Urgent: Buffett reportedly sells 1/3 of his GCI stock

[GCI traded for $9.53 to $15.99 in fourth quarter as he sold]

Influential investor Warren Buffett (left) has sold one million of three million Gannett shares, The Street website is now reporting, as his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate shuffled its portfolio in the fourth quarter.

The Street doesn't say when Berkshire sold its GCI shares, or the price. The stock traded between $9.53 and $15.99 during the quarter, Google Finance says. Today, it traded recently for $14.98. Buffett has been a significant investor in newspapers, including ownership of the The Buffalo News and a big stake in the Washington Post Co., where he's is a member of he board of directors.

Berkshire's sale follows news that one of Gannett's biggest investors, Brandes Investment Partners, sold virtually all its 23 million shares. And the company's No. 1 investor, Ariel Investments, reduced its stake by nearly three million shares.

At a minimum, these sales suggest some investors don't expect Gannett's stock to rise anytime soon. Some sales, such as Brandes', may be a decision to cut losses by the end of the 2009 tax year.

[Chart: Google Finance]

Urgent: Investor Brandes sells 23 million shares; California money manager was once top holder

One of Gannett's biggest stockholders, Brandes Investment Partners, has sold virtually all its shares in the company -- 22.6 million, according to a regulatory filing today.

The San Diego, Calif.-based money manager said it owned just 1,045 shares as of Dec. 31, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In its last such regulatory notice, Brandes told the SEC that it owned 22.6 million shares, as of March 31, 2009. That was equal to 9.9% of all Gannett's stock at the time, according to the document.

Today's filing does not disclose the timing of the sale, and it doesn't give prices. Gannett's stock ranged from $2.20 to $15.63 a share between March 31 and Dec. 31, according to Google Finance.

Whatever the sale terms, Brandes' move suggests the company believes GCI's stock won't rise higher anytime soon. Indeed, Gannett shares have fallen 17% since their recent peak of $17.27 in mid-January. The stock closed today at $14.29.

The enormous sale doesn't mean Brandes profited on its investment, however -- even at the highest trading price during the sale period. The company first emerged as Gannett's then-top stockholder in November 2007, when it told the SEC that it owned 26.2 million shares. At that time, Gannett stock was trading for about $42 a share.

The Brandes filing today came shortly after Gannett's top stockholder, Ariel Investments of Chicago, said it had trimmed its holdings by nearly three million shares between Oct. 31 and Dec. 31. Ariel owned 6.3% of GCI's stock at Dec. 31, the filing says.

History | Highlights of the Dubow administration

[The band plays on: Shares have plunged since Dubow became CEO]

2005
May 25: Waking briefly from a deep slumber, the board of directors discovers the Internets, and concludes that Gannett is going to hell in a hand basket. Reportedly turned down by its first two outside candidates, the board settles on No. 3: Dubow (left), head of the TV division. Gannett stock closes: $75.31 a share.

May 26: The New York-based Gawker media blog headlines Dubow's appointment in six words: "Gannett newspapers to get somehow dumber."

2006
Nov. 2: Dubow reveals a major part of his strategic plan to save the company: Reorganize GCI's newspaper newsrooms around the newly created Information Center model. "This looks an awful lot like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,'' writes a certain blogger, who's privately tracking Gannett. Stock closes: $58.25.

Dec. 29: In one of the first labor-management skirmishes over the Information Center idea, top executives at The Indianapolis Star (left) back down over demands that newsroom employees write advertorials.

2007
March 16: Shares tumble more than 4%, to $55.76, as GCI warns profits will sink. A Morgan Stanley stock analyst says: "Revenues look to be far from reaching some sort of a trough, and until we see some indication of stabilization, we would steer clear from owning the shares."

July 24: The board approves a 29% hike in the quarterly dividend, the single-biggest increase since 1995. Summering in the Hamptons, Wall Street is unimpressed. Meanwhile, the bubbling U.S. mortgage crisis grows worse and -- unknown to most employees -- begins to emerge as the biggest threat to Gannett's future.

Aug. 10: Dubow denies a Wall Street Journal report that says top management is preparing GCI for a sale. Stock closes: $47.37.

Sept. 11: In an alarming memo, Dubow warns that progress is coming too slowly, and hints at a big downsizing: "This is the hard part. This is where transformation gets really difficult. I want to begin talking with you more about this process and what it means. I can't take away all the pain and doubt, but I can help lead you through it." Also, Gannett Blog emerges from stealth mode, appearing in public for the first time.

Oct. 24: Former NBC News president Neal Shapiro named to the board of directors.

Nov. 8: Private investment company Brandes Investment Partners doubles its GCI ownership, for the first time claiming an 11% stake. Gannett Blog traffic surges. Stock closes: $40.44.

Dec. 7: In a dramatic downsizing, USA Today buys out 43 newsroom employees, nearly 9% of all -- losing some of the No. 1 circulation newspaper's high-profile staffers. (Those outmoded digital dinosaurs included a guy with an idea for blog. Oops!)

2008
Jan. 10: One of the company's most powerful executives, newspaper division chief Sue Clark-Johnson, announces plans to retire; she's later replaced by Phoenix GCI executive Bob Dickey (left). The next day, former USA Today reporter and editor Jim Hopkins reveals he has been the anonymous editor of the nascent Gannett Blog.

Feb. 15: The Poopgate scandal grabs headlines, as Courier-Post employees in Cherry Hill, N.J., threaten a U.S. Labor Department complaint if they don't get paid for overtime they have worked.

Feb. 28: The 2007 Annual Report reveals that GCI's workforce plunged 7% in the previous year, to 46,100. Looking ahead to 2008, Dubow promises: "I assure you, you will see progress." Stock closes: $30.23.

March 13: Gannett discloses that Dubow was paid $7.5 million in 2007, including a $1.75 million bonus. Employees are outraged: "Gannett stock plummeted almost $50 a share inside of a year and he gets a $1.75 million bonus? And reporters and editors are making due with less staff, less resources -- I'm beyond shocked,'' one says. Stock closes: $29.97.

March 26: Public documents reveal the company's charitable arm, the Gannett Foundation, has quietly allowed Dubow and other top executives to steer nearly $424,000 to their pet charities -- far from communities where the company does business.

May 29: Squeezing employees more, Gannett lays off 55 workers at the Asbury Park Press and three other N.J. newspapers.

June 9: The financial picture worsens: GCI writes off nearly $3 billion of its assets.

June 11: Gannett freezes its retirement plan. Furious employees heap blame on Dubow: "Kiss my ass," says one worker. Stock closes: $25.99.

June 27: The Friday Afternoon Massacre reorders the troubled newspaper division, putting publisher's jobs into play at Indianapolis and Louisville.

July 16: Gannett discloses that second-quarter earnings plunged 36% from a year ago. Dubow says the near-term outlook is grim. Investors panic: Shares trade as low as $14.70. Stock closes: $16.57.

July 31: Monthly traffic surges on Gannett Blog. The number of unique visitors climbs 21%, to about 17,500. Page views soar 41%, to about 144,000.

Aug. 13: Management grows more desperate, disclosing plans to lay off 600 employees and eliminate another 400 jobs in the troubled newspaper division. Shares briefly surge, but soon begin falling again.

Aug. 18: Gannett starts issuing pink slips. Enraged employees complain the layoffs are taking too long: "The way that management carried this out felt very much like a hit and run."

Aug. 22: GCI says July revenue dived 12.3% from a year ago, as classified ad losses accelerate. Stock closes: $17.67.

Sept. 9: In a major reorganization of its troubled newspaper division, Gannett discloses it has laid off about 100 directors -- heads of human resources, production, advertising and other high-profile jobs.

Oct. 1: Gannett says Standard & Poor's has put the company's long and short term credit ratings on credit watch, with "negative implications." Dubow tries to calm investors: “Our underlying fundamentals remain strong and we continue to be a solid investment grade company."

Oct. 24: GCI says third-quarter earnings plunged 32% on a worsening decline in newspaper advertising sales, spurring more job cuts by year's end -- and encouraging the once-unthinkable: slashing the company's unusually generous dividend.

Oct. 28: Reeling from a second consecutive quarter of big revenue losses, Gannett announces plans to lay off 10% of its newspaper employees -- up to 3,000 workers -- by early December. Stock closes: $10.22.

Nov. 28: Internal Gannett documents show every company newspaper but Detroit's was profitable as of the third quarter of 2007. Highest profit margin: the Green Bay Press-Gazette, at nearly 43%.

Dec. 3: Gannett has launched newspaper division layoff. Within days, employees have counted nearly 2,000 jobs cut. Stock closes: $8.87.

2009
June 15: Dubow discloses plans to take a medical leave of absence after back surgery; CFO Gracia Martore assumes chief executive's job. Stock closes: $4.10 (Closing price the day Dubow named CEO: $75.31)

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Urgent: No. 1 investor AXA drops millions of shares

After boosting its stake just last year, Gannett's single-biggest investor sold most its nearly 31 million shares as of April 30, the money management firm said in a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission notice, moments ago. As is customary for such filings, the notice by AllianceBernstein parent AXA Financial does not include any explanation for the action. The money manager's ownership at:

Dec. 31, 2008
Shares: 30.8 million
Stock price: $8.00

April 30, 2009
Shares: 952,828
Stock price: $3.91

We now know that rival institutional money manager Ariel Investments of Chicago apparently was buying, as AXA was selling.

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Back to the future? Ariel's Rogers on newspapers

With advertising and readers fleeing to the Internet, it's hard to recall a time when newspaper companies were more out of favor among investors. So why would Ariel Capital Management pour more money into Gannett, the ailing publisher of USA Today, and 101 other dailies in the U.S. and the U.K.?

"Our firm is based on contrarianism," Founder John Rogers (left) once told the Chicago Tribune. "We often find that's where opportunity is.''

Today, the Chicago money management firm emerged as Gannett's new No. 2 stockholder, after it told federal regulators it had amassed 28.8 million GCI shares, more than double the 11.1 million it held on Dec. 31. The news electrified Wall Street investors: Gannett's stock rocketed to $3.75 a share, up a whopping 39%, or $1.06 a share.

In that Trib interview, Rogers said the industry's woes were about to bottom out, setting up pure-play newspaper stocks for a rebound. "When everyone decides an industry can only go down, usually that's getting close to a bottom," Rogers said in that memorable interview.

Memorable, of course, because it took place in late July 2007. Aerial had just boosted its stake in McClatchy Co. to 15.5% from 10.3% only three months before. (Aerial's share has grown still more; it's now 26.2%.) At the time, Miami Herald owner McClatchy's stock traded for $26.50 a share.

Yikes! Today, MNI closed at 61 cents, up 3 cents.

Memorable source, too!
There aren't many minority professionals on Wall Street, much less founders of investment firms. So, Rogers occupied a prominent if not lonely position on the various minority source lists I kept over the years as a Gannett reporter and editor.

[Photo: Aerial]

Urgent: Money manager Ariel doubles GCI stake; Chicago firm suddenly vaults to No. 2 stockholder

Ariel Investments just notified federal regulators in a new filing that it now owns 28.8 million Gannett shares -- 12.5% of all -- more than double the 11.1 million it held as of Dec. 31, according to MSN data.

Investors went nuts: GCI's stock recently traded for $3.74, up $1.05, a stunning 38%, Google Finance is now reporting. Broader markets are up, too, but not so much: The Dow Jones industrials and the S&P-500 index are both up less than 3%.

The Chicago money management firm led by founder John Rogers displaces Brandes Investment Partners of San Diego, Calif., as Gannett's No. 2 shareholder.

The old line-up, at Dec. 31, according to MSN:

• AllianceBernstein: 30,843,284 (13.4% of all shares)
  
• Brandes Investment Partners: 23,469,400 (10.2%)
  
• Barclays Global Investors: 13,600,252 (5.9%)
  
• Ariel Investments: 11,121,977 (4.8%)
  
• State Street Global Advisors: 9,823,345 (4.3%)
  

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Dividend shift costs top investors $32M in Q2

Gannett's top five shareholders, their stockholdings, and income they lost in the next quarter after yesterday's 90% dividend cut:

• AllianceBernstein (30.8 million shares): $11.1 million
• Brandes Investment Partners (23.5 million): $8.5 million
• Barclays Global Investors (13.6 million): $4.9 million
• Ariel Investments (11.1 million): $4.0 million
• State Street Global Advisors (9.8 million): $3.5 million

[Data: MSN]

A put-up -- or shut-up -- moment for our owners

Microsoft did not pay its first public stock dividend until 28 years after Bill Gates co-founded the software giant. Google still does not pay dividends, 10 years after its start. If Facebook goes public, once the capital markets are restored, it will not pay a dividend for many years afterward, either.

These companies are all in technology, the same industry CEO Craig Dubow has said is Gannett's future, as it is transformed into a digital news and information network, from an Old Economy newspaper manufacturer.

In all start-ups, but especially those in technology, every penny of profit must be plowed back into research and development, into hiring the best engineers available, so the venture can scale up as quickly as possible. There isn't a second to waste. This is Start-up 101 -- a subject I reported for most of eight years, covering entrepreneurs and venture capital on USA Today's tech-news team.

For directors, a watershed moment
I write this as Gannett's board of directors is believed to be debating an unprecedented reduction in the dividend -- the first such cut, if approved, since the company began paying dividends to public stockholders in 1967.

Pushed to the wall by the growing credit crisis, this board may finally go on record, answering a central question: Are Gannett's principal stockholders -- AXA Financial, Brandes Investment, and the rest -- genuinely committed to GCI's future?

I have long questioned Corporate's investment in real transformation, precisely because the dividend policy never changed -- other than its yield rising ever higher. In practice, Dubow's version of transformation was little more than rearranging the deck chairs. Dubow may never have said precisely that Gannett was in start-up mode. No matter -- that's exactly where the company must be: on start-up footing, with a capital structure reflecting that fact.

In other words, if the board does anything less than suspend the dividend, we remain mired in the vicinity of fantasyland -- i.e.: a 43% yield at today's closing stock price: $3.75, down 8%.

Continuing to demand dividends has meant one thing: our owners did not believe in Gannett's ability to transform into a viable technology company. If they thought otherwise, they would want to spend all their profit on making sure the company got the best launch possible. We are now at a put-up or shut-up moment.

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Shoring up defenses against growing cash squeeze, Gannett board assembles for historic dividend vote

The directors: Starting on the top row, left to right, with powerful executive committee members in boldface: Dubow, Elias, Harper, Louis, Magner, McCune, McFarland, Shalala, Shapiro and Williams.

Weighing an unprecedented dividend cut, Gannett's board of directors has shifted dramatically under Chairman Craig Dubow, the chief executive since 2005, public documents show. Except for Karen Hastie Williams, a board member since 1997, few of Dubow's other nine co-directors have much history with GCI. That's good or bad, depending on whether you want directors voting with their heads -- or hearts, during their two-day meeting, which starts today.

Six of the nine directors joined after Dubow became CEO, so they may be unduly swayed by him because they owe their lucrative board seats to his favor. Corporate governance experts have long criticized such clubby boardrooms, saying their members function exactly the opposite as they should. These critics are especially scornful of companies like Gannett, which concentrate too much power by combining the board chairman and CEO positions.

Not so independent: Williams
I'm not persuaded Williams is sufficiently independent of Dubow to qualify as a strong enough presiding director, the de facto deputy chair. For one thing, Williams is one of three directors who were on the 2005 board that hired Dubow as CEO, then elected him chairman a year later. Her reputation is tied to Dubow's success -- or failure. (Duncan McFarland and Donna Shalala were the other two.)

Plus, it's hard to imagine Williams, 64, a retired Crowell & Moring attorney, can devote enough time to Gannett, given her directorships at four other large, publicly traded companies: insurance giant Chubb Corp.; Continental Airlines; WGL Holdings, parent of Washington Gas Light Co., and SunTrust Banks. Amid the finance industry meltdown, SunTrust alone could occupy her attention full-time; its shares are down 87% from a year ago.

Boardroom basics 101
Directors represent shareholders, and management serves at their pleasure. The board retains a CEO; sets key compensation, and reviews big initiatives. Above all, its duty is guarding shareholder interests. Liquidity trumps sentiment (i.e., the First Amendment).

There are about 8,900 Gannett stockholders, but the board is principally concerned with the views of the biggest investors, including No. 1 AXA Financial of New York, and No. 2 Brandes Investment Partners of San Diego, Calif. They are "institutional" investors, managing money on behalf of small investors in mutual funds and retirement plans.

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By the numbers: Gannett's stock, and its dividend

$3.72

Recent GCI trading price; down 88% from a year ago

5.42 cents

first dividend paid to public

23.5 million shares

10% of all, owned by No. 2 stockholder Brandes Investment Partners

30.8 million shares

14% of all, owned by No. 1 stockholder AXA Financial

40 cents

current quarterly dividend

230 million

number shares outstanding

$311.2 million

total dividends paid in 2007

$275.7 million

total dividends paid in 2008 (first nine months)

8,900

number of shareholders

Oct. 24, 1967

date Gannett became a public company

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Eats, 'chutes & heaves: Dubow's gilded $36M exit

Reprising a July 2008 post about golden parachutes for the top brass:

That $36.3 million is what stockholders would potentially pay CEO Craig Dubow -- if he, along with other top brass, get canned within two years of a "change in control," according to the last shareholders proxy, filed March 13 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Detail of Dubow portion, above; full table showing all payouts, below.) The relevant section starts on page 40.

The document defines a change in control as:

• an investor's buying 20% or more of the company's stock
• a shift in the board of directors, where the incumbent members are forced out of a majority
• a sale or merger of the company
• Gannett's complete liquidation or dissolution

Here's a screenshot of the full chart, showing payouts after a change in control for all the named executive officers; click on the image for a bigger view:

Earlier: Retired Chairman and CEO Doug McCorkindale's super-sweet retirement package. (Hint: He and his spouse don't pay a dime for their health insurance.)

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[Credits: Gannett Blog readers for helping with my original research; SEC Forms 14A, March 13, 2008; Eats, 'chutes & heaves?]

AXA boosts stake; six-month losses now $421M

Gannett's single-biggest investor, AXA Financial and affiliates, own 30.8 million shares -- up 33% from May 31 -- the big money manager said today in a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Its Form 13G/A report follows a similar one yesterday from No. 2 stockholder Brandes Investment Partners.

The new filing shows most of the shares continue to be controlled on behalf of clients of AXA's biggest unit, institutional investor AllianceBernstein. AXA did not reveal how much it paid for the additional 7.6 million shares it bought since the end of May. Gannett's stock has dived 72% since then, however.

Shares, closing stock prices, and values on these dates:

May 31, 2008
Shares under control: 23.2 million
Stock price: $28.81
Value: $668 million

Dec. 31, 2008
Shares: 30.8 million
Stock price: $8.00
Value: $247 million

AXA doesn't reveal the overall proportion of Gannett shares it owns. But it appears to be about 14%, based on the 228 million outstanding as of Sept. 28. Combined, then, AXA and Brandes now control more than 24% of the company.

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Big GCI investor's losses rocket to $809 million

Brandes Investment Partners of San Diego, Calif., says it now owns 10.29% of Gannett, according to a new Form 13G/A it just filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That's down from 11.01% a year ago. Shares controlled on Dec. 31, with values:

2007: 25.6 million
Stock price: $39.00
Value: $997 million

2008: 23.5 million
Stock price: $8.00
Value: $188 million

Gannett's shares are now down about 87% from a year ago vs. a 41% decline in the widely watched S&P 500 index, Google Finance says.

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Alliance now top GCI holder -- but by how much?

Professional money manager AllianceBernstein has apparently boosted its ownership in Gannett again -- making it GCI's single-biggest stockholder. That's pushed another money manager, Brandes Investment Partners, to second place, according to the most recent data, as of June 30.

But when I compared two major investor websites today, I got different totals for Alliance. One was a full 2.4 million shares higher. (The Brandes data were consistent.) The figures should be identical because, in theory, all data come from the same regulatory documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

My review came on a day when Gannett's stock was falling again: It traded as low as $11.92 a share this morning, before rebounding on another day of volatility on stock markets overall.

CEO Dubow's real bosses
Alliance and other "institutional" investors control publicly traded companies like Gannett. For example, the combined holdings of Alliance and Brandes total as much as 24.3% of GCI's shares.

So, CEO Craig Dubow (left) really answers to big stockholders -- not individual shareholders like you and me. On paper, Alliance and Brandes have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on their Gannett stock over the past year. That's reason enough to put enormous pressure on Dubow to bring about faster change that might boost the company's stock price.

Alliance and Brandes have limited options, however. They can't force Dubow to sell off newspapers, because there's virtually no market: buyers are worried about getting burned. And financing's dried up in the banking crisis. But they could demand more cost-cutting including layoffs, since labor is one of the few expenses Dubow still controls. Plus, Alliance and Brandes could insist the dividend -- a huge source of their income -- be held steady, and not cut. But with the yield rising to a sky-high 12.4% today, Dubow's got to consider a cut.

Alliance and Brandes will be among the big shareholders most interested in Gannett's third-quarter revenue and earnings announcement, scheduled for Oct. 24. Anonymous@10:20 a.m., who posted some of the raw data here, wrote: "Would be interested to know what communications are currently going on back and forth between GCI's board of directors and the major institutional holders. This would include the dividend and seats on the board."

Alliance -- also known as AXA -- emerged as a big shareholder in February, three months after Brandes disclosed its big stake. Brandes owns 25,286,634, or 11.1% of all shares, as of June 30, both Yahoo Finance and MSN Money say.

What's the real number?
Here's the conflicting Alliance ownership data I mentioned earlier; I can't find the original documents in the SEC's database. Can any Gannett Blog readers find them for us?

Yahoo Finance: 30,194,099, or 13.2% of all Gannett shares
MSN Money: 27,828,124, or 12.2% of all

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How long will Gannett's biggest stockholders wait?

GCI's two top shareholders are Brandes Investment Partners and AXA Financial -- institutional investors that have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the company over the past year, a time when shares have plunged.

Brandes owns 11% of all the stock, regulatory filings show. AXA, which recently doubled its stake, owns 10%. Combined, that's more than the stake Private Capital Management built up in Knight Ridder, just before activist investor Bruce Sherman forced that chain to the auction block, in 2006.

Gannett's top management ought to be especially worried about Brandes. The money manager based in San Diego, Calif., owns about 26 million shares -- seven million more than a year ago, when the stock was at $54. Shares closed yesterday at $22.37. On paper, Brandes alone is now at least $633 million in the hole.

Just how long can CEO Craig Dubow and Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore keep Brandes and AXA at bay?

Your thoughts, in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, use this link from a non-work computer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

Breaking: Big investor AXA doubles Gannett stake

In a just-filed regulatory notice, AXA Financial says it has nearly doubled its ownership of Gannett to 10.1% of all shares, just four months after disclosing it had become a major investor in the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher.

The affiliate of U.S. money manager Sanford C. Bernstein emerged as a top investor in Gannett in February, when it told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had accumulated 5.3% of GCI's shares -- a total of 12.3 million -- as of Dec. 31, 2007.

In today's SEC filing, AXA says it held and shared voting power over 23.2 million shares as of May 31, giving it a stake that rivals Brandes Investment Partners of San Diego, Calif.

AXA's move could signal its belief Gannett stock is still undervalued, making it a good investment for a firm that's been a passive investor. Or it could be the first step toward accumulating enough shares to pressure management into moving more aggressively on its slow-go strategic plan.

What GCI's board could be worried about today

It's the possibility that top Gannett investors Brandes Investment Partners and AXA Financial may turn aggressive in their approach to management, forcing change that Gannett's board of directors doesn't want.

That's what forced Knight Ridder out of business. And it appears to be happening with increasing fervor at the New York Times Co., where Harbinger Capital Partners "again loaded up on New York Times Co. stock, disclosing late Monday that it now owns a 19.03% stake in the publishing company,'' trade publication Editor & Publisher says.

Noted: Gannett's board is meeting today and tomorrow.

No. 1 GCI stockholder Brandes lightens stake

Brandes Investment Partners said in a government filing today that it controlled 25,555,765 Gannett shares -- 11.01% of all -- as of Dec. 31. That's down slightly from the 26,190,610 shares, or 11.25%, as of Oct. 31. Brandes' filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission came the same day that institutional investor AXA Financial said it has accumulated a 5.3% stake in Gannett.

Breaking: Gannett investor discloses big stake

In an apparent vote of confidence in Gannett, institutional investor AXA Financial of New York told the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning that it had accumulated 5.3% of GCI's shares -- a total of 12.3 million -- as of Dec. 31, 2007. Under SEC rules, investors whose stakes rise to 5% of more must disclose their ownership position.

It appears AXA intends to be a passive investor, so won't seek immediate changes, based on the type of SEC filing it used -- Form 13G, under rule 13d-1(b). But I'm not 100% sure, so I've asked for comment from both AXA and from Gannett Corporate. I also can't tell when AXA started accumulating its shares -- or the prices it paid.

Still, AXA's disclosure came the same day that Moody's Investors Service said it had downgraded the outlook on Gannett to "negative" from "stable," while it affirmed its existing ratings, Thomson Financial says.

Prior to today, Brandes Investment Partners had been the only investor with 5% or more of Gannett's shares, according to MSN Money data. Another affiliate of AXA, AllianceBernstein, owned 5.6 million Gannett shares as of Sept. 30, MSN Money data shows.

I know little about AXA, other than the fact that it's the corporate parent of well-known U.S. money manager Sanford C. Bernstein and Co.

My life, on Internet time

[March 2007: The Golden Gate Bridge, from the Presidio]

I started Gannett Blog anonymously here in San Francisco with plans to launch it in a bigger way after I left USA Today. (My name and photograph didn't appear on the blog until today.) Two months ago, I wrote for maybe eight readers -- on a good day. Then breaking news, and Jim Romenesko, suddenly showed up.

On Nov. 8, Gannett's biggest shareholder, money manager Brandes Investment Partners, disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it had nearly doubled its stake in the company. I posted my quick take that evening. Reuters moved a story of its own. Then Romenesko linked to me, and my traffic surged. Ahead of schedule, I was off and running. Now, two months later, more than 1,000 Gannett employees visit me two or more times each week. I've appreciated your willingness to share information with me so far, sometimes at a risk to your jobs. And I'm sorry it's taken until now to introduce myself.

Write, if you get a chance, through this link for e-mail. I'm gannettblog on Google Talk (which I prefer) and on AIM. You can visit me on my YouTube channel. I'm on Flickr. And Facebook, under my own name.

But first, a quick word to my colleagues . . .

Don't faint, USA Today staffers!You won't find any dirt here on office politics, personalities or any of the other interesting stuff I've run across since starting at USA Today in 2000. In fact, everything I posted on the 43 USA Today buyouts was based on published reports or tips from Gannett Blog readers -- even though I was one of the 43! You won't find any inside dirt about the paper after today, either. This isn't that kind of blog.

So, what kind of blog is it?
For a quick overview, read About Gannett Blog. One of my most popular features is Executive Suite. For my take on Gannett's well-paid top brass and their strategic plan, check out the band plays on. Gannett stock talk? Oy, vey! I've done casual surveys on reader demographics. Don't miss snarky Commentz Korner. I've noted cool and not-so-cool stuff in Hot Off the Press. And I showcase photography in Cutlines Only. I got teary-eyed writing about USA Today buyouts in a note that struck a cord: It's my most-read post.

About Me
I'm nearly 51. I grew up in Providence, R.I., where I graduated from Brown University. I love newspapers, and so does my family. My parents met as reporters at the Hartford Courant in 1954. An uncle was a newspaper reporter. And my sister works in the business today.

[September 1985: Pine Bluff, Ark. I was 28 years old.]

I started my career 22 years ago as an apprentice reporter at the Pine Bluff Commercial -- at the time, a wonderful, family owned Pulitzer Prize-winning paper in a small Southeast Arkansas city. Two years later, I joined Gannett at the late, great Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, a paper I wrote about here.

My Arkansas Gazette experience in its final, sad months is one of the reasons I launched this blog. It was fall 1991, five years after Gannett had stumbled into Little Rock. The Gazette was by then losing $30 million or so a year in a bitter war with its cross-town rival, the Arkansas Democrat. The U.S. economy was sliding into recession. Rumors flew that Gannett was planning to sell us to the competition, or dump us into a joint-operating agreement. More than 700 employee families were desperate for information.

[October 1987: Little Rock. I was 30 years old.]

I had a personal crisis unfolding as well. My domestic partner, Danny Bryant, had just been diagnosed with AIDS. (I was fortunate to remain HIV-negative.) I was our only means of support, so knowing my future at the Gazette was vital.

As the paper's business news editor, I managed some of the newsroom staffers reporting on the Gazette's demise. We called Gannett's Corporate office, pleading for information, over and over. And again and again, we got this: No comment. "Gannett's silence chilled me to the bone,'' Max Brantley, one of the paper's senior editors, said later.

In the end, Gannett closed the Arkansas Gazette -- selling its name, presses and other assets to the competition. I managed to find work at The Idaho Statesman in Boise, owned by Gannett at the time. Danny (left) died there within a year. He was 37.

In 1996, I transferred to The Courier-Journal in Louisville, where I worked until early 2000 as an investigative reporter. I next took a business reporting job at USA Today in San Francisco. I left that job yesterday, ending my mostly happy 20 years with Gannett.

Drop me a line, courtesy of the First Amendment
Today, much of Gannett is experiencing the uncertainty we saw in Arkansas in the summer of 1991. But now, technology empowers the company's nearly 50,000 employees to communicate in ways not possible 16 years ago. Start more blogs: I'd like to build a companywide network! Use this link to share ideas, tips, snarky comments. See my Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below. It's crowdsourcing time!

Jim Hopkins
San Francisco
Jan. 11, 2008

[Images: I took that Golden Gate Bridge photo while biking across the Bay to Marin County; that was Danny during a visit to Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum around 1989]