Friday, January 03, 2014

Dec. 30-Jan. 5 | Your News & Comments: Part 2

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35 comments:

  1. I'm guessing a Gannett paper or two used a photo or two by this gentleman.

    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ap-39-martin-remembered-mentor-friend-talent-182604349--spt.html

    RIP

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    1. Charles Everett1/02/2014 7:01 PM

      Dave Martin, an AP photographer who collapsed on the field at the end of the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year's Eve. He died of a heart attack early New Year's Day.

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  2. aaahhh finally 2014 has arrived, all the executives are already filling out their deposit slips for those BIG bonus checks coming in early February ! Oh for all the rest of you, keep working for peanuts and we need that furlough to cover the cost of the bonus checks.

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  3. Hey, current Gannett people - have you checked out your 2013 Caremark prescription costs yet?

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    1. Shazam.

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    2. prescription costs are outrageous under the only plan offered. We have maintenance 90 day prescriptions that we pay 3.5 times more for this year.

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    3. 5:23, sounds like you don't have the time or energy to keep posting here. Your contributions will be missed.

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  4. Remember, future phases inevitably will demand positive introspection. Fortitude is to be honored.

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    1. Sounds like a fortune cookie.

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  5. Gannett had better jump on this bandwagon and sell...

    Berkshire Hathaway Seeks More Newspaper Buys
    Wall Street Journal

    Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway now owns about 70 newspapers, including 30 dailies. More deals are likely on the horizon, as Tribune, among others, has announced plans to spin off newspapers. Buffett has indicated he would like to keep buying.
    http://bambooinnovator.com/2014/01/03/at-papers-berkshire-rewrites-its-script-warren-buffetts-conglomerate-is-buying-and-retooling-newspapers/

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    1. Nobody, certainly not Buffett, is going to pay more than these properties are worth to Gannett.

      Meanwhile, Berkshire has missed Buffett's key metrics for the first time ever. That's not due to the immaterial newspaper investments, but it's another sign the Oracle is doddering.

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    2. Careful what you wish for...Warren Buffett's newly acquired papers are being run exactly like the rest...keep the high margins, set unrealistic revenue goals, lay off people when you can't achieve them and find expense cuts.

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    3. I heard Buffett bought The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.) and cut the mileage rate from 54 to 34 cents per mile.

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    4. Thank goodness. That mileage rate was way too high. Now you get the gas money and take the rest off your taxes.

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  6. If I recall correctly, this blog was born during the peak of the layoff mania, when Gannett was throwing employees overboard at an incredibly high rate. Those layoffs seemed to fuel interest in the blog. While I don't read this blog every day, and I've long departed from Gannett, I do detect that layoffs have greatly diminished at the evil empire. Is that true? Or is Gannett just concealing layoffs and rumors of layoffs better these days? I am guessing things have stabilized -- I mean you can only layoff so many people before it becomes impossible to publish a paper/website -- but with Gannett, one never knows how deeply the company will cut in order to boost profits and cater to shareholders. Always amazed me that Gannett cut jobs while still profitable. During the recession, most companies reduced payrolls because they were losing money. At Gannett, they abandoned loyal workers because the company wasn't making enough money. Was really very enlightening, albeit sad, to see how ruthless Gannett could be.

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    1. There have been scattered layoffs but nothing huge for awhile -- the buyouts in April 2012 cut down on need for layoffs. HOWEVER, that may change this year as the butterfly project comes on line at the top 35 Gannett properties. That may eliminate jobs at some papers and at the design studios.

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    2. Well said. The thing I noted was how robotic the execs at my site became; once relatively decent sorts replaced by lizard types. I was a very flexibe "team player" sort. Any and all hours asked even at a minute's notice. Holidays worked. Days off worked. And this was not just for a short time; this was for a span of 25 years. For that, the very day I was laid off, the then-current publisher (newly installed) sauntered past my workstation mindlessly whistling some tune to himself.

      Even my own department head (also newly installed), some smug and pudgy who couldn't even get my first name right, couldn't deign to acknowledge my career, let alone my existence. Whether economics required the cuts, it was still rude. In fact, the only exec to speak with me — the guy who never rejected working 10- and 12-hour days, who even at my age trudged two miles to work in deep snow when others, lots younger, called in "snowed in" who lived within a quarter of a mile — was the HR director as he entered the foyer and I exited.

      Indeed, I was by then surprised. I was quietly seething as I walked toward the exit. He stopped me and shook my hand. Sincerely. And said "Thanks for all your work."

      Like others, I visit this site from time to time. It's a traumatic thing to be kicked to the curb, a longtime employee, through no fault of one's own. I no longer dwell on it, and so my visits here are rare — but I like to check back every once in a while and see how some of my ex-coworkers and a few friends are doing.

      Thanks for your post, 11:11 AM.

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    3. Many layoffs have taken place under the radar the last few years and have included many long time employees. Someone bravely goes to lunch and never returns or they disappear right before a holiday. The lack of class and respect given these people reflects badly on management and hurts the moral of those who remain. The sudden end and coldness of these situations might make for good parody in a sitcom script but sadly it is reality for veteran employees. Those who remain often wonder when their number will come up.

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    4. I have to wonder if 12:43 pm worked at my (now former) site. Sounds exactly like the way our executives changed ... I could see our executive editor whistling by a person's desk on the way out. The man had no heart, and absolutely no class, and his obvious favoritism is pretty disgusting ... he clearly has his favorites, many are do-nothings who suck up. I was laid off after 2 1/2 decades ... and after the initial feeling of being kicked to the curb, I enjoyed some much-needed time off, got over that feeling that "it's not if, it's when" that most current employees (especially those over 45) feel, then started in a new direction. It'll take me about a year to get established in my new field, but I'm lucky and have a lot of support. Now, when somebody hears the news that I got laid off and says they're sorry to hear that, my response is, "It's probably the best thing that happened to me this year ... that place is toxic."

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    5. Thanks for all the posts in this thread. I was caught in the August layoffs after achieving some recent successes and recently completing 2 rounds of training intended to advance my career at Gannett. Gracia told us we were the chosen ones. I, too, feel that the favorites were left behind but it's true that they are simply wondering when the next shoe will drop. The last comment, from 11:30 am rings very true for me. I was so loyal that in fact the layout was a blessing. I am beginning a great new career in another field and I love it. I could have been the last one out the door, left to turn out the light.

      Has anyone heard the rumblings of the next round? I heard there might be a few more this month but they might be the "under the radar" version. No less painful for those affected.

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  7. Congrats to Gannett stock hitting a 5-year high of $29.87 over the holidays. That's great for the lucky ones who started buying and receiving GCI at the market lows, but it should be noted that the reincarnation of the stock merely brings it back to where it was in 1996. Take out the spikes and the drops, and there has been no capital appreciation of the shares in 18 years. The $29 price is not even a third of the all-time high of $91 on April 6, 2004. Gannett got there on fundamentals and execution, not market bubbles. That $91, my friends, should be the benchmark against which management is evaluated.

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    1. Okay, but some of us here moved 20% into GCI at average of 14 and we've doubled that. Just recently diversified. But it was our largest increase of any fund.

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  8. Those of us who bought in at $4/share in 2009 are smiling! Here's hoping that GCI spins off print as a separate company and keeps the growth businesses.The shares will jump on the spinoff of print.

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  9. Print is keeping this company alive, as digital is growing ever so slowly. Jim, please explain once again to the masses, the numbers on advertising.

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    1. Charles Everett1/04/2014 9:36 AM

      Print is NOT keeping Gannett alive -- TV is. This will especially be true with the Winter Olympics taking place right after the Super Bowl.

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    2. Charles is absolutely correct. Print is over. Finished. Count the number of ads in your paper on a weekday, heck even the weekend now, they are thin, extremely thin.

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  10. How's that Deal Chickin coming?

    Bock! Bock BOCK!

    Just askin'

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  11. Charles your wrong. Although Print ads I agree are dwindling, they are still the #1 percentage maker for Gannett. Jim has run these numbers before and I wouldn't get so stuck on Belo and the Olympics. Remember they are in Russia and that would be 9 hours ahead EST. Every avenue of advertising is visited by business owners, and the people that can be reached. I think your kidding yourself, if you think print is dead. Now I'm not saying it is going to be where it once was,but it still has a viable place.

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    1. Charles Everett1/04/2014 6:21 PM

      Gannett owns a lot of big-city NBC stations -- Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Seattle, St. Louis, to name a few. Advertisers pay a premium to run their ads during event programming like the Olympics.

      Newspaper geeks don't understand that and never will.

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    2. Actually, the Olympics is a great example of why broadcast is as obsolete as print.

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    3. What do you do for revenue the other how ever many months when there are no Olymics? Hmmmmmm?

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  12. Print declines continue no matter what is done to content. We don't need to spend so much energy trying to re-engineer content - or money. Just manage the decline. It cannot be reversed.

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  13. 12:07 Enlighten us on that comment, since each of the last 3 Olympics has been higher rated than the prior broadcasts?

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    2. Maybe it will become clear when Netflix, Amazon or Google gets the contract.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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