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Gannett 1Q profit tumbles as ad declines deepen
AP ^ | April 16, 2009

Posted on 04/16/2009 8:24:10 AM PDT by george76

Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., reported a 60 percent decline in first-quarter profit Thursday and said the decline in its advertising revenue is accelerating.

Gannett, which publishes USA Today ... ad revenue shrunk by 33.5 percent. USA Today's total number of paid ad pages in the quarter fell to 527, from 826 a year ago.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: advertising; gannett; liberalmedia; media; msm; newspaper; newspapers; oldmedia; usatoday

1 posted on 04/16/2009 8:24:10 AM PDT by george76
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To: Grampa Dave; abb; Liz; GladesGuru

60 percent decline in first-quarter profit


2 posted on 04/16/2009 8:24:55 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

They should just beg Obama/Pelosi/Reid for a bailout.

And I’m sure lots of Republicans will go right along.


3 posted on 04/16/2009 8:25:31 AM PDT by Boiling Pots (The Politicians think we're all stupid, and they're largely correct.)
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To: george76

it’d be good if usa today went bankrupt and off the convenience store shelves.


4 posted on 04/16/2009 8:26:20 AM PDT by ken21 (the only thing we have to fear is fdr deja vu.)
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To: george76

5 posted on 04/16/2009 8:26:32 AM PDT by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: george76

We should have a pool..... who will go first?

Gannett
McClatchey


6 posted on 04/16/2009 8:28:59 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . John Galt hell !...... where is Francisco dÂ’Anconia)
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To: george76

Simple solution: Quit printing and being the mouthpiece for left wing propaganda and the readership will pick up. When readership picks up, more ads will be placed and revenue will pick up.


7 posted on 04/16/2009 8:29:34 AM PDT by The Sons of Liberty (Proud Veteran - Sworn to defend The Constitution! - Caution: That makes me a Right-Wing Extremist.)
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To: george76

We used to have a great local paper when it was run by the Quayle family here in Indianapolis.

It was bought by Gannett and now it is a dying liberal rag that is left out on lawns as clutter or lines hamster cages.


8 posted on 04/16/2009 8:29:49 AM PDT by dforest
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To: ken21

“it’d be good if usa today went bankrupt....”

Couldn’t happen soon enough.


9 posted on 04/16/2009 8:33:34 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Mr. Bernanke, have you started working on your book about the second GREATER depression?")
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To: george76

A schadenfreudische delight!


10 posted on 04/16/2009 8:34:20 AM PDT by Petronski (For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden. -- Cdl. Stafford)
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To: george76

I am looking at Todays Front Pages at the newseum memorial to the dying print media... its amazing how many did not give front page coverage to the largest conservatarian protest in history

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/main.asp


11 posted on 04/16/2009 8:36:32 AM PDT by GeronL (TYRANNY SENTINEL. http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
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To: george76

This morning the WSJ had ad rates for magazines. They list page counts for ads or something. U.S. News & World Reports (Zuckerman’s rag) was down 60%!!

They did not have NewsWeak or Time but you can bet it is just as bad if not worse.

These fools are such idiots. Obama did this to them. Bush is far from perfect but if he was still Pres and we had a normal Congress with deadlock and if Frank/Dodd & Cong Black Caucus had not give Fannie & Freddie carte blanche - we would not be here.

Also a Repub Pres and Congress could fix this pretty quickly with domestic oil exploration. It creates wealth in a multiplier effect plus it would be $500 billion + not sent to the Saudis et al.


12 posted on 04/16/2009 8:39:53 AM PDT by Frantzie (Boycott GE - they own NBC, MSNBC, CNBC & Universal. Boycott Disney - they own ABC)
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To: bert
McClatchy will die first. Gannet will continue based on USA Today and their faked circulation (half the press run is to motels which charge you even if you don't read it.)
If I owned a newspaper in, for example, Memphis or Sioux City, I'd call on every hotel and motel and undercut USA Today deal. A few local attacks like this and Gannet would be dead, too.
13 posted on 04/16/2009 8:42:45 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: indylindy
You know, you're right.

I picked up a copy of the Sunday Star a year or so ago, expecting the great newspaper of my college years. What a dumbed down decidedly un-Hoosier (no, anti-Hoosier) rag it's become.

14 posted on 04/16/2009 8:45:48 AM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: Mr. Lucky

Anything the left gets their hands on withers and dies.

They leave barreness, depression, apathy, and misery, in their wake.

Now they intend to drag the whole USA down into the swamp.

Even the fools that voted for Barry have yet to know how miserable true misery is.


15 posted on 04/16/2009 8:53:14 AM PDT by dforest
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To: george76

The number of ad pages in USAToday for the whole quarter was “527”? Whoa. That’s less than 6 an issue. No wonder the thing is getting skinny.

My local rag had a guy in the downtown transit depot yesterday bellowing out “free newspaper, you don’t even have to sign up”. I lmao.


16 posted on 04/16/2009 9:04:06 AM PDT by qwertypie
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

All those papers are paid for by the hotels. And the reason why local papers are not at the hotels is because the guests don’t want them.


17 posted on 04/16/2009 11:08:50 AM PDT by Dave W
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To: Dave W
If you dig a little, you'll discover the cost of the USA Today is part of what you pay for a stay. Since I travel quite a bit, I have asked the question several times of hotel managers and they will admit that it is included, although not a line item, like a room tax.
I think that a local paper would be more useful to a visitor that the non-paper USA Today that doesn't cover anything very well and must have a very early previous day press run to make it to my hotel room door in the following morning.
18 posted on 04/16/2009 12:35:09 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Actually, I work at USA Today and we have about 33 print sites across the country. The first edition begins printing at about 11 pm Eastern.

We have spent much time and effort determining what guests like and by far, the huge majority prefers USA Today delivered to their rooms and not the local papers. Most people do not care what is happening locally.

Trust me. The hotel chains have spent much research and money asking the same question. The guests prefer USA Today. Otherwise, the hotels would not purchase the papers. Every one of those papers are paid for. While there will be some who don't want the paper, we have been told for years that if, for some reason, the papers are delivered late, the front desks are swamped with calls asking where is the paper.

The hotels would not spend millions of dollars a year purchasing papers if their guests did not want them.

I don't toil in the editorial department, but we are not nearly as biased as other papers are. Criticism doesn't bother me since I learned a long time ago, most of those people haven't looked at the paper in years and often never have bothered to look at it.

19 posted on 04/16/2009 3:54:07 PM PDT by Dave W
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To: Dave W
Your response confirms that the guests pay the cost of the paper. Its not 'free," as advertised. I have read that, were it not for these deals with hotels, the USA Today circulation would be cut in half, thus reducing the value it provides to its advertisers and the price it charges for advertising. I still don't think USA Today can legitimately claim any real circulation numbers because while you might deliver, for example, 100 copies to a hotel each morning perhaps half of those will be read, albeit briefly.
In my sales job, when I call on an account in a distant city, I find it quite useful to be aware of the local happenings and personalities. This is an ice breaker and leads my customer to believe I am interested in his community, not just making a sale.
My degree and early work was in the scribbling profession so the foibles of news gathering and delivery are not foreign territory to me. Many on this page might be gratified that newspaper circulation is failing but I am not among them. I don't care for USA Today because its coverage is lightweight; little more than headlines, more like a 2 minute radio newscast. If I owned, for example, the Sioux City Journal (one of my examples) I would make it my personal challenge to break every one of USA Today's hotel/motel agreements and run USA Today out of town.
20 posted on 04/16/2009 7:37:25 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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