Gannett revenue down 12% (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Pacific Business News ^ | August 22, 2008 | Tucker Echols

[abb]

Gannett Co. Inc., bedeviled by plunging classified advertising, reported a 12.3 percent decline to $546.4 million in revenue for July compared to a year ago.

A 25.2 percent decline in classified advertising sales reduced publishing revenue 16.7 percent to $340 million. Real estate classified revenue was 37.9 percent lower, employment classified revenue was down 29.1 percent and automotive classified revenue declined 21.1 percent.

Broadcast revenue declined 6.1 percent to $61 million while a 4.2 percent decline in paid daily newspaper subscribers reduced circulation revenue by 2.6 percent $108.7 million.

The latest figures from the Mclean, Va.-based media giant, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher and owner of The Honolulu Advertiser, reinforce a trend that cut profits 36 percent in the second quarter and prompted Gannett (NYSE: GCI) last week to announce 1,000 job cuts from its newspaper division.

[abb]

Friday afternoon good news.

[abb]

http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13561
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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080822/gannett_revenue.html?.v=1
Gannett July revenue slides 12.3 percent

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?rssFeed=news&id=30694
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[abb]

ping

[sergeantdave]

Kellogg’s is looking for freelancers to write ingredient lists on cereal boxes. It pays 5¢ per word. The work is spotty but you can eat all the corn flakes you sweep from the floor. Bring your own milk.

[abb]

http://heraldnet.com/article/20080822/NEWS01/59405063
Tough times remind of value of newspaper

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/22/EDCQ12G3KR.DTL
E-mail is the new wire service

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=89016
NBC: Olympic Ratings Slow Down

http://www.digitaldeliverance.com/blog/2008/08/transforming_american_newspape.html
Transforming American Newspapers (Part 1)

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/read-all-about-newspapers-plight/story.aspx?guid={5B2659E3-509A-4712-BAB9-F06F734F620B}
Stupid Investment of the Week
Read all about newspapers’ plight but don’t buy into the stocks

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aXI7oIQLnUWM
Sam Zell Expects Tribune to Repay Its Debt Until 2015

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003841907
Tribune Co. Faces ‘Real Possibility’ Of Debt Default

[stevem]

Stories like this intrigue me. While there is still revenue, there has to be a market value for Gannett. There has to be a value that would make the ROI attractive.

With that, would there be a white knight out there somewhere who could buy them, start replacing editors and news managers with people who found the United States to be the good guys in the world, who could put staffs together to start attracting patrons?

It's simply a question. If you take the editorial TV shows away from FOX, you are left with Britt Hume and his staff. I don't find FOX to be pro-US necessarily, but I do find them to be not "knee jerk" anti-US. I have two daughters who are more apolitical than conservative or liberal. I know that when a national story of interest emerges, they are "knee jerek" news junkies. They gravitate to FOX. That is because of Britt Hume IMHO.

I wonder if there were a manager out there somewhere who found traditional western values to be the "good guys" in the world, if he couldn't assemble a group of division managers who could find reporters who could tell stories with a pro-US slant and turn around this collapse we call the dinosaur media.

Do enough such reporters exist?

Again, it's simply a question.

[abb]

For 2 1/2 years, ever since I began following the impending demise of PBIDS (paper broadcast information distribution systems, formerly known as newspapers), I’ve wondered whether it was a technology thing (electrons vs. paper) or it was a function of the liberalism of the major newspapers.

Obviously, it makes no economic sense to antagonize half your customer base as have the LATimes, NYTimes, MiamiHerald, etc. But I think what is happening is more than that. The Washington Times is conservative, but it is suffering right along with the WaPo.

So I think it is more a technology thing. Think quill pens vs the printing press.

All just my opinion, of course.

[Chode]

[bert]

Three hundred million here, three hundred million there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.

[abb]

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianeditors/2008/08/oregonian_publisher_announces.html
Oregonian publisher announces buyout program for employees

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003841961
Paxton Trims Staff, Consolidates Printing at Two Dailies

[Straight Vermonter]

[Salvation]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2066323/posts?page=10#10

Oregon Ping

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[GOP_Raider]

Gannett Co. Inc., bedeviled by plunging classified advertising

...and crappy papers no one reads.