Mike Reed Sets Goals for New Gannett

It does need to be pointed out that that video is from "old" Gannett (the one that sucked so bad they actually had to sell out to GateHouse).

 

What I can never figure out is why shareholders are putting up with Reed's salary?

"Mike ... you're presiding over a decimated industry. You lost $50 mill last quarter. Maybe you just suck at your job and $8 million is a bit too much to watch you fuck it up any longer."

 

The Gannett board members make between $200,000 and $250,000 for attending 8 meetings per year ... who not only approved his $900,000 salary, but a $700,000 bonus and over $7 million in shares in 2021 ... Those are the people you want to hold the CEO accountable?
I'll say this much - I haven't seen anyone get paid while decimating an entire organization this efficiently since Trump took charge of the USFL owners room in the 80s.

 

Writing staff of 9 cut to 7. Circulation just under 9,000.

 

I found out the severance package for one of my friends:
• One week's pay for every year worked there.
• $3,000 "transition bonus"
• Payment for any unused PTO.
• Insurance coverage through the end of September.

 

A better package than I thought they’d offer, to be honest.

 

Definitely. Maybe I should have waited to retire.lol

 

A lot better than years ago, when they dumped me. They only offered a supplement on top of unemployment for one week per year that I was there. And that was contingent on being eligible for unemployment.

Of course, there were some people who weren’t eligible, and they ended up getting nothing.

 

I think I got my vacation and sick time balances paid out, along with a month's pay.

 

I might have gotten those too. I don’t remember. The “severance”, though, was a joke. I think they stopped doing it after my group of layoffs or maybe the group after me because they were getting ripped on for being a billion dollar company that was using taxpayer money as severance and wasn’t l even willing to offer their employees a proper severance.

 

Given the amount of money Gannett is losing I am surprised that the cuts announced so far have not been more draconian. I read an article where a union is tracking this and counted 35 layoffs at 20 papers.

The company last 54 million dollars last quarter on a seven percent decline in revenues and has a lot of debt. They have to do some pretty major operational changes or just go ahead and file for Chapter 11. Firing a reporter here or reporter there is not enough.

 

I’d be interested to see how the newsrooms with unions were impacted. Gannett may have had to scale down the layoffs with newsrooms that had negotiated severance packages in place, and it may not have wanted the fight with the unions it is currently negotiating contracts with. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gannett try to save money with adjusted budgets and not filling open positions.