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

Digital badly misses year-end site relaunch goal

The Indianapolis Star is one of just nine sites relaunched.

In the latest blow to Gannett's make-or-break digital transformation, the company has only managed to install long-planned new website and app designs at nine of its 104 U.S. TV stations and newspapers -- a figure that falls far short of the most recent forecast, according to a review I completed today.

The new designs, which are meant to boost advertising revenue and readership, have been in the works since summer 2011, and were to be modeled after the look first adopted by USA Today more than a year ago. Among many changes, the USAT relaunch created a more tablet-like appearance that placed advertising more directly in front of readers.

As recently as July, Corporate said it expected the relaunch would be largely completed by year's end in the company's top 35 U.S. markets. Indeed, at one point, Corporate had said the rollout could be finished as early as January 2013.

But today, the first business day of the new year, the new look is in place at only two newspapers and seven stations, according to my review, which included 81 community dailies plus 23 stations. (I did not include any of the 20 stations from the just-closed takeover of Dallas TV company Belo.)

Since initially predicting installations in the top 35 markets, Corporate hasn't said anything publicly about possible changes to the timetable, so it's unclear why the new look has reached only nine sites so far.

Without any additional information from Corporate, it's also unclear whether the delay will have any immediate impact on revenue projections. The new design was to create more uniform advertising positions across Gannett, especially for prerolls that were to run before the many more videos now being produced by local sites in anticipation of the site redesigns.

The first to relaunch was WBIR in Knoxville, Tenn., in early September. The first newspaper to come on board was New York's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, later that same month.

The unexplained delay comes amid a raft of other evidence that Gannett's digital growth is stumbling, according to regulatory documents, as competition across the Web and electronic networks only grows more intense.

Related: This spreadsheet shows the status of site and app relaunches at all 104 U.S. properties.

Rochester | All the news that's fine to print

Page One detail, Newseum.

As Gannett extends the Butterfly Project to 31 more newspapers in a bid to boost circulation and advertising revenue, one of the four dailies that's piloted the initiative has returned dozens of weekly pages of editorial content eliminated in recent years to pare costs.

Amid the initiative, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle is selling subscriptions to seven-day home delivery for $26.50 a month.

But check out all the fine print in the New York paper's deal:

Offers available to new subscribers only; subscriptions that include home delivery of the print edition are valid only in areas where home delivery is available. Not valid with any other offer. Prepayment required. As a subscriber you will have full access to our content through http://www.democratandchronicle.com, the e-Newspaper, mobile sites and applications, and home delivery of the print edition on the days you have selected. The Full Access subscription will continue and be billed monthly at the then regular rate, less any applicable credits, unless the Democrat and Chronicle is otherwise notified. The Thanksgiving Day edition is delivered with your subscription and will be charged the then regular Sunday newsstand price, which is reflected in the November payment. Applicable taxes may not be included in the rate. If we fail to home deliver a print edition, we will credit your account at the then regular credit attributed to providing home delivery of the print edition. If at any time you decide to cancel your subscription, you may contact customer service at 1-800-790-9565 and the full amount of any balance over $2.00 will be returned. You authorize the Democrat and Chronicle to automatically charge the credit card or bank account you indicate on the 15th of every month, unless the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday, and then the deduction is taken on the next business day. Any outstanding balances will be processed with the first EZ-Pay charge. Your first EZ-Pay charge will be prorated based on the start date. Democrat and Chronicle will be referenced on your credit card or bank statement for any payments made toward your subscription.

Rochester | D&C just launched redesigned website

The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., today became the latest community news site to adopt a new look modeled after USA Today's, launched a year ago this month.

Corporate has said it expects to add the new template to newspaper and TV sites in its 35 biggest U.S. markets by the end of the year.

WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tenn., was first out of the gate early this month.

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.

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.

Butterfly | Welcome to Corporate's talking points

"We will add more local news and, in partnership with USA Today, we will add more national, sports and lifestyle news."

-- Publisher Michael Kane, in a note this afternoon to Rochester Democrat and Chronicle readers, announcing the New York paper will join The Indianapolis Star and other sites in testing the addition of a separate daily news section from USAT. (Emphasis added.)

"That section will be produced through a first-of-its-kind partnership with USA Today."

-- The Star, in its own story this morning about the addition of the section starting Oct. 6.


Indeed, in a memo to USAT employees this afternoon, Publisher Larry Kramer uses the word partner no less than five times to describe the new arrangement.

Earlier: Star confirms launch of Butterfly Project. Plus: USAT forecasts 35% dive in newsstand sales with doubling of cover price to $2.

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.

How to make a mass layoff as painful as possible; thousands of East employees are left in the dark

Including this latest one, I've covered five mass layoffs -- those involving at least hundreds of jobs -- since Gannett's first big one, in August 2008, and every one has been awful for those getting kicked to the curb, and those left behind.

But this round, which began July 29, has been perhaps the cruelest of all -- in the East Group of dozens of newspapers from New York to Florida. Here's why.

It was well underway and prominently disclosed on Gannett Blog by the time Corporate finally confirmed it on Aug. 2 in a one-sentence statement to blogger Jim Romenesko and then the Associated Press.

Kane

By Aug. 6, it appeared most newspapers had notified employees losing their jobs -- except for those in the East Group, led by President Michael Kane based at New York's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Indeed, employees at some of the group's papers were increasingly anxious, asking me in e-mail whether they might have been spared.

In a comment that day, Anonymous@1:14 p.m. wrote bitterly: "Jim, you are too casually dismissing the greatness that is Michael Kane. He is perfectly capable of being the only group president to avoid cuts by making bottomline goals."

Whack!
But the ax finally fell big time yesterday, with seven at least eight layoffs at the Rochester paper, followed by more at sites including Greenville, S.C., and Pensacola, Fla. On Wednesday, the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina lost six terrific newsroom employees.

All that brought to more than 350 the number of layoffs and open positions cut across at least 57 of nearly 80 U.S. newspaper sites, according to Gannett Blog reader estimates. Combined, those sites had about 18,000 employees at the end of last year, according to GCI's latest published figures.

Yet, I suspect more are still on the way. On a spreadsheet I've been keeping, there are at least a half dozen sites that haven't been counted, mostly in the East Group's New York and New Jersey. Also, in Wilmington, Del., The News Journal appears to have cut only two jobs in this round, according to my readers.

Now, it's still possible Kane found a way to avoid eliminating jobs at those sites by cutting travel, newsprint or other expenses. But I doubt that.

Dickey

There's been no public explanation for why the East Group has taken so long after other employees were notified starting well over three weeks ago. Was there an 11th-hour attempt to find another way to save money? Did Kane's immediate superior, U.S. newspaper division chief Bob Dickey, hold up his plan for further review? We don't know.

What's certain is Corporate was planning for this round at least since July 5, according to a reader in a position to know. In all likelihood, work began even earlier. That makes the delay across the East Group all the more puzzling.

Unusually secretive
In those four earlier mass layoffs I've covered -- including one with well over 2,000 jobs in December 2008 -- employees were told days and sometimes weeks in advance. There was little doubt every site would be hit. No one was left agonizing over whether their site would be spared. It was just a question of how many jobs would be cut.

This time, Corporate has been especially chary with information, refusing to announce the layoffs in advance, even though it was clear word had already leaked. And when Corporate finally confirmed the truth, top executives refused to provide specifics, including the number of jobs. Contrast that with the last mass layoff in June 2011, where Dickey sent a memo announcing 700 jobs were being eliminated.

But most cruel: Dickey and Kane allowed thousands of his group's employees to watch what was rolling out across the rest of the newspaper division west of the Eastern Seaboard, prolonging their anxiety for weeks and weeks. If Dickey and Kane would like to explain the circumstances, we'd welcome hearing from them.

In the meantime, we're certainly hearing from those in the field.

PNJ's 'heart and soul'
At the Pensacola News Journal, Anonymous@12:48 this morning wrote eloquently of one particular employee's exit.

"Heart and soul Managing Editor Ginny Graybiel is sacked in so-called layoff," they wrote. "With 37 years at the PNJ, Graybiel's leadership bringing the powerbrokers and arrogant burghermeisters in this unbelievably corrupt town and county to heel has been legendary and an inspiration to a small but dedicated staff.

"A tireless editor who logged 80 hours a week shepherding a dismantled Gannett property to greatness week to week with ideas, great editing and lots of bloody verve, she's rewarded with a lame sacking."

Corporate reportedly is about to raise print newspaper subscription rates again nationwide in a bid to boost overall revenue when advertising revenue continues to fall. That it would take this step so soon after cutting deeper into the marrow of news production is a sign of desperation. It sure doesn't look like a winning strategic plan.

Is your site here?
An estimated 360 351 352 jobs have now been eliminated at 57 of about 80 newspapers since the current round of layoffs began July 29, according to the latest reports from Gannett Blog readers.

Please check this read-only spreadsheet, then post your site's current information 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.

Rochester | Tipster: here come XXX layoffs

I can't disclose the number just yet, according to my source. But it's fewer than 10 across New York's Rochester Democratic and Chronicle.

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.

Shreveport | Pub said out after just 14 months

Don Bailey is leaving the increasingly troubled Times of Shreveport, according to a Gannett Blogger, who said his departure was announced during a staff meeting less than an hour ago. [Updated at 4:33 p.m. ET: It's now confirmed; see the memo I've just posted to the comments section, below.]

Bailey was named publisher in January 2012, coming to the Louisiana daily from Morris Communications' Augusta Chronicle in Georgia.

I'm told that advertising sales director Kevin Hall has been named interim chief executive.

The Times has been challenged on at least two fronts: A press installed in September 2010 to allow the paper to shift to a modified tabloid format has been plagued by problems, leading to frequent production and delivery delays.

More recently, the newsroom has struggled to successfully adopt a mandatory Gannett-wide editorial initiative known variously as Content Evolution and the Passion Topics.

The paper's Monday-Saturday circulation is 35,073, and Sunday is 46,453, according to the Sept. 30 ABC report.

Earlier: Read your January 2012 comments about Bailey getting hired as publisher.

Detroit | Building for Freep, News put on market

[Architect Albert Kahn designed building constructed in 1917]

The Detroit newspaper operations plan to relocate to a more modern location elsewhere in the city within the next 18 months, and their existing building is being put up for sale, according to a memo distributed late this afternoon.

"The goal," wrote Detroit Media Partnership CEO Joyce Jenereaux writes, "is to put us in more comfortable, attractive and functional offices in an environment that’s more vibrant and stimulating than our current location on the edge of downtown -- while saving the extraordinary expenses of maintaining a nearly 100-year-old building."

The current site, built in 1917 from a design by architect Albert Kahn, is historic, but it’s been obsolete for decades, according to Jenereaux. It was built primarily as a newspaper printing plant. "We haven’t printed newspapers in this building for more than 40 years," she says, "but we’re still operating in offices that were, in many cases, converted from pressroom and newsprint storage areas."

In addition to the DMP, the building houses the Gannett-owned Detroit Free Press and the MediaNews Group-owned Detroit News. The DMP, which Gannett controls, is a joint operating agency that handles printing, advertising sales and other business operations.

The building was offered for sale at auction last year, drawing an offer of $4.1 million in November, according to Deadline Detroit, which said that figure was rejected for being too low.

The Detroit announcement follows a similar move last week by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Other GCI properties have been sold, or are renting excess space to other tenants, including at Corporate's headquarters in McLean, Va., as the company trims operations worldwide.

Rochester | Frank Gannett's building to market

[Corporate's original headquarters was here in Rochester, N.Y.]

Company founder Frank E. Gannett built the structure in 1927-28 to house his corporate offices, printing presses and newsroom for the now-defunct Rochester Times-Union. After additions to the building, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle joined the paper there in 1959.

Gannett

The newspapers kept separate newsrooms until the staffs merged in 1992. Five years later, the paper opened a new production plant in nearby Greece. Corporate moved its headquarters to suburban Washington in 1986, later relocating it to McLean, Va., in 2001.

Today, the Democrat and Chronicle told readers that the property is now for sale, becoming the latest GCI property to look for new, more modern quarters nearby that will reflect a smaller staff size. In October, Alabama's Montgomery Advertiser and Vermont's Burlington Free Press made similar announcements.

Rochester's move is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, according to the paper.

To be sure, GCI isn't alone: Other newspaper publishers across the nation are freeing up excess property as markets recover from the real estate bust.

In Sandy's path, thousands of Gannett employees

Gannett traces its origins to the Northeast and especially to New York State, which explains why so many of the company's businesses and employees are now vulnerable across eight states as massive Hurricane Sandy roars toward landfall today.

Hurricane's projected path

In Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Vermont and the Virginia area, the company owns 18 newspapers, including USA Today, plus five TV stations and assorted speciality publications. And, of course, Corporate's main office is in the Washington suburb of McLean, Va.

The company doesn't break out employment by subsidiary. But USAT and Corporate alone likely have 2,000 workers at McLean. Several thousand more work in the other seven states plus D.C. Worldwide, GCI employs about 31,000.

Potentially deadly storm surge flooding is already occurring along a broad swath of the East Coast, from New England to North Carolina, according to the Weather Channel. Especially worrisome, flooding is forecast to reach its peak during high tide tonight along the Jersey shore.

Underscoring the dangers, GCI's eastern newspaper design and pagination hub is at the Asbury Park Press, just two miles from the shore in Neptune, N.J. It serves more than a dozen dailies.

For a sense of the magnitude of Sandy as a news story, look at the homepage for The News Journal in Delaware's Wilmington. In print this morning, the paper devoted seven pages to the hurricane.

Breakdown by location

• Delaware: The News Journal
• Maine: WLBZ and WCSH in Bangor and Portland
• Maryland: The Daily Times at Salisbury
• New Jersey: Asbury Park Press, Courier News in Somerville, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, Home News Tribune in East Brunswick, Daily Record in Parsippany and the Daily Journal in Vineland
• North Carolina: Asheville Citizen-Times and WFMY in Greensboro
• New York: Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, Star-Gazette in Elmira, The Ithaca Journal, Poughkeepsie Journal, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, The Journal News in Westchester County, and WGRZ in Buffalo
• Vermont: Burlington Free Press
• Virginia: Corporate's headquarters; USAT's main office; The News-Leader in Staunton, Va.; Gannett Government Media; Gannett Healthcare Group in Falls Church; WUSA in D.C.

[Graphic: New York Times]

Salisbury | Claybaugh confirmed as new GM

Way better late than never, The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md., today confirmed earlier reports that Thomas Claybaugh, 53, has been named general manager/regional vice president over the paper and its associated media properties.

Claybaugh had been head of advertising sales at New York's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle since 2006.

USAT | Who will replace Hunke as publisher?

For some time now, I've predicted USA Today's No. 2 executive, Susie Ellwood, would likely be the paper's next publisher, after Dave Hunke retires as chief of Gannett's best-known daily.

I repeated that yesterday, when Gannett announced Hunke, 60, had been given a new title: chairman. Ellwood was handed full control of all the paper's daily operations, while a search is underway for Hunke's replacement.

Ellwood, who's around 60 years old, has been executive vice president and general manager since last June.

But Anonymous@10:18 begs to differ: "Jim you are delusional. Susie isn't getting the job."

With that, I'm opening the floor to other suggested candidates.

To get the ball rolling, I'll start with these three: John Zidich, publisher of The Arizona Republic and president of the West Group of community newspapers; Michael Kane, publisher of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and president of the East Group, and Margaret Buchanan, publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer. So:

1. Ellwood
2. Zidich
3. Kane
4. Buchanan

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.

Shreveport | GCI reaches outside for new publisher

Corporate said today that it hired a Morris Communications executive as the new publisher of The Times at Shreveport, La. Donald W. Bailey replaces Pete Zanmiller, who was named south regional vice president of Gannett Publishing Services in October, when GCI created that new unit.

Bailey was president of Georgia's Augusta Chronicle, and its 13 sister companies in Georgia and South Carolina, a job he held since 2004, according to a statement. He left that job in July, according to his LinkedIn profile.