DFM bloodletting continues

Aww, the poor corporate jackasses got their widdle feelwings hurt.

 

The refs always end up flagging the second guy.

Regardless of the content - tweeting that you had something spiked and publishing it elsewhere is a fast way to get canned. Could be a feature on a high school athlete, a column about an advertiser, or anything. DFM is what it is, but writing something on company time and using resources means that the product belongs to the newspaper and it can run it or not run it.

 

Well-written and, apparently, a ditch the writer was willing to die in. I'm sure when Krieger defied his publisher (the editor and opinion page editor wanted to publish it), he knew "termination" would be a likely result.

Kudos to Dave Krieger for taking a stand and explaining what is happening at the DFM-owned papers.

 

While I really agree with Krieger’s sentiments, I don’t know what outcome he expected from this. It was never going to hit print. He then dared his superiors to fire him by releasing the piece online. Unless he has something else lined up or enough F-you money in the bank, it’s not a good career move.

 

Kreiger is 63 or 64. I suspect he was about to retire anyway.

 

He knew the consequences. He took a stand.
Doubt he'll be jobless long if he wants another. For example ...

 

Hemingway would have loved Krieger's brave stand, like El Sordo's, and hey, someone already threw him a lifeline. Que va!

 

Hey what Fredrick has to say here is important. I did some twitter searches and saw that MANY employees of the Daily Camera tweeted things about this situation in definite support of Krieger and some individuas from the Denver Post tweeted support as well. That takes balls when you consider the environment we are in today. The hedge funders certainly have some ammo against those who supported Krieger publicly. I believe I saw the city editor of the paper supported Dave in a tweet. Cool stuff. I'm sure at this point most folks at newspapers are so fed up with all this crap they are willing to support an excellent colleague like Krieger. Kudos to all doing the right thing here. Shame on the minions who fired Dave and are the puppets of the hedge fund. Their excuse for firing him was lame and he should sue. I bet the funders would settle out of court.

 

I subscribe on-line and only see the hard-copy when I go back to visit relatives. While there are not many ads left in the Post let aren't a fair portion from the pot shops?

Newspapers are losing a lot of retail advertisers to the internet, The retailer can develop a list of email addresses through a loyalty program and send out circulars for basically free, But I bet the pot shops have trouble getting e-mail addresses from customers and are therefore newspaper reliant.

 

Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local journalism it might not want to stop anytime soon

How profitable is DFM? According to company financials provided by confidential sources, DFM made a profit of $159 million in its fiscal 2017, the 12 months that ended June 30 of last year.

In total, it earned revenue of $939 million and had expenses of $780 million. That amounts to a 17 percent operating margin.

What to make of those numbers? Without clarification from the company, which declined comment, it’s not possible to know what DFM puts into — or leaves out of — its expense numbers. If those expense numbers include items like capital expenditures, restructuring and asset impairment charges, and depreciation and amortization charges — as companies like Gannett do — then DFM’s margins are about double that of its peers. Even if some of those expenses are not included — for instance, to make the profit numbers look better in preparation for a sale — DFM’s margins would still outpace peers.

That 17 percent margin ranks the highest among major chains. Four major publishers — the New York Times Co., Gannett, Tronc, and McClatchy — each post operating margins under 10 percent.