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What newspaper corporations ARE doing well?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by slatter, Jun 1, 2008.

  1. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    We have a 9 percent profit margin, yet we've had layoffs and a paycut for hourly employees. Our profit margin is higher than Exxon's, but it's not enough for the fucking stockholders, who can all piss off and die.
     
  2. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    my last place was pulling in more than 40 percent, and they bitched about money every chance they got.
     
  3. I can't speak for any corporations, but my paper is part of one and our profit margin is well above 9 percent, yet we're still being cut to the bone.
     
  4. Gomer

    Gomer Active Member

    Ours is making money, and we've actually grown our newsroom in the past year. Not sure if that'll last, of course, but for now it's nice.
     
  5. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Lots of newspapers are getting closer by the day to when their expenses and revenues lines cross into the red zone. That's why they're in their current panic, because stockholders or private-equity owners see where this is headed. Family places either are fighting the good fight or jumping on the panic wagon because, shucks, everybody else is dumping jobs, so why not?

    With every journalist discarded, though, the paper suffers a little. And with each ding to the paper -- the product -- the black line dips a little more than the red line rallies. That is the profound mistake of buyouts/layoffs.
     
  6. AreaMan

    AreaMan Member

    Ours is easily making a profit of 20 percent or more and we have a hiring freeze.
     
  7. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Nobody wants to hear this, but . . .

    The profit margins you keep quoting are OPERATING profit margins.

    They do not include taxes or interest.

    Tribune, for example, has been fighting tooth and nail with the IRS over an $800 million tax liability.

    And the company has about $8 billion in debt, which means monster interest payments.
     
  8. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Don't other businesses have to deal with taxes and interest too? They seem quite happy with their 5 percent margins.

    And if a company is $8 billion in debt, maybe they should have planned their business a little bit better.
     
  9. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    The last I checked, Lee wasn't doing too bad. Not great, but certainly better than CNHI, JRC, Gannett, McClatchy and company.
     
  10. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    ZELL!
     
  11. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    If your margins are 5, 6, 4, 5, 5, 4, 6, 4, 5 . . . you don't feel a need to act.

    If your margins are 22, 17, 13, 9, 7 . . . you feel a certain urgency. Do not look at the number. Look at the trend. Are you going to wait until the meteor hits your house before you decide to get out of the way?

    Do your homework.

    When the company went private in December, most of the sale was financed by debt. Has nothing to do with "planning" a business. Tribune had two options: 1. Remain public, and watch stockholders continue to bleed the stock price because there was ZERO reason to buy; or 2. Go private, away from the demands of Wall Street, which necessitated taking on a mountain of debt. If there is/was an option 3, I'm not aware of it.
     
  12. hankschu

    hankschu Member

    I work for Hearst, and as a nonpublic company it does not have to answer to angry shareholders. I don't know how the papers are doing (ours is bleeding red ink), but Hearst is making money hand over fist with its magazines, local TV stations, cable networks and even investments in ESPN (Hearst owns 20 percent). I suspect the company has used some of our losses to help offset profits elsewhere for tax reasons, and while we've had cutbacks, I don't think they've been as Draconian or frequent as they have been elsewhere.
     
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