Media Quotes of the Week: From being a journalist means never having to grow up to Llama Drama Ding Dong! the famous headline that just won't die

James Delingpole in the Sunday Times [£] on why he revealed in Call Me Dave he had smoked dope with David Cameron in their student days: "Was this naive, irresponsible and impulsive of me? Well, of course. That’s why I chose to be a journalist rather than, say, a diplomat or a senior civil servant or a lawyer. The whole point of being a hack is — or should be, I believe — that you never grow up. You spend your whole life in a state of arrested adolescence, forever the cheeky fifth-former at the back of the bus, waving for attention, gurning for easy laughs and flicking two fingers at authority."

David Cameron on Sky News says he won't sue authors of Call Me Dave: "No. I'm too busy running the country, taking decisions, getting on with work. If you do a job like this, you do get people who have agendas and write books and write articles and write all sorts of things. The most important thing is not to let it bother you, get on with the job."

Jeremy Corbyn in his speech to the Labour conference: "Now some media commentators who’ve spent years complaining about how few people have engaged with political parties have sneered at our huge increase in membership. If they were sports reporters writing about a football team they’d be saying:  'They’ve had a terrible summer. They’ve got 160,000 new fans. Season tickets are sold out. The new supporters are young and optimistic. I don’t know how this club can survive a crisis like this'.”

Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail: "No one who is loathed by the bankers, the BBC and Tony Blair all at once can be that bad. Corbyn is the first genuinely original party leader to emerge in Britain since a certain Margaret Hilda Thatcher made her first speech to Conservative conference in 1975. Remember: the establishment hated her, too."

Peter Barron, editor of the Northern Echo, on the way the national press covered the closure of Teesside's steelworks with the loss of 1,700 jobs: "At best underwhelming, at worst pretty pathetic, and a failure to understand the consequences of what is happening in part of the United Kingdom. Imagine if a 150-year-old industry in the Home Counties was being consigned to the scrapheap, with 1,700 jobs axed. I respectfully suggest the national press might find it would have different priorities. Thank goodness for local papers."

Peter Preston on Newsquest-owner Gannett in the Observer: "Gannett is not well-loved here, or in the US. Gannett seems to exist to keep shareholders cheerful and pay executives royally. Gannett is a row of figures on the bottom line."

Sean O'Neill in The Times: "He hosts the most salacious show on daytime TV — a raucous parade of abandoned spouses, jilted fiancées and bitter ex-boyfriends. Yet Jeremy Kyle emerged yesterday as Britain’s most unlikely shrinking violet with a plea for privacy over his own private life.  Famous for curating controversy and confrontation on his eponymous ITV show, Kyle, 50, has hired lawyers to request a media blackout over his recent separation from his wife, Carla Germaine, 40. It is understood that the break-up is amicable and the couple are anxious to protect their three children from media intrusion."

Daily Mail in a leader: "In what looks like a stitch-up between the Civil Service and Government, Sir Jeremy [Heywood - Cabinet Secretary] told his audience of fellow mandarins that an ‘independent panel’ had begun work to look at the ‘pros and cons of the current regime’. Its membership? The five person cabal includes the chairman of Ofcom, which is itself subject to FoI, and two ex-Home Secretaries – including Jack Straw, who has repeatedly argued the law allows too great a level of disclosure. Little wonder that 140 freedom of information campaigners wrote to the Prime Minister this week to complain that the commission is prejudiced and appears to have been established to propose savage new curbs on the public’s right to know.David Cameron – who, let’s not forget, was elected on a promise of greater ‘transparency’ – should stand ready to throw this biased panel’s findings in the Downing Street bin."

Daily Star resurrects a famous headline over the story of love rival zookeepers. I blogged about the origins of Llama Drama Ding Dong! here. It first appeared in the Lancashire Evening Post above a story about a llama that escaped and caused havoc in a school playground. It was adapted by the Sun over a story about President Obama meeting the Dalai Lama despite sparking a row with China: Obama Llama Ding Dong; and was the title of a book on headlines.

[£]=paywall

Newsquest US parent Gannett to put up paywalls

Newsquest's US parent company, Gannett, is planning to introduce paywalls on all of its 80 local newspapers by the end of the year, Forbes magazine reports.

Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the US, made the announcement during an investor day held in New York. The only Gannett newspaper that will not have a paywall is its national title USA Today.

“We will begin to restrict some access to non-subscribers,” said Bob Dickey, president of community publishing.

According to Forbes, the model is similar to the metered system adopted by the New York Times a year ago, in which online readers are able to view a limited number of pages for free each month. That quota will be between five and 15 articles, depending on the paper, said Dickey. Six Gannett papers already have a digital pay regimen in place.

Gannett projects its new paid content initiative will contribute to a 25% increase in annual subscription revenues companywide. That in turn will swell earnings by $100 million per year.

Newsquest parent company chief gets $37m retirement package after six years of slashing jobs

Craig Dubow, the chief executive officer of Gannett, Newsquest's US parent company, who is leaving the company on health grounds is eligible to collect a retirement and disability pay package of $37.1 million which has sparked criticism from one of the company's former journalists.

Peter Lewis, who has worked for the The Des Moines Register, the New York Times and FORTUNE magazine, in a post on his blog highlights the number of jobs that have been cut at Gannett since Dubow was appointed six years ago.

Lewis writes: "When Dubow took over Gannett employed some 52,000 people in its publishing, broadcast, digital and mobile divisions. When he resigned last week, it employed 32,000 people. Among the 20,000 jobs that were cut were thousands of talented journalists. Mr. Dubow also required many employees to take unpaid leaves of absence, and instituted pay freezes. He referred to this as 'increasing workplace efficiencies.'

"When Dubow took over as CEO, Gannett’s stock price was $72-something a share. At his departure last week it was $10-something, down 85 percent in his tenure.

"Last year, while laying off more journalists, Gannett increased Mr. Dubow’s 2010 pay package to $7.9 million. Including the estimated future value of stock awards and options, his 2010 pay package could increase to $9.4 million. Gannett said the raise was meant to reward Mr. Dubow for boosting the publisher’s earnings — remember, the emphasis is always on the net — for the fourth consecutive year.

"Mr. Dubow managed to keep earnings high, according to analysts, by cutting costs (i.e. people) more aggressively than any other company in the media industry. Gannett refers to this as 'workplace restructuring.'

"Mr. Dubow is now eligible to collect a retirement and disability pay package of $37.1 million, according to Gannett."

Lewis also notes that Bob Dickey, the head of Gannett’s U.S. newspapers division, also got a hefty pay raise in 2010 to $3.4 million, up from $1.9 million the year before. He adds that in his resignation statement, Dubow insisted that his top priority as CEO was to serve the consumer.

Lewis concludes: "How did Mr. Dubow and Gannett serve the consumer? They laid off journalists. They cut the pay of those who remained, while demanding that they work longer hours. They closed news bureaus. They slashed newsroom budgets. As revenue fell, and stock prices tanked, and product quality deteriorated, they rewarded themselves huge pay raises and bonuses.

"This is the sort of stuff that causes people to occupy Wall Street and main streets in cities across the country."

Gannett announces 700 newspaper redundancies

Gannett, the US parent company of Newsquest in the UK, has announced 700 newspaper redundancies.

The Gannett Blog has published a memo from U.S. newspapers division President Bob Dickey distributed to more than 20,000 employees at virtually all Gannett's 82 U.S. newspapers.

It reads:

CONFIDENTIAL: CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION -- NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION

June 21, 2011
To: All US Community Publishing employees
From: Bob Dickey

As we reach the mid-point of the year, the economic recovery is not happening as quickly or favorably as we had hoped and continues to impact our U.S. community media organizations. We have made continued progress on the many initiatives underway to seek new sources of revenue, build a world class sales force and better serve our customers through watchdog reporting and stronger Sunday newspapers. While we are seeing improved circulation results and audience growth, weakness in the real estate sector, slow job creation and now softer auto ad demand continue to challenge revenue growth in the division.

National advertising remains soft and with many of our local advertisers reducing their overall budgets, we need to take further steps to align our costs with the current revenue trends. Each of our local media organizations faces its own market conditions, challenges and opportunities. Therefore, it has been up to each local publisher to determine his or her unique course of action.

While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs. Accordingly, approximately 700 employees within USCP, or about 2% of our company’s overall workforce, will be let go. Publishers will notify people today and we will make every effort to reach everyone by end of day. It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance and we thank and respect those employees for their work. We will do everything we can to help them and to minimize the impact on our other employees going forward. In an effort to reduce the number of people being let go, there will be furloughs in the coming months but they will be limited only to those on the USCP corporate payroll who make over a certain salary. You will be notified by your publisher if you are among this group.

These have been extremely difficult and painful decisions to make. I know the impact is felt by everyone within USCP and companywide.

I appreciate and thank you for all that you do to create and deliver award-winning journalism to our customers and communities every day. Even under these challenging circumstances, I know you will continue to do so and your efforts are greatly appreciated by our customers and colleagues within Gannett.

As always, please feel free to email me directly at rdickey@gannett.com with any questions you may have.

Regards,

Bob

According to the Gannett Blog: "Today's disclosure of 700 newspaper layoffs is the single largest round since July 2009, when the U.S. newspaper division eliminated about 1,400 jobs, mostly through layoffs. This is the fourth mass layoff since August 2008."

Sports ed's farewell column blames 'corporate greed' for job cuts at Newsquest's US parent

I am sure many redundant British journalists will identify with the last column by laid-off sports editor Frank DiLeo for the Daily Record in Parsippany, New Jersey, owned by Gannett, the US parent company of Newsquest.

The Record is one of three Gannett dailies losing nearly half their combined 99 newsroom employees in a "work consolidation". DiLeo's column is unsurprisingly not on the Daily Record's website but has been picked up by the independent Gannett blog.

DiLeo writes: "The Daily Record sports department has strived over the years to bring you the best coverage of Morris County athletics as possible. Whether it was online or in print, in a weekly newspaper or a daily, we took great pride in the service that we provided for the community.

But all that work, all the sacrifices we made are worth nothing.

For the second time in two years, I am being laid off from my job as sports editor of the Daily Record. This despite being a 35-year-old manager who has received nothing but praise and exceptional reviews, always put his employees first, and truly cared for the community. In my 12 years with the company (Gannett), I have received almost every local, state and national award for my field, from headline writing to page designing and much more.

I even won the first New Jersey Press Association award for innovation a few years back.

It's ironic that in such a short time, I became a dinosaur.

Why was I laid off . . . again? I wish I knew, as do the other great folks here who put in decades of service only to see their career come to an end with no explanation.

I worked hard to build my career, only to be left with a few weeks of severance and reminders of what used to be.

Those of you who know me well know that I don't put much stock in emotion. But I can't help but to feel like a rube on the midway for thinking that someone as young, talented and loyal as I was would be able to stick with a company after proving time and time again that there was nothing I couldn't or wouldn't do for the good of the corporation.

I've worked through pneumonia many times, bronchitis, pleurisy, broken ribs, migraines, a gallbladder that stopped functioning for six months and many other ailments that I ignored doctors orders to stay home. All for the good of the company. This is where it got me.

But I am not alone in my bitterness.

Many great people worked their last day at the Daily Record on Friday. Nearly half the staff has been let go from an already thin crew. Folks that have been for over 30 years had to reapply for their positions and drive to Neptune, some of us had to do it four times in a span of two weeks, to be asked the exact same questions as the previous trip.

Why?

You'll have to ask Gannett management that question yourself, because I've never received anything resembling an explanation.

My guess is that we're all victims of corporate greed, just like millions of folks out there going through the same thing.

Things like truth, honor, work ethic and integrity mean nothing on an Excel spreadsheet. It's all about profit margins.

Gannett is not alone in this new world order of treating customers like an annoyance and employees like dogs who should be happy with whatever scraps are leftover.

Pick any major company, and you'll find an indifference to customer service and quality.

The Daily Record, more so its parent company Gannett, is no different.

Many talented, innovative, caring people were let go today. Meanwhile, the empty suits at corporate collect six and seven-figure salaries while accepting massive bonuses.

Please don't take this as knock against the Daily Record's bosses. They're great people who truly care about the community and this newspaper. Corporate greed everywhere has run amok, and we the people are left to deal with the consequences of its wake.

But it still hurts . . . again."

Newsquest US parent reports income increase

Gannett, the US parent of UK regional publisher Newsquest, reported today that its publishing segment operating income, excluding special items, for Q2 was up by $31.0 million (20.8%) to $180.3 million, compared to Q2 2009. Publishing segment operating cash flow totaled $214.6 million, up 23.3% from 2009’s second quarter.
Editor & Publisher reports: "The increase reflects the impact of expense cuts in this and previous quarters, lower newsprint costs, and lower revenue declines compared with Q2 2009 -- slightly offset by the absence of furlough savings (where employees take unpaid leave) of about $20 million.
"The company’s net income for Q2, adjusted for special items, was $146.5 million, compared to $107.9 million in the second quarter of 2009 (an increase of 35.7%). Operating cash flow was $327 million, up from $250.9 million in the second quarter of 2009. Ganett's 2010 second-quarter earnings per diluted share were $0.81, including a net gain from discontinued operations of $0.08 per share."
Gannett chairman and ceo Craig A. Dubow said in a statement. “In our Publishing segment, this quarter was the best comparison quarter for advertising revenues since mid-2007.
“We benefited from continuing efficiency efforts company-wide as well as lower newsprint expense. As a result, we generated substantially higher profitability and operating cash flow in all of our business segments.”
Gannett said: "Advertising revenues were 4.6 percent lower in the U.S. and 6.4 percent lower, in pounds, at Newsquest."

'Gannett profit sign of newspaper turnaround'

Gannett, the US parent company of Newsquest in the UK, has today reported a first-quarter profit that was double its earnings a year ago and said that U.S. newspaper advertising, down 8.5% year-on-year, showed improvement in every category, Editor & Publisher reports.
E&P claims the results are more evidence of a turnaround in the fortunes of newspapers.
Gannett chairman and chief executive officer Craig A. Dubow said in a statement: "“We achieved very strong results for the quarter. All of our business segments delivered substantially higher operating income and operating cash flow in the quarter. We more than doubled adjusted net income despite lower revenues and reduced our debt by approximately $260 million in the quarter.
“The momentum we had at the end of last year continued through the first quarter. Revenue trend comparisons improved in the quarter reflecting the positive impact healthier economies in the U.S. and the UK had on advertising demand as well as advertising revenue associated with the Winter Olympic Games. 
"We also benefited from significantly lower costs due to greater efficiencies and substantially lower newsprint expense. We are well positioned for continued growth as the economy improves and we are extremely encouraged by the revenue trends and our ability to create and capture operating leverage.
He added: “Earlier this week, we were pleased to join eleven other major media companies in announcing plans to form a standalone joint venture to develop a new national mobile content and distribution service to make mobile digital television universally available to consumers.”
Net income was $119.4 million, more than doubling the $57.0 million generated in the first quarter last year. E&P says: "As newspapers have reported in the past several quarters, Gannett profit was built on continued cost-cutting." The company said its operating expenses, adjusted for special items, fell 11.3% to $141.3 million.
Gannett  pointed to improvements in advertising revenue. It said classified advertising was 14.0 percentage points better than the fourth quarter comparison. Retail was better by 9.3 percentage points and national by 7.9 percentage points.

Newsquest US parent Gannett ends wage freeze

Gannett, the US parent of UK regional newspaper publisher Newsquest, is to end its wage freeze, according to the Gannettoid website.

It says: "Gannett newspaper division president Bob Dickey confirmed in a memo today (March 1) the company will lift its wage freeze April 1. The freeze was imposed April 1, 2009 and said to be for 12 months. There had been growing concern the company would extend the freeze."

Gannettoid has published the full memo, saying it is "the first official confirmation on the topic from the company."
Via E&P in Exile.

Newsquest parent says web and not daily papers are primary medium for breaking news

Gannett, the US publisher that owns Newsquest in the UK, has drawn up a list of "content prioritie," which have been obtained by Editor & Publisher. They include a recognition that "the daily newspaper is not a breaking news medium" while websites "are the primary medium for breaking news".
They were presented by Kate Marymont, vice president/news for Gannett's community publishing division, which includes all of its daily papers except USA Today. She says: "We have asked [editors] to use them as a guide as they develop their strategic plans. It is almost a statement of philosophy rather than a template they have to fill out."
The "content priorities" include:
Improve Watchdog Journalism: Recognise the value of unique, revelatory journalism; review resources to ensure adequate allocation to watchdog work; experiment with delivery systems; and look for partnerships and other creative sources of watchdog content.
Reposition the Daily Newspaper: Recognise that the newspaper is not a breaking-news medium; Develop unique content tied to community interests and focused on delivering depth, context, analysis, perspective; Produce local content that differentiates us as a media organization; and "get our swagger back."
Reposition Our Web sites: Recognise that our Web sites are the primary medium for breaking news; ensure the Web site is distinct from the newspaper; Address Web design, content, functionality and utility; Leverage the strengths of the medium; and explore consumer response to various paid content models and possible vendor partnerships.
Sunday Readership and Engagement: Create a content strategy to attract younger readers; Protect high-value content for loyal Boomer readers; Invest in sales and marketing resources to grow engagement in key demographics and geographic audiences: Leverage advertising opportunities around the special value of Sundays.
Be Strong Community Leaders: Protect our long tradition of helping our communities solve issues, set visions, right wrongs; Preserve strong editorial voices in print while reflecting our changing audiences; solidify our role in the center of digital community conversations by leveraging all possible platforms; Be forces for positive change, when appropriate."
Wonder if the "priorities" will be introduced at Newsquest.

Newsquest ad revenues down 28.7 per cent

US based newspaper publisher Gannett, which owns Newsquest, today reported advertising revenues down 26.0 per cent in the third quarter in the US and by 28.7 per cent in the UK.
Gannett's classified revenues were down 36.9 per cent reflecting declines of 33.8 per cent in the US and 34.7 per cent at Newsquest.
Craig Dubow, Gannett chairman and ceo, said: "We finished the quarter on a stronger note with better than anticipated results due primarily to better trends in advertising and greater efficiencies across all our business segments....Although recessions in the US and UK continued to temper demand and revenue growth , we are encouraged by the revenue trends."

Shares boost for Newsquest owner Gannett

Are the bad times for newspapers in the US over? Editor & Publisher reports "Newspaper stocks soared in early afternoon trading Tuesday, fueled by the news that Gannett [which owns Newsquest in the UK] will report third-quarter earnings that far exceed expectations."
The report says that shares in Gannett were up $1.73, or 17.3%, to $11.71 a share and that "the good feelings about Gannett extended to the rest of the newspaper sector, with every NYSE-traded newspaper company up -- some by even bigger margins."

Newsquest classifieds drop 45 per cent but share price in parent company Gannett rises

Gannett, US parent company of regional publisher Newsquest, has reported classified revenues in the UK down 45.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
The UK figures include a 60 per cent fall in property advertising, 51.4 per cent drop in jobs and 43.2 per cent decline in car advertising.
Gannett chief executive Craig Dubow said: "Our results reflect the pressure on advertising demand across all of our business segments due to continuing recessions in the US and the UK. Our results, however, highlight the positive impact of the company's efforts to operate its businesses as cost efficiently as possible."
Gannett, the biggest US publisher by circulation, reported operating revenues for the company were $1.4 billion in the first quarter compared to $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2008. The profit figures met analysts estimates and led to a sharp rise in Gannett's share price.
Bloomberg reports Edward Atorino, a New York- based analyst at Benchmark Co., saying of Gannett: “They did a good job managing costs because their revenue was down pretty significantly. Gannett’s results weren’t worse than expected and, in this environment, that’s a good thing.”

Newsquest parent company results this week

Newsquest parent company Gannett Co., the largest U.S. newspaper publisher by circulation, reports earnings on Thursday, kicking off what is expected to be the ugliest quarter in recent memory for the newspaper industry, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The WSJ says: "Though there is little uncertainty about the short-term outlook, analysts and industry executives will be watching for any signs of a recovery in advertising.
"Declines in print ad revenue acceleratedthrough the end of last year, and if early returns this year offer no clearer view of a bottom, publishers could start taking more aggressive action, including closing papers or shifting operations online.
" 'We're expecting particularly dismal results from newspapers,' said Mike Simonton, an analyst with Fitch Ratings, adding that until classified ads disappear completely, there is 'no bottom in sight' for the current revenue trends."
WSJ reports: "Gannett, publisher of more than 80 U.S. dailies including USA Today, faces many of the same pressures as its competitors. Though most of its papers are profitable, profits are shrinking. The company's entire debt structure is due to mature by 2012. To alleviate pressure, Gannett last week announced a bond exchange to push out some of its maturities.
"Gannett has made some drastic cost-cutting moves at its newspapers to keep costs in line with dwindling revenue, including multiple rounds of job cuts and two furlough programs forcing employees to take unpaid leave. More changes could be in store, particularly as the outlook worsens for its flagship paper."
Story via Tom McGowran

Newsquest parent company in US asks staff to take week off without any pay

Editor & Publisher is reporting that Gannett, which owns Newsquest in the UK, is asking its employees to take a week off without pay.
The magazine quotes a memo from Gannett CEO Craig Dubow: "Today Gannett is implementing a furlough program across all U.S. divisions and at corporate headquarters. This means that most of our U.S. employees - including myself and all other top executives - will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter. This furlough will be unpaid. Unions also will be asked to participate. We are doing this to preserve our operations and continue to deliver for our customers while confronting the issues raised by some of the most difficult economic conditions we have ever experienced."
Could it happen here?

And you think it's bad here..

In the US, job cuts imposed by Gannett, which owns Newsquest in the UK, will end up eliminating around 2,000 posts across all of the company's 85 daily papers, except the Detroit Free Press and USA Today, according to Editor and Publisher magazine. The cutbacks, which will affect about 10 per cent of jobs in the company's Community Publishing Division, were announced in late October.
Also in the US, MediaWeek reports: "Newspaper and newspaper groups are likely to default on their debt and go out of business next year -- leaving 'several cities' with no daily newspaper at all." The prediction is made by credit ratings company Fitch Ratings which says in a report :"Fitch believes more newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010."