What happened to the original Gannettoid?

Gannett traces its history to 1906, when Frank E. Gannett (left) and associates bought a half interest in that era's Elmira Gazette in Elmira, N.Y. Over the next 100-plus years, Gannett the company grew to become the biggest U.S. newspaper publisher. And Gannett the man? He died at 81 of complications resulting from a fall -- exactly 50 years ago today.

At Gannett headquarters, the band plays on

[The Titanic: Was it an iceberg -- or management's hubris?]

I started Gannett Blog a year ago because I expected big changes at the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher. A powerful media conglomerate with 50,000 employees was steaming deeper into treacherous waters, and there didn't seem to be many bloggers writing about the outcome. What piqued my interest: CEO Craig Dubow's newly announced Information Center model, a cornerstone of Gannett's strategic plan. I was skeptical. "This looks an awful lot like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,'' I wrote.

I wondered how Gannett, battling for survival, could reinvent itself without a massive investment in its understaffed newsrooms. Training employees in new multimedia skills was crucial, and more humane than junking them in layoffs. But retraining alone would take too long. What Gannett needed instead was journalism's version of the Manhattan Project: GCI had to immediately hire hundreds of software engineers, website designers, online marketing specialists, bloggers and videographers, plus online advertising salespeople.

It needed more reporters, editors, photographers and artists to gather the exclusive content -- from city council meetings to high school football games -- that would give Gannett papers and TV stations a competitive edge. In other words, management and the board of directors had to deliver this message to Wall Street:

For years, we've had a great run. No competition meant we could deliver profit margins of 20% or more by slashing news staffs and news hole while jacking up advertising and subscription rates. But those days are over. Rivals like Google are surging. Revenue is falling. Gannett's stock is in tatters. GCI needs to slash its dividend and plow the savings back into its papers and other businesses.

Gannett needs bold, fresh ideas. What it got: the Information Center, a warmed-over rearranging (see "Real Life, Real News" and "News 2000") of the same overstretched resources. Attention Gannett's board: They thought the Titanic was unsinkable, too.


E-mail feedback, link suggestions, tips, snarky letters, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

A little guy beats the Democrat and Chronicle?

GateHouse Media's Messenger-Post is the little guy -- a newspaper that The Fighting 29th blog says is moving more aggressively into online video than the bigger Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

"Their response to new technology is to embrace it and use it to make their stories better,'' the blog says. "The D&C's response is to wall it off in an inaccessible ghetto and forget about it."

Reader: GCI executives crowd 'closer to trough'

A reader wrote in after seeing my post about stock holdings of top Gannett executives and directors:

"I suspect even more interesting nuggets can be gleaned from the next proxy statement. For example, it will be interesting to see the year-over-year percentage increases in salary and bonus that senior management receives vs. the year-over-year decrease in the price of a share of Gannett stock.

The reader continues: "Do you remember the example that former CEO John Curley set in the pre-Doug McCorkindale era? The company wasn't doing all that well then, so for a couple of years he voluntarily limited his salary to one million dollars and refused to take any bonus. Faced with a tough business environment now, the current management mob just crowds closer to the trough, takes more for themselves, and reduces headcount across the company."

E-mail feedback, link suggestions, tips, snarky letters, etc.; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

Cutlines Only: The News Journal

University of Delaware fan John Rash installs his own mascot on an RV before today's game in Cedar Falls, Iowa, against the University of Northern Iowa. Photo by Ron Soliman, The News Journal at Wilmington, Del.

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

Analysis: GCI shares fall, too -- but much more

It's tempting to shrug off the recent decline in Gannett's stock as simply a reflection of the broader stock market tumult. But that's wrong.

The chart, above, illustrates what I'm talking about. It compares the path of the S&P-500 Index (blue line) and GCI shares (red) since Oct. 11, when the S&P hit its last record high: 1576.09. Since then, the index has fallen 5.2% amid worries over sub-prime credit problems, tumbling consumer confidence and the specter of an economic slowdown next year. (Unlike the better-known Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, the S&P tracks a more diverse group of 500 companies.)

GCI shares fell, too -- but much, much harder: nearly 19% since Oct. 11, based on yesterday's closing price of $36.75 a share. Wall Street investors are sending a message to Gannett's top brass: We do not believe the strategic plan is working. We're dumping Gannett shares because we're pessimistic about the company's prospects -- not just because of broader worries about the economy's direction.

What's going to make Wall Street happy? The breakup of Gannett into several companies. More on that Monday.

[Data: Google Finance]

For these readers, it's been a paper chase

Responses from 76 Gannett Blog readers to the recent question: Where do you work?

• A Gannett newspaper: 72%
• Gannett Corporate HQ: 16%
• A Gannett TV station: 5%
• Another Gannett unit: 1%
• Other: 3%

Note: Figures don't total 100 because of rounding.

Hot Off the Press: Detroit Free Press

This is today's Detroit Free Press. Online, the paper's website is a rare sight within Gannett: Nicely organized with generous white space, easy to navigate, and relatively free of the jarring advertising that too many papers heap on their sites. Right away, I noticed the searchable database of home foreclosures in the Database Central section. (Let's hope it doesn't include any of the 110 Detroit staffers losing their jobs!) Another smart database: more than 2,000 Michigan taxpayers owed millions in undelivered IRS refunds.

I have two very insider-ish questions I hope someone can answer: Does Free Press Publisher David Hunke still report to Craig Moon, publisher of USA Today? Also, what is Free Press General Manager Susie Ellwood's role -- and who does she report to?

Quick update: A reader tells me that, yes, Hunke reports to Moon. Plus, Ellwood is executive vice president and general manager of the Detroit Media Partnership -- not the Free Press. The partnership is the JOA overseeing business operations of both the Free Press and the Detroit News. Gannett sold the News in 2005 to frequent business partner MediaNews Group. At the same time, GCI bought the Free Press from Knight Ridder.

Detroit employees: E-mail what you know, along with any link suggestions, tips, snarky letters, etc. See my Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.

The Free Press at a glance:

• President, Publisher and CEO of Detroit Newspaper Partnership: David Hunke
• Editor: Paul Anger
• Founded: 1831
• Joined Gannett: 2005

[Image: Newseum]