Visalia | What's going on in the executive suite?

A reader describes management upheaval at the top of the Times-Delta in Visalia, Calif., with the latest top executive out on Friday.

Publisher Amy Pack is one of Gannett's longest-serving unit chief executives, having held the job since 1995.

The paper's weekday circulation is 16,540, and Saturday is 20,465, according to the March 31 report from the Alliance for Audited Media. (Circulation lookup.)

Last year, circulation fell 6.3% from 2011, a rate putting the paper in the middle of the pack among the U.S. community dailies, according to regulatory filings.

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 | 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.

Where does your department's employment rank?

At California's Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register, the newsroom accounts for a third of those papers' nearly 100 employees, according to one of my readers.

What's the story at your worksite?

Following a suggestion by a Gannett Blogger, I'm breaking down employment by department at each of the U.S. community dailies -- Gannett's largest and most financially challenged division. It has more than 20,000 of GCI's 31,000 employees. Plus, those papers are now undergoing a buyout that will reduce employment even more.

Please review this spreadsheet, then post your site's numbers by department. How to get the information? Count the names in your phone directories. Or look at the staff contact list on your website.

Then please post information for your site in the comments section, below.

Here are 2005-2010 circ losses for all U.S. dailies; Courier News in N.J. leads list, documents show

The Courier News in Bridgewater, N.J., had the biggest percentage loss in weekday circulation from 2005 to 2010, according to a new review of data for all of Gannett's 81 U.S. community newspapers, as published in the company's annual shareholder reports.

Bridgewater's circulation fell 51%, to 18,437 from 37,282 over those six years, my review shows.

The average for all the papers: a 27% decline, to a total 3.4 million weekday copies at the end of last year vs. 4.7 million in 2005.

I didn't include USA Today in this review because its business is so different from the community papers. USAT's circulation was 1.8 million at the end of last year vs. 2.3 million in 2005 -- a 22% decline, according to the annual reports.

Also, it's important to note that GCI had eight fewer papers in 2010 than in 2005, after selling those titles. Including the largest, The Honolulu Advertiser, they had combined circulation of 366,000.

The paper with the smallest loss was the Pacific Daily News in Hagatna, Guam: Its circulation fell just 10%.

I had previously calculated losses only for GCI's 10 biggest newspapers. I did the new review at the request of a Gannett Blog reader.

Across the industry, weekday circulation fell an average 16.4% from 2004-2009, to 45.7 million copies, according to the Newspaper Association of America. That's the most recent six-year period available on its website.

Where does your paper rank?
Go to this spreadsheet for data on all 81 papers in 2005 and 2010. Here are the top 10:

Note on Visalia, Tulare
GCI has combined the circulation for California's Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance Register in the 2010 annual report, instead of listing them separately, as was done in 2005. Combining the two figures in 2005, I calculate a 22% loss for the papers over the six-year period. But that's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.

Kicking ethics aside, Gannett launches jobs series

[Circled part of screenshot highlights Indianapolis' jobs series]

So much for deferring to local editorial control, eh?

Marching in lockstep, Gannett newspapers today launched a Corporate-driven editorial series about jobs, one that reads too much like advertorial to boost employment advertising -- even as it's being presented as public-service journalism.

For example, the Indianapolis Star's homepage features four links under a "Top 10 jobs in Indiana'' headline. (See screenshot, above.) One of the links takes readers to CareerBuilder, the employment site majority-owned by Gannett. Bending journalism ethics, the Star-branded CareerBuilder page doesn't disclose that the two companies are owned by Gannett.

A second link takes readers to another Star-branded page that appears to be a ContentOne production. It includes some editorial matter produced by USA Today and the Star -- and yet more content produced by CareerBuilder. Once more, the CareerBuilder business tie isn't disclosed.

Elsewhere across GCI, here's how Publisher Amy Pack tip-toed around the project in a letter to readers of her two California dailies: "We’d like to help our readers by creating an environment for the employment ads right here in the main news section of the Times-Delta and Advance-Register."

[Updated at 6:21 p.m. ET: It appears Corporate supplied some of the language for Pack's note. When I Googled her phrasing, I turned up similar letters signed by other Gannett publishers in communities that include Burlington, Vt.; Mountain Home, Ark., and St. George, Utah.]

Now, it's your turn. How did your newspaper launch the series? 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.

Papers to compete with Cherry-Coke Jello Mold

There's lots of competition for readers' attention today, what with Thanksgiving newspaper circulars to scour for Black Friday deals -- and all the extra bing cherries Aunt Marcelline piled into her world-famous Cherry-Coke Jello Mold. So! Why not try something different on page one -- as this sampling of Gannett papers shows?

First up is the Times Herald in Port Huron, Mich. (bigger view):


The Tulare (Calif.) Advance-Register (bigger view):


And The Arizona Republic (bigger view):

Got a front page to recommend? First, find it at the Newseum's Gannett pages. Then paste the link in the comments section, below. Or e-mail via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]. See Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

[Images: Newseum]

Recession fears, a meteorite, and a mower

Datelines is an occasional roundup of news topping Gannett websites.

McLean, Va.: More than three in four Americans think the country is in a recession, a USA Today/Gallup Poll over the weekend shows, reflecting a crisis of confidence that economists say could make the economy worse. Elmira, N.Y.: One day after taking the oath of office, New York Gov. David Paterson today is expected to further address his admission that he had an extra-marital affair. Indianapolis, Ind.: A piece of meteorite stolen from a museum was recovered after a man who owns another slice of the same rock saw it at a gun show. Tulare, Calif.: A lawn mower, two chain saws and a leaf blower were reported stolen to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department.

[Image: this morning's USA Today, Newseum]