tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80994377679705343242026-04-10T18:39:09.584-04:00An independent journal about the Gannett Co. and the news industry's digital transitionJim Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16712746705871119746noreply@blogger.comBlogger7448125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8099437767970534324.post-39176571754456981772014-02-14T23:59:00.000-05:002014-02-17T16:48:47.424-05:00

I started publishing Gannett Blog in September 2007 as a virtual water cooler where employees could share information at a time of tremendous change across the news industry. I set just two conditions: that I have at least 500 daily readers, and that Gannett remain substantially the same company. Today, I still have more than enough readers: This site averaged more than 15,000

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"The issue is one that will particularly affect newspapers like Gannett’s that have leaned on large print price increases as part of their paywall strategies," writes Ryan Chittum in a new Columbia Journalism Review story. "For lower-quality publishers like Gannett, which has squeezed profits out of its newspapers for decades, the paywall money has been in print, not digital." Earlier:

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Corporate-USA Today complex reportedly under consideration. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is shopping for 400,000 square feet to buy in the Washington area, and one site it's considering is the Crystal Palace complex that houses Corporate and USA Today, according to a new report by commercial real estate trade site Bisnow. In turn, the site says, Gannett is

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Jacques le Sourd, the longtime theater critic of The Journal News, has died after collapsing Feb. 5, outside the home of friends in Preston, Lancashire, England, where he had been living for more than a year. He was 64. Le Sourd left the paper in June 2009 when the Journal News eliminated the Broadway critic’s position, the newspaper reported yesterday. But for 34 years, "le Sourd covered

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A court-appointed fact finder has recommended Gannett be reimbursed $542,000 in legal fees the company incurred in a lawsuit against a N.J. municipality seeking public documents in electronic formats more easily analyzed than paper ones. Gannett won the suit against Raritan Borough in 2012, three years after filing it on behalf of its six N.J. newspapers: the Asbury Park Press, Courier News,

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After yesterday's fourth-quarter and full-year financial report, the Poynter Institute's Rick Edmonds notes that circulation revenue was up for the year (1.1%) but down for the fourth quarter (off 1.6%) compared to the same period in 2012. Martore CEO Gracia Martore explained in a conference call to analysts that the company has now “cycled through” the lucrative introduction of paywalls

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"The quote on the Statue of Liberty doesn't say, 'Give me your English-speaking only, Christian-believing heterosexual masses.'" -- News anchor Brenda Wood, in an opinion segment yesterday on WXIA in Atlanta. She was responding to the controversy over the America the Beautiful Super Bowl ad by Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. that aired Sunday. In a follow-up tonight, Wood says her

Jim Hopkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16712746705871119746noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8099437767970534324.post-89269702699420625102014-02-04T18:47:00.000-05:002014-02-04T23:38:45.181-05:00

Wall Street hasn't given up on pushing Corporate to spin off the flagging newspaper division, pressure that's been building especially since the takeover of TV company Belo. Here's one such exchange from this morning's fourth-quarter earnings teleconference with stock analysts, according to Seeking Alpha's transcript. As she has in the past, CEO Gracia Martore leaves herself plenty of wiggle

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This Seeking Alpha transcript is of the 10 a.m. ET teleconference with Wall Street stock analysts, where CEO Gracia Martore and other executives discussed the fourth-quarter financial results released earlier in the day.

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Gannett said this morning that fourth-quarter profit fell 12% as both print and broadcast revenue declined on tough comparisons with the year-earlier quarter, when results were boosted by TV political advertising from the national elections as well as an extra week during Q4 2012. Company-wide revenue fell 9.9% to $1.37 billion. The major culprit once more: newspaper advertising in the

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Hudler Following is a memo U.S. newspaper division President Bob Dickey sent today regarding long-time executive Carol Hudler. Hudler was president of the Nashville-based South Group of newspapers and publisher of The Tennessean until May, when the newspaper division reduced the number of regional groups to three from four, eliminating Hudler's group in the process. Most recently, Hudler

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Gannett has reached an agreement with Halifax Media Group to print South Carolina's Greenville News and North Carolina's Asheville Citizen-Times at Halifax printing plants in Spartanburg and Gastonia, N.C., starting around April 1, the News disclosed today. The two papers are now printed in downtown Greenville. The move, part of a broader cost-saving strategy to consolidate printing at Gannett

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An Ohio judge has granted Gannett a temporary restraining order against four former Fremont News-Messenger advertising department employees accused of conspiring against the newspaper by launching a competing weekly paper they planned during work hours with company resources. In an affidavit supporting its legal complaint, Gannett claims text messages show News-Messenger cellphones and

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Anonymous@7:05 a.m. says that, despite a recent published report, Gannett won't split itself into two companies -- one with newspapers, the other with TV and other faster-growing businesses -- for several reasons. 1. Gannett and its board of directors are way too conservative. And they have the most conservative CEO on the planet running the company. It would be too radical for them to

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