1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Gannett Voluntary Buyouts

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Woody Long, Oct 15, 2020.

  1. Liut

    Liut Well-Known Member

    Lancey specified beat-based reporting. That is an important distinction from the radio host who is often also a former (sometimes current) sports columnist.
     
    justgladtobehere likes this.
  2. Severian

    Severian Well-Known Member

    Right. And it doesn't hurt to throw in some conservative commentary, too.
     
  3. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    The earnings were released today.

    Some highlights:

    Gannett did better this quarter. Revenues were only down 19.6% on a same store basis as compared to 28% in the second quarter. Digital revenues were down 13% so the transformation to e-publishing does not appear to be going well.

    The company lost 28 million dollars in the quarter. They limited their losses because they assumed that in the future the investments in their pension plan will do better, reducing their future pension liabilities by about 18 million dollars and allowing them to bump up profit by that amount. Their financial team is an optimistic bunch. Earlier in the fiscal year they had booked 36 million dollars in profits using the same logic.

    The company had promised to pay hundreds of millions dollars this year in debt but has barely paid anything. They said they would sell more real estate (the company has been selling real estate for years. How many buildings are left?) and "non-core assets". "Non-core assets" could mean selling newspapers outside of geographic (because "non-core" means whatever management wants) such as Indiana, most of Wisconsin and other locations where Gannett basically owns all the papers and can not achieve economies from the centralization of production.
     
  4. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    How are the other chains doing in the quarter? All's been quiet it seems in reading this board. Have the hedge funds changed to where they now are investing in product? Or are they still despicable?
     
  5. Twirling Time

    Twirling Time Well-Known Member

    Who actually took the buyout? We should be hearing by now.
     
  6. rtse11

    rtse11 Well-Known Member

    No one can (or is willing to) answer my question: Will there be layoffs in December if Gannett doesn't hit the numbers it wanted from the buyouts. I would assume there will be.
     
  7. SoloFlyer

    SoloFlyer Well-Known Member

    December? Probably not. Early first quarter, maybe.

    I've heard that they're turning people down, though, which would indicate this is more targeted and they just covered their asses by making it available to anyone.
     
  8. rtse11

    rtse11 Well-Known Member

    I was told by my supervisor that he had veto power. I don't know if that was a pre-emptive warning or him lamenting the responsibility.
     
  9. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

  10. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    Veto power … over the buyouts or potential layoffs?
     
  11. LanceyHoward

    LanceyHoward Well-Known Member

    Tribune did about the same as Gannett. Lee has not reported.
     
  12. rtse11

    rtse11 Well-Known Member

    Buyouts
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page