Gatehouse stock now "worthless"

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003827609

It's gone from over $20 to under $1 in maybe a year. They might be looking at liquidation.

 

should i start sending out resumes? maybe i'll stick to filling out my unemployment application so i have it ready to head to the local office when i need it.

 

Maybe they should have sent more people to the Super Bowl.

 

List of Gatehouse pubs is here.

 

Whew! Glad my qualifications for the SE job at Utica "did not meet our needs" at this time. :

 

Sounds as if they don't even meet their own needs at this time.

 

no wonder the SE (Craig Muder?) took the job at the Baseball HOF.

 

Their "needs" is some inexperienced 21-year-old kid who'll work for 20 grand.

 

My ex-boss punched out in the nick of time.

 

I left a GateHouse paper in October 2007, because you could see the writing on the wall. They were very much leveraged after buying a lot of papers in Illinois, and it reminded me of CNHI's business plan, where they went into debt and a few people left with nice severance packages.

Here's some of the former CNHI people in GateHouse's management structure:

Michael E. Reed became GateHouse's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in February 2006. He was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. ("CNHI") and had served in that capacity since 1999. Mr. Reed served as CNHI's Chief Financial Officer from 1997 to 1999.

Bill Blevins became GateHouse's Vice President of Online Operations in July 2006. He was formerly Vice President of Online Operations with Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. located in Birmingham, AL, from 2004 to 2006.

Brad Dennison was named GateHouse's Vice President of Content/News Operations in January 2007. He was formerly Vice President of News with Birmingham, Ala.-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., from 2004 to 2006.

I have a bad feeling that no matter how this works out, if GateHouse folds or reorganizes, a lot of my former colleagues, who are very talented, experienced people, will come out of this without jobs and without severance packages while the three aforementioned GateHouse executives will probably be hired as media consultants for their expertise on how to pillage a newspaper, then parachute out with more money than many of us will see in a lifetime.

In my humble opinion, GateHouse Media's chief executives ought to be investigated by the SEC, because no matter how big or small, when a city or town loses its newspaper, it loses a lot of its identity. And that is a real crime.

 

Too bad Enron isn't around. They'd grab these three in a millisecond.