Friday, February 20, 2009

McClatchy is the biggest loser (updated)

Yesterday Gannett Blog posted the performance of the major newspaper stocks since July 15, 2005, when Craig Dubow became CEO of Gannett. Here it is:

McClatchy: down 99.3%
Lee Enterprises: down 99.2%
Gannett: down 94.7%
New York Times Co.: down 88.8%
News Corp.: down 60.7%
Washington Post Co.: down 54.8%
S&P-500: down 35.7%

Heckuva job, Gary Pruitt!

UPDATE: to see a chart go here.
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46 comments:

Anonymous said...

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t the biggest losers the most liberal spewing rags out there?

Anonymous said...

Hey...at least we aren't like the Tribune and haven't filed for bankruptcy. - That equals a 100% loss.

Plus I would suspect the #3 newspaper chain to be the biggest stock price loser as they undoubtedly have less to fall back on.

Anonymous said...

Ahem...Fine Arts degree 7:06? It sure wasn't economics, accounting or finance.

Anonymous said...

6:25 .. Yeah, Gannett's really liberal compared to NYT and Washington Post ... Come on

Anonymous said...

MNI BREACHES .50, ,47 cents!

Anonymous said...

McClatchy: down 99.3%

BOD to CEO Pru

Not a 100% drop in value;
you get a raise! A bonus!

Anonymous said...

Any paper that uses the AP, is buying liberal garbage. That dirty little secret is out, and until the news business owns up to the truth, there is no hope. The economic downturn has sped up the process, but the rot has been exposed. There is no going back. Dump the AP! MNI can no longer afford a waste management division.

Anonymous said...

..SacBee has an article today, 2/20, that says the Repuglian Party is angry at the 6 R's who voted for the new tax increases. The article DOESN'T LIST WHO THEY ARE, but it does have a link to " more information - how they voted ". This link does NOT list WHO THEY ARE.
..The article is written by reporter Peter Hecht, a long time Bee staffer.
..You mental midget Marxists want to know why McClatchy lost 99.3% of it's value ? Look no further. That 7:06 thinks that the .7% left is an accomplishment worth touting is...icing on the cake.

Anonymous said...

After the next round of layoffs, if not for the AP, McClatchy will be using blank pages as a wrapper for their dwindling number of inserts.

Anonymous said...

Thinking liberal rags will become successful liberal 'online rags' is why MNI stock has fallen below four bits today.

Anonymous said...

If the liberal bias of the AP is the only news left, that in itself, is a death knell. Listen to yourselves, you haven’t learned a thing. Save your profession, or your work will become a day to day laborers job.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, even if the MNI Titanic wanted to, it can't turn that fast.

Anonymous said...

While classically trained unbiased professional journalists cheer a shoe thrown at Bush, they wait for the other shoe to drop.

Film at 11.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the Bodacious trinket market has faltered. What will MNI sell now, stock certificate toilet paper? Actually, as MNI circles the bowl, that is the first thing that makes sense!

Anonymous said...

Why hasn't Melanie Sill been fired?

Anonymous said...

“Hey...at least we aren't like the Tribune and haven't filed for bankruptcy.”

Yeah right, no one to stop the rape of the company. After everything worthwhile is gone, then you file for bankruptcy. Good luck on that thought.

PS: Keep up the AP contract, they are like a toxic drink of Kool-aid, only a few liberal still want that sort of end.

Anonymous said...

Why hasn’t Miss Melly been fired?

"She's got such a narrow mind, when she walks fast her earrings bang together."
(John Cantu)

Anonymous said...

The question is which one of these fine companies (Cough, Cough) will make it to zero first? It's like a race in the wrong direction!

Anonymous said...

For the lib media, it's always a race in the wrong direction

Anonymous said...

are layoffs happening at mcclatchy interactive as well? anyone know??

Anonymous said...

McClatchy interactive cut 16 jobs in September, including the once-innovative content division that became expendable

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/2008/09/cuts-at-mcclatchy-interactive.html

Anonymous said...

I heard a rumor that McClatchy Interactive was going to be moved to CA to consolidate. During the merger NC was cheaper but that isn't the case now. The transition could take up to 6 months. MI employees will be offered a position but the company will not pay for their move.

Anonymous said...

"but the company will not pay for their move."[To CA]


And, if you don't get a BIG raise, CA cost of living will be a shocker! The Land of Liberal living at its finest, aka CA.

Anonymous said...

"but the company will not pay for their move."[To CA]

That is just another way to say Buh bye! Who would travel that far on their own dime to work another couple of months? NC staffers need to ask for the stats that back up that bit of rock & roll.

Anonymous said...

“AP is an industry whipping boy because of its license fees.”
Now, that’s what I’m talking about! Dump the AP Pru!
***
Five New York newspapers have banded together to exchange content..

There was immediate speculation that the New York consortium was an [excuse to lay off more newsroom employees.] ….The handshake deal is more likely aimed at [setting members free from the Associated Press,] which has been an [industry whipping boy] for the past year because of its license fees.

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/

Anonymous said...

Wow. That's really all I can say. How is a gigantic loss of an entire industry strictly political? Truth is, it isn't. It's all about corporate strategy. Here's a lesson for the political gurus here...

A newspaper was only designed to provide news, information, and entertainment to a finite community of those citizens that lived in the immediate area. Never, was a newspaper the source of international or national breaking news.

With the advent of the internet, these companies pushed their efforts into online. Trying to keep up with established companies who already have the infrastructure to accommodate a national or international community. The focus of successful online is not individual communities. The focus of a successful paper is not the nation or the world.

This is why newspapers are tanking. The sharks at the top are so incredibly greedy they feel they are missing out on "online opportunity". They push all the departments to focus to the "online" community. They have abandoned the readership that established them in the first place, lost sight of the communities they were designed to service, and alienated themselves as well as advertisers in the mix.

All papers will fail except for the tiny, private, community papers that focus on their small towns and provide the information that is important to their part of the world.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET TOO GREEDY! Many of McClatchy's papers WERE successful prior to their focus on online. That's not political. That's corporate strategy.

Anonymous said...

Wow. That's really all I can say. How is a gigantic loss of an entire industry strictly political?
--
Very interesting considering that you happen to be the only person that I recall even making the statement that the downfall was ENTIRELY political. Then you go on to offer your analysis and correction to your own faulty, never introduced charge. Brilliant!

Anonymous said...

yeah fuck the liberal papers and all that work for them. Granted only 1 department out of all the rest actually comes up with this liberal crap, but hey that guy cleaning your garbage or inserting your paper deserve to go down too. thats what they get for working for a paper that is liberal.

Its all the lib media Fuck Them!!!

Anonymous said...

Papers getting shitcanned, "That's not political."

I can only tell you why I canceled the paper. I got tired of the Obama bias, aka, bullshit. Odd, so did everyone I know. Our local newspaper is going out of business. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I also dropped my business ads.

Anonymous said...

Granted only 1 department out of all the rest actually comes up with this liberal crap...
--
Unfortunately that is not true. They have deployed it through every facet of the entire paper. Obama was a prime example. Sportswriters being used to write op ed pieces on Obama. The business section flooded with Obama op ed. News sprinkled with paid advertising for Obama. It is not just one departement, it is an entire infection and the only way to cure it is to take out the whole thing.
It is too bad that production people get caught up in it, but it has always been that way. You don't even figure into their plans on the best of days. It is only a formality that they invite the mail room and press room supervisors to planning meetings and management functions. They sit there in a corner and keep their mouths shut. Trust me, seen it first hand.

Anonymous said...

It is one department that is driving the content, advertising does not care about the content in paid ads, it only cares there are paid ads. must... make ... the ..sale

I also have seen the operation and folks in production, circulation, prepress,advertising,customer service do not make the news. They however do make up the majority of the staff.

Anonymous said...

3:54--

You bring up some points that I haven't been able to understand since the lay offs, buy-outs and terminations began. It's local news that keeps people buying the local paper, not film critics or TV reporters. You can get that news from any newspaper or online. But someone, in all his wisdom, decided elinating those who generated local news was the right business model.

It doesn't seem to be working, does it?

And if all the newspapers fall off the planet, the Huffington Post will have NO ONE to react to. Liberal, conservative or otherwise.

nick said...

McClatchy is the biggest loser of 2000s

Anonymous said...

I have seen a lot of friends go this past year and will see more leave soon. To say they lost their jobs becasue of the paper being liberal is as ignorant a comment you can make. I can only guess these folks speaking this crap are newsroom employees or former employees. Only newsroom employees who are conservative and were forced to write liberal leaning material deserve to be bitter. Or maybe since this blog is growing popular this ignorance is comming from regular folks who do not work for the paper and really do not know anything about how the paper industry functions.

Wish i could see more actual news or information from employees who have something usefull to say but i wont,

flame on..

Anonymous said...

"To say they lost their jobs becasue of the paper being liberal is as ignorant a comment you can make."

I don't think you're in much of a position to judge ignorance. It is certain that you have no clue how to fix it, much less determine the contributing factors. People like you cannot even see a relationship between subscribers to advertisers. To you, alienating 50% or more of your subscription base should have no relationship to the numbers of ads and the amount of advertising dollars that you bring in. You do not even relate eyeballs to ads. It is incredible.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:02 So then big guy, why then has MNI dropped like a stone?

Since it isn't Marxism, give us your pearls here.

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:32 Bingo, we have a winner!

Anonymous said...

Melanie Sill will not be shitcanned. Rule number one: Management will not take ANY responsibility for their failures and WILL NOT eat their own.
Rule number two: See rule number one

Sad but true. I mean look, Pruitt still has a job although he augured the company into the ground at a high rate of speed, he still has a job AND a bonus.

Anonymous said...

O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem,
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour, which doth in it live:
The canker blooms have full as deep a dye,
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly,
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwooed, and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so,
Of their sweet deaths, are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall vade, by verse distills your truth.

Anonymous said...

Let's just ask how many of these newspaper folks voted for Obama, although they knew nothing about him? Why didn’t they know anything about him? I rest my case!

Anonymous said...

4:49 is right, there's no justification these days for still paying TV critics, film critics and Washington/International news bureaus when local news is the main thing readers want. Even op/ed writers are obsolete with reader editorials (which are much more interesting and fair-minded!). Those positions are purely a waste of budget!

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:56 LOL as MNI is in its death throws, we get this, Poetry?

I think when MNI gets this dysfunctional, this blog, like a newsroom, goes into an entirely different mode.

I’m not sure what to call this “mode” but, I do get a dysfunctional laugh about me.

Anonymous said...

Why are the award shows drawing fewer viewers every year? Because folks figured out they were meaningless, they were driving an agenda, not reflect any real artistry. Remember Brokeback Mountain? That is what has happened to the print media. The words are meaningless, they drive an agenda, and do not tell the truth. Unless the media cleans up their online act from the get go, they will die all over again. Death revisited, how sick is that, when they should know better?

Anonymous said...

5:21

How many non liberal papers are doing very well right now?

I stand by my comment

"To say they lost their jobs becasue of the paper being liberal is as ignorant a comment you can make."

and your statement-

"People like you cannot even see a relationship between subscribers to advertisers."

that is a perfect example of ignorance. You made this judgment based off a comment without knowing anything of my background in marketing,circulation and advertising. I know... you dont care you have already made up your mind without knowing any real facts.

and this statment-

"To you, alienating 50% or more of your subscription base should have no relationship to the numbers of ads and the amount of advertising dollars that you bring in."

and you know this becasue you are ...

I think you pulled 50% out of your ass, matter of fact i know it.Some markets are very liberal.

Polics does have a play in lost circulation but minimal, certainly not enough to be the driving factor in the steep decline cirulation have seen over the past year. I supose the revenue/expense problems in California and Florida are all becasue of those darn liberal papers.......

5:23 think MNI is the only paper tanking? get out of the box

Anonymous said...

"I stand by my comment"


Of course you do. We wouldn't want it any other way. Carry on by all means. Sanctimonious to the end and better to die defiant!

Just make sure you've updated your skill set for when you're proven wrong. Copy Writer maybe? Translating all that Chinese is probably a gold mine. Just don't look to hard for the editorial page. I don't think your opinion will fly any better there.

Anonymous said...

Journal Register files for bankruptcy

The Journal Register Co., owner of 20 daily newspapers, filed today for bankruptcy protection from its creditors. The Yardley-based company blamed a slump in advertising.

The company operates primarily in the Philadelphia and Cleveland areas, as well as throughout Michigan. Its newspapers include the Delaware County Times and the Trentonian near Philadelphia.

The company would cancel its stock and become a closely held company, owned by its lenders under a proposed reorganization plan filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

It listed debt of as much as $1 billion and assets of between $100 million and $500 million in Chapter 11 documents.

"With the increased competition from other forms of media and slumping advertising revenues, the downward pressure on newspaper earnings will likely remain intense in the near term," company chief executive officer James Hall said in court papers.

Since 2006, the company's revenue has dropped by more than 20 percent, Hall said.

In the fall of 2007, the company started cutting costs by selling its corporate jet, eliminating management bonuses and country club memberships, closing 34 publications and cutting at least 112 workers.

Under a proposal filed as part of the bankruptcy case, the company has asked for permission to pay as much as $1.7 million in bonuses to 30 top officers and key employees, should the Journal Register meet certain reorganization goals, including closing more papers and eliminating more employees.

Those officers have already been paid $450,000 for a previous round of cuts, according to court papers.

The Journal Register employs about 3,500 people and also owns 159 non-daily newspapers.