Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Events planning such as banquets and road races is supposed to gross 60 million this year in a four billion dollar company per the conference call.

 

Sounds more like a call on where to draw funds for end-of-year bonuses for the executives.

 

Gannett borrowed 1.8 billion for deal. An analyst asked if the company would use the funds to pay off the debt. Management said no. My guess is that the pension debt will not be funded.

Fortress, the company that has had a contract to manage Gatehouse, had a contract that paid 20 million dollars or so most years. As part of the merger Fortress agreed to terminate their management contract and as I understand the amended contract should receive well over 50 million dollars total so cash is needed for that.

Reading the footnote in the corporate report that described that contract made me feel like someone watching Willie Sutton rob a bank in real time. Leon Cooperman, the hedge fund billionaire, told management that Fortress was "immoral" to take the money.

 

The banquet stuff makes sense to me because it's somewhat low hanging fruit. Put on a nice event, give people a chance to celebrate the kids picked All-State or whatever, it's a showcase thing your sales force can use to sell ads, maybe you pick up some subs too, etc. However, it's only going to work if you're still doing decent coverage.

 

You’re telling me Gannett’s plan to erase a volcano of debt is a bunch of high school all-star banquets. Jesus f dash dash dash Christ just cut the shit and file for bankruptcy already

 

They did some of these in my neck of the woods for a few years and the amount of money they spent on the speakers was astounding. Like probably could pay for three reporters for a year astounding. Now, I have no idea how much they brought in on tickets and sponsorships and if they came out on top, but it seems like a weird use of resources. They only did it for a couple of years and haven't for a while, so I'm guessing at least in our area it wasn't a home run.

 

Approximately 7,000 lost jobs yesterday nationwide. Paul Bascobert's memo today that "The natural question at this point is “are we done?” The honest answer is No."

 

A few more specifics:

 

Makes no sense. Everybody cuts high school coverage because it gets no clicks and sells no ads, but the all state banquets make a ton of money selling sponsorships. I guess this forces newspapers that don't cover high school sports to pick all state teams somehow. With no prep writer, I bet those teams are not very accurate in terms of who makes them. Geez.

 

My guess is most papers in that chain are completely cutting high school coverage amid these cuts. Banquets will appease the masses I guess.

 

Curious - if a local paper cuts high school, I imagine they cut local college coverage (non-D1) and just use wire of nearest pro sports? Another question - is MaxPreps hiring a bunch of writers?

 

has maxpreps ever had writers or articles? Everything I’ve seen from them is data entry. Scores and algorithms.