Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

I figure they’ll just have a handful of staff photogs for Quincy, Brockton, Taunton, Providence, New Bedford, Fall River, Hyannis and all their weeklies south of Boston and have one photo editor. I know at least one of the longtime photogs at the Ledger left recently... I thought it was a lay-off but maybe he just quit.

 

I'm surprised it had a paper. I had never heard of it before. It's a few miles from both Providence and New Bedford and not very far from Boston.

While looking up the paper I found the patch for the Fall River police.



That's an inspiring motto.

 

Holy Christ, that's an unfortunate patch, because nowadays the city is mostly known for being a rundown port, its high rate of crime and all of the heroin that passes through it. It is a pretty good size city for that region though - 89,000 - with some good surrounding suburbs.

 

Hearing from some friends in the business that as part of the Gatehouse-Gannett merger, some of the Ohio papers currently owned by Gannett might be sold to a group that owns some smaller papers throughout southern and southeast Ohio. Guessing that would be to quell any anti-trust concerns.

 

I flipped through some notes that were attached as an addendum to the Gannett press release announcing the merger.

As reported the companies said they could achieve 275 million dollars of cost savings, including 115 million dollars of cuts in newspaper operations. The company would pay down half the acquisition debt of 1.6 billion dollars of debt in the three years, essentially from the projected cost savings.

But Gatehouse is saw a five percent drop in same store sales last year. Gannett is losing revenue at a faster pace. The companies need to make those cost savings to cover the drop in revenues.

So unless these companies can stabilize revenues they will not have the money to pay down the debt. And how are they going to stabilize revenues if they continue to make significant cuts to newspaper operations?

This is a Chapter 11 waiting to happen.

 

And golden parachutes for the executives right before this happens.

 

AZ Republic Editor Greg Burton Accuses Pro-Union Reporters of 'Surveilling' Co-Workers

Gannett editor upset employees are acknowledging fellow workers.

 

When management announces there will be "operational cuts" of 115 million dollars I think you you would have to be an idiot not to join a union.

When people are walking the plank you look for any potential life rafts. This deal has a strong likelihood of going into Chapter 11. Employees. grab what you can.

 

Unions operate on seniority. I’m sure the newest members will be the first cut if there are layoffs.

 

Sure. But there will be some heavy negotiations to save as many jobs as possible. That's the whole point of joining a union.

 

Apparently in Youngstown only three survived. In New Orleans not many more survived when the T-P was folded into Baton Rouge. At least the union can try to get better severance benefits.

 

Shouldn't this headline actually read, "Gannett, Gatehouse take aim at journalists?"