Hot Off the Press: The Des Moines Register

This is today's Des Moines Register. Every four years, the paper has its big moment in the spotlight: during the U.S. presidential race. The Register made news earlier this week when its famous Iowa Poll found that Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois had moved ahead of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton among Iowa Democrats casting votes next month in the state's caucuses.

This year, the Register is hooking up with search-engine giant Google and its YouTube subsidiary in a partnership designed to extend the paper's political coverage well beyond Iowa. According to a Register memo obtained by Gannett Blog, the Google deal calls for:

• Producing Google Gadgets that allow users to put the paper's headlines on their web pages, driving traffic back to the Register's site.
• Creating maps centered around caucus sites, user-generated content and anything else related to the caucus.
• Creating a YouTube Channel to showcase Register videos and give readers a place to add their own caucus-relate videos.
• Using Google's "debate commentary tool," which allows users to watch video of and comment on the Register debates. It also will tie the debate video into past videos the paper has produced.

Google, started just nine years ago, is a growing force in U.S. politics through YouTube, which with CNN has been hosting presidential debates during this year's campaigns. The most recent: last Wednesday's Republican debate. Google's Silicon Valley headquarters also has become a must-stop-there location for presidential candidates who want to meet employees and capture some of the cachet-by-association that comes with a visit to the "Googleplex."

The Register at a glance:

• Publisher: Laura Hollingsworth
• Vice President/Editor: Carolyn Washburn
• Founded: 1849
• Joined Gannett: 1985
• Employees: 1,000

[Image: Newseum]

Gannett on Wall Street's hot seat Wednesday

GCI executives, under pressure to launch a new strategic plan, talk to stock analysts this week about where they think business is headed next year. The meetings are part of the twice-annual presentations big media makes to the powerful analysts who often hold sway over a company's stock price. Gannett's audience Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET is the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. GCI says it plans to talk about "strategic initiatives, particularly its digital strategy, and the company’s outlook for 2008." It's 85 dailies, 23 TV stations and other divisions include the Lansing State Journal (left).

Tough questions from analysts ought to include: Does Gannett plan to split into more than one company? That's what some Wall Streeters want. GCI's position so far has been a big fat no. But if Gannett's going to do an about-face, look for that news well before 9:30 a.m. ET, when stock markets open. News that big typically gets announced long before trading has started, or soon after it ends.

I expect GCI's contingent will include CEO Craig Dubow (left), CFO Gracia Martore, Newpaper Division President Sue Clark-Johnson and possibly USA Today Publisher Craig Moon.

I might live-blog at least part of the event. GCI is webcasting it, too; details here on how to watch.

[Images: Dubow, Gannett; today's State Journal, Newseum]

Part 3 | Wed. | Dec. 3 | Got news, a question?

Can't find the right spot for your comment? Post it here, in this open forum. Real Time Comments: parked here, 24/7. (Parts 1 and 2.)

GCI shares trade at new 10-year low

Gannett's stock fell to $36.14 a share soon after U.S. markets opened this morning. Shares recovered, closing at $36.52, down 23 cents.

Cutlines Only: The Des Moines Register

Al Wilson of Maxwell, Iowa, holds a spreadsheet related to the Collins-Maxwell school district. Wilson and the district have been tangling over his continuous requests for public records, the Des Moines Register says today. Photo By John Gaps III, Register.

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Cutlines Only: The Indianapolis Star

Colts fan Bryan Snyder of Indianapolis screams in celebration after he and four other fans won Super Bowl rings at halftime of Sunday's game at the RCA Dome. The Colts won 28-25. Photo by Matt Detrich, The Indianapolis Star.

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.

Good morning, McLean! Hello, Phoenix!

I'm loving all the traffic! Thank you!

Why Wall Street wants Gannett broken apart

From the start last year, I expected Gannett Blog to run just two or three years. Here's why: I'm not sure the company will be around much longer in its current form if big investors get their way.

Wall Street analysts are pushing management to divide the company at least in two, following the example of newspaper publishers E.W. Scripps and Belo. Analysts believe that separating Gannett's faster-growing businesses from no-growth ones will create additional overall value. The sum of the parts, this thinking goes, is greater than the whole. Translation: ka-ching!

So, imagine Gannett in the future as two publicly traded companies, each with their own management, boards of directors and stock:

• ElmiraDigital Co. Inc. (A name created in a nod to history.) This new company would own Gannett's Captivate Network, Point Roll, possibly the 23 TV stations, plus GCI's stakes in CareerBuilder and Topix.net. Gannett CEO Craig Dubow might want to be chief because Elmira would promise the biggest growth and profit potential. Plus, Dubow came into the CEO's job from running the TV division. On the downside for Dubow: running a much smaller operation, since revenue and employment would be smaller than the former GCI's. Question: Has anyone claimed the ELDC ticker on the NASDAQ exchange?
• Gannett Newspapers Co. Inc. This would send GCI's papers to journalism's equivalent of a nursing home. The papers and their websites would be kept on life support. But they wouldn't get much nourishment in the form of new investments. Newspaper Division President Sue Clark-Johnson could be CEO. It would employ most of the nearly 50,000 who now work for GCI. Trades under the old GCI ticker. And at least in the beginning, it would have the most revenue. But we all know how nursing home stays end.

Who would own these companies? Gannett's board could create ElmiraDigital as a spinoff, giving shares to current stockholders. Investors would then own stock in two companies -- one, Elmira, nimble and growing quickly with shares poised to gain. The second, the remains of the old GCI -- a source of dividend income but little or no appreciation in share price.

What's the timetable? Dubow told analysts in October that a breakup wasn't in the works. Disappointed investors dumped GCI shares, which fell 5.6% over the next two days. Since that October analysts' call, Gannett stock has plunged 16%. How long management holds to its current strategy depends on how much more the stock falls.

[Image: traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange]