Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Gannett stock closed at $1.25 today.

 

Oh my.

 

As hard as it is to fathom, the stock might actually be worse than the product now.

 

The way things are going, a coronavirus check might be enough to buy the entire Gannett chain.

 

They have already done some of that in my area as well. I didn't state my case very well. I firmly believe either 1) newsrooms will be gutted further, exacerbated by the virus, or b) whole sites will be shut down.

 

Lord.

I worked for about nine months in Jackson, Miss., back in 2003, 2004. There was a TV hanging near the employee entrance which showed the stock price.

Something like $90 a share back then ...

 

USA Today is pitched to travelers in hotels. Since no one is traveling I would think USA Today is seeing advertising declines. And recent history is once a newspaper advertiser leaves they do not come back. I wonder if USA Today makes it to Christmas.

 

Hell I'm wondering if any of us will.

 

Yeah, really.

 

The whole company’s market value is $210 million today! A single major metro daily used to sell for about that amount a generation ago.

 

Think about how screwed the public will be without newspapers during crisis. This is going to be the new normal soon when all newspapers go out of business. The scare tactics of TV will be the only way to get news. As proven when snow is in the forecast and coronavirus, TV has shown its power again in the fact you can't buy toilet paper, eggs or milk anywhere. Sheer panic will reign when newspapers are gone thanks to the public not buying them and newspapers making bad decision after bad decision. Deadly combination.

 

Wasn't the general consensus on January 1 that newsroom cuts would be happening in February and again later in the year? I have to believe this is simply going to multiply the number of job losses by the 100s, if not 1000s. I hope I am wrong.