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More fun at Gannett: $5.9B in writedowns

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by 2muchcoffeeman, Feb 2, 2009.

  1. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB123324528972228995.html
     
  2. zebracoy

    zebracoy Guest

    [​IMG]

    Five. $5.9 billion. $5.9 billion write-downs!

    It's catch-catch-catching on!
     
  3. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    So basically this means what? Gannett is more screwed than we originally knew? I have no idea what write downs and all that business stuff means.
     
  4. Walter_Sobchak

    Walter_Sobchak Active Member

    You don't even know what a write-down means!
    Do you?
    No, I don't!
    But they do. And they're the ones writing it down.
     
  5. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write-off#Writedown
     
  6. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information.
     
  7. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    It means the assets to debt ratio takes a big hit. Debt stays same, assets not as valuable as previously thought.
     
  8. franticscribe

    franticscribe Well-Known Member

    To put it in simple terms, a write down means something you own is no longer worth what you thought.

    It'd be like if I had a rare coin that I thought was worth $100. Someone finds a whole stash of them and suddenly the market value is only $20 for my coin. On my personal, and meager, balance sheet that would be an $80 write down.

    The full story that 2MCM linked to doesn't explain where Gannett is taking the losses, although it's likely spread out across all the newspapers in the chain.

    It's not a surprise and has been happening with other companies as well, it's just the total number at Gannett is huge because they own so many different operations.

    Last year the New York Times Co. wrote off about $150 million in value for the Boston Globe and a year before that $814 million. NYT paid $1.1 billion for it way back when, so that leaves the book value of the Globe at somewhere around $100 million. Pretty amazing if you think about it, and that's just one paper.
     
  9. clutchcargo

    clutchcargo Active Member

    Walter---where does that little looped clip of the track collision come from that you show on your post?
     
  10. Bullwinkle

    Bullwinkle Member

    At Gan-NET!
     
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