GCI shares plunged anew this morning, trading at a new 10-year low and sending the company's market value below $9 billion, a critical threshold. Gannett's stock sold as low as $38.38 a share in early trading on a day when broader stock market indices fell as well. Stocks of other newspaper publishers also declined.
Gannett's fall came as the company reported that monthly advertising revenue fell in October from a year ago, continuing a trend of lower ad revenues seen during much of the year.
Monday, November 19, 2007
October ad revenue down on weak real estate
Gannett's newspaper advertising revenue fell 5.3% last month from a year ago, the company said today, on continuing sharp declines in real estate and job-related ads.The overall decline represented an acceleration over the 4.8% fall in September. At USA Today, the only individual paper for which Gannett breaks out results, ad revenue fell 6.3%.
Gannett's community newspapers were hurt again by the loss of classified advertising to Craigslist, Monster and other online rivals, the company's statement shows. Classified ad revenue fell 9.7%. Within that category, real estate ad revenue plunged 13.5%, employment revenue fell 10.4%, and auto-related declined 13.4%.
This chart shows the monthly change in ad revenue from the year-before period. Crummy way to start the week, eh?
Blogger: Cincinnati to trim eight news staffers...
. . . or cut the newsroom budget by $500,000, Newsache says, describing the "Hobson's Choice" faced by the Cincinnati Enquirer's newsroom: "It appears that the bulk of the savings will come from the elimination of the Friday Life section, which will be folded into the Weekend section, which itself will be shrunk by a reduction in the size of the calendar."Cincinnati employees: Send more details, including suggested links, tips, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
[Image: Sunday's Enquirer, Newseum]
Separated at birth? Murdoch vs. Burns
Keith Rupert Murdoch, evil overlord of rapacious media empire News Corp., and Charles Montgomery Burns, evil overlord of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant on News Corp.'s The Simpsons.
Gannett still absent as Yahoo group grows
Internet giant Yahoo has added 17 more newspapers to its group of online publishing partners, The Associated Press says, "giving the group added heft as it approaches its one-year anniversary." But the group, while growing, still has several conspicuous absences, including No. 1 publisher Gannett. Separately, GCI and its frequent business partner MediaNews Group, along with Tribune and other publishers are also considering forming a joint ad-sales firm to sell bundles of advertising to big marketers, the A.P. says.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
10% Layoff Central: Your news, comments, here!
This open forum is for layoff-related comments: news, memos, etc., about the planned 10% workforce reduction set for early December. (Earlier editions.)
USA Today's 'big elephant' in the newsroom
A Gannett Blog reader writes from USA Today:
One of the big elephants in the room amid the 45 buyouts at USA Today is the longstanding animosity between many print and online staff at The Nation's Newspaper. And it's not going away, especially since the buyout plan exempts anyone with five or more years with the online operation.
Although we're supposed to be "one," USA Today really has two newsrooms. One is a collection of aging print veterans who barely knew what e-mail and the Web were when the staff was issued personal computers in the late 1990s -- and still don't understand the Web revolution, much less Web 2.0. The other is a collection of younger upstarts with lots of enthusiasm and HTML skills but little experience in or appreciation of the basic things that journalists do -- interviewing, writing, editing, etc. Many print people (who are at the top of their game) don't consider the online staff journalists at all (which angers the online people mightily). Many in the online staff (who have the forward-thinking vision we need) regard the print people as dinosaurs who really ought to take the buyout and head off to the retirement village asap.
Management has tried many ways to bring the groups together, including moving the staffs into the same office areas, holding cross-training sessions, and so on. But there's far too much of the entrenched thinking on both sides.
Unless management can bring these groups together, the company cannot move ahead in a meaningful way. My fear is that the buyouts and budget issues that created them will prevent us from really re-making the staff in the way it needs to be.
Do you see this same tension between print and online at your place?; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
One of the big elephants in the room amid the 45 buyouts at USA Today is the longstanding animosity between many print and online staff at The Nation's Newspaper. And it's not going away, especially since the buyout plan exempts anyone with five or more years with the online operation.Although we're supposed to be "one," USA Today really has two newsrooms. One is a collection of aging print veterans who barely knew what e-mail and the Web were when the staff was issued personal computers in the late 1990s -- and still don't understand the Web revolution, much less Web 2.0. The other is a collection of younger upstarts with lots of enthusiasm and HTML skills but little experience in or appreciation of the basic things that journalists do -- interviewing, writing, editing, etc. Many print people (who are at the top of their game) don't consider the online staff journalists at all (which angers the online people mightily). Many in the online staff (who have the forward-thinking vision we need) regard the print people as dinosaurs who really ought to take the buyout and head off to the retirement village asap.
Management has tried many ways to bring the groups together, including moving the staffs into the same office areas, holding cross-training sessions, and so on. But there's far too much of the entrenched thinking on both sides.
Unless management can bring these groups together, the company cannot move ahead in a meaningful way. My fear is that the buyouts and budget issues that created them will prevent us from really re-making the staff in the way it needs to be.Do you see this same tension between print and online at your place?; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
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