S. dailies. It circulates 10,791 copies on weekdays, and 13,100 on Saturdays, according to ABC data as of March 31. It doesn't publish on Sundays, according to ABC.

The Californian is a descendent of the Salinas Index, first published March 31, 1871, and so has a storied past. John Steinbeck, a Salinas native, first was published in the Index sometime before 1920.

Some 19 years later, Steinbeck (left) wrote The Grapes of Wrath, his novel about desperate Depression-era Americans migrating to California from Oklahoma's Dust Bowl, in search of work in the state's agriculture industry.

To this day, the Salinas Valley is deep in California's agricultural economy; it produces more than 80% of the lettuce grown in the United States. Steinbeck's ashes are buried in a Salinas cemetery.

Any switch to less than daily publishing would be a first among Gannett papers during the time I've been keeping this blog: since September 2007. It differs from a change at the Detroit Free Press in spring 2009, when that paper ended home delivery on all but three high-advertising days. The Freep continues to print a daily paper, although copies were sold only at retail.

Do you know anything more about this? 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: today's paper, Newseum]

How ContentOne threatens local editorial control

The new web-based news service is more than just another way to save bucks by consolidating. ContentOne could further concentrate editorial control over all the company's 85 U.S. newspaper websites.

That would be a big shift in a century-old policy laid down by co-founder Frank Gannett (left). He mandated local autonomy over news coverage, from school boards to presidential inaugurations, the company's history says: "It was his belief that a newspaper best serves its city if its publisher, editor and all its employees are locally oriented and understand the city and its people."

Today, Gannett's newspapers and websites are still produced by people who live and work in the communities they serve: from Rochester, N.Y., to Louisville, Ky., to Salinas, Calif. Importantly, this has meant local folks choose the stories, photos and other content appearing in print and online.

But that is now changing under ContentOne -- a fact CEO Craig Dubow revealed early last month to a high-profile conference of influential Wall Street stock analysts. The service, Dubow said, creates a "national head" to the "local content-gathering bodies,'' and is the logical next step from the Information Center model adopted two years ago.

Which editors choose news?
Consider ContentOne's debut as news central across all 85 sites for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. A week ago, Corporate gave each paper a "turnkey'' microsite -- like The Courier-Journal's, in Louisville, Ky.; here's a partial screenshot:

Readers get to the Obama page via an illustrated link (inset, left) embedded on the Courier's homepage; all the Gannett sites adopted these in the past week. Kentucky readers are encouraged to think the page was created by editors in Louisville -- the same ones who pick stories for the rest of the site, and for the daily print paper.

For example, readers are greeted by the paper's logo in the upper-left corner, and a little bit of local news right below -- just like on all the other sites. All the other stories and features were selected by Corporate, as promised in its planning memo: "It will be delivered to you and your readers under your local branding."

(Broadcasting division employees might compare this to the establishment, now under way, of centralized graphics and master control engineering functions at regional centers.)

Finally, check out the list of stories in the middle of the page, near the bottom in that screenshot -- under the heading that says in red type, "inauguration headlines." This identical list of stories appears on all the Gannett Obama sites I spot-checked. That leads to my:

Pesky questions!

• Which editors choose those national Obama stories on behalf of all 85 websites -- and where do those editors work?
• Many if not all these stories are soft, and lack hard news. Is that a policy? If so, who set the policy -- and why?
• Does Corporate plan to extend this consolidation of editing decision-making to other national news pages on community paper sites -- such as business, sports and popular culture?
• How many copy-editing and webpage-building jobs does Corporate expect to eliminate during 2009 under ContentOne?
• As ContentOne evolves, what steps has the board of directors taken to safeguard the community papers' traditional editorial autonomy?

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 sidebar, upper right.

Day 3: Job losses near 1,800; Salinas whacks 31%

Gannett's downsizing has now claimed 1,792 newspaper jobs, according to a new Gannett Blog reader tally that also brings this heart breaker: The Salinas Californian eliminated a whopping 31% of its 130 jobs -- one of the biggest percentage losses yet.

But the final number of Gannett jobs lost is expected to be higher, because three of the biggest worksites haven't disclosed figures: USA Today; the Detroit Free Press and affiliates, plus The Cincinnati Enquirer. Combined employment at those three is around 4,500 to 5,000. Excluding USAT and Detroit, Corporate now says total job reductions will be about 2,000.

In Salinas, General Manager Terry Feinberg was struggling to find something to say when he told his paper: "As difficult as this is, it does provide us with an opportunity to take a look at everything we do.''

The paper reports: "Layoffs started Tuesday and finished Wednesday, with 21 people losing their jobs immediately and another 14 positions to be cut over the next six to eight weeks. Four positions were removed through attrition, and one person took a voluntary buyout, for a total of 40 jobs eliminated.''

California is one of four states where Gannett markets were especially hard hit when the real estate bubble collapsed (the other three: Arizona, Florida and Nevada). Plus, the Californian's circulation tanked recently, Deutsche Bank says. It plunged 13.3%, to 14,240 as of Sept. 30, from 16,416 a year before.

We've now accounted for 65 of the 85 community dailies, plus USA Today. Is your paper included? Please add your numbers and links to stories on our list, or in the comments section, below. Or e-mail confidentially via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com].

[Image: yesterday's front page, Newseum]

In Palm Springs, video captures gay weddings

Note: To turn off the video, click on the button in the far-left corner at the bottom of this embedded player.

The Salinas Californian is just one of four Gannett newspapers in California featuring one of the nation's biggest social and political stories of the year: Legal same-sex marriage, with the first weddings starting this week. For example, The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, a city with a large and growing gay population, published video and photo galleries that a reader says allowed faraway family and friends to watch the events "live" on the Web. Here's one:


The Sun's video features something I haven't seen in other Gannett videos: A crawling headline "zipper" along the bottom, like those on CNN and other cable news channels. On the downside, this is one of those video players that, once embedded on a blog or other webpage, auto-starts when the page is loaded. We. Hate. That. So. Much.

Thanks to a reader for suggesting this post! Got a video or other link to recommend? Post a note in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, use this link from a non-work computer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Cutlines Only: The Salinas Californian

Now married, Sandy Hamm (left) and Adrianne Jonson leave the Monterey County Administrative Office on Tuesday with their new marriage license. The pair were the first same-sex couple to wed in the county yesterday, The Salinas Californian said this morning, as it reported a story dominating California news media. Photo by Richard Green, Californian, via Newseum.

Cutlines Only showcases Gannett website art. From a non-work computer, use this link to e-mail suggestions; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

More big circulation losers among GCI papers

Within Gannett, The Californian at Salinas had the single-biggest loss in daily circulation -- 13.6%, to 15,957 -- as of March 31 vs. a year ago, the new Deutsche Bank analysis shows.

Among Sunday papers, the dubious No. 1 honor went to The Leaf-Chronicle at Clarksville, Tenn.; its circulation cratered 15.9%, to 22,438, DB's report shows.

Other notables: The Journal News at White Plains, N.Y., plunged 10.9% daily, to 108,863; Sunday: 7.3%, to 125,829. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle fell 5.1% daily, to 148,858; Sunday: 4.7%, to 199,533, the report says.

Did your paper disclose its circulation figures to employees, after they were published Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations? Leave a note in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail your reply; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Image: this morning's Californian, Newseum]

Cutlines Only: The Salinas Californian

Angela Nana works Sunday morning at Bagel Corner in Salinas, Calif. She'll benefit from this month's increase in the state minimum wage, The Salinas Californian says today. Photo by Scott Macdonald, Californian.

Cutlines Only showcases Gannett website art. E-mail suggested links here; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Holidaze: Let's do it as a '12 _____ s of _______' !

Holidays bring big papers, no news -- and really dopey story assignments from editors desperate to fill the newspaper. But, hey: 'Tis the season, right?

• Newspaper: The Salinas Californian
• Headline: 12 ways to make the holidays more meaningful
• The lede: "Amid all the holiday hoopla, children often lose sight of the significance of the season. Taking a spin off The Twelve Days of Christmas, we compiled a list of suggestions from educators and non-profit leaders and came up with 12 ways to celebrate in a meaningful way."
• Mitigating Factor: The story doesn't substitute a more politically correct word, as in: The Twelve Days of Holiday.

Was it the assignment to spend New Year's Eve with a lonely security guard -- and live-blog the experience? Use this link to e-mail your worst holiday story assignments. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

[Image: Rudolph by Flickr member jamieanne]