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Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by SoloFlyer, May 30, 2019.

Page 49 of 68
  1. Sports Barf

    Sports Barf Well-Known Member

    Yes like, um, ANY OTHER PROFESSION
     
    Sports Barf, Apr 29, 2020
    #577
    2muchcoffeeman likes this.
  2. bumpy mcgee

    bumpy mcgee Well-Known Member

    At least GannettHouse has wised up and not let Mike Reed do interviews. Whenever he talks, the stock price drops and people lose jobs.
     
    bumpy mcgee, Apr 29, 2020
    #578
  3. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    True. When my shift ends, doesn't matter how long my line is, it ends. It's like leaving in the middle of a game in extra innings.
     
    HanSenSE, Apr 29, 2020
    #579
  4. Severian

    Severian Well-Known Member

    Not at all lol
     
    Severian, Apr 29, 2020
    #580
    BurnsWhenIPee likes this.
  5. Twirling Time

    Twirling Time Well-Known Member

    I will add one more qualifier: As long as I don't have to hump 50-pound bags of feed, I'm good. I did that as a kid at the local feed store for a summer.
     
    Twirling Time, Apr 30, 2020
    #581
  6. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    For me, it was sorting through the shipment full of rotten potatoes to find any we could still sell at the grocery store. I can still smell the family of maggots at the bottom.
     
    BurnsWhenIPee, Apr 30, 2020
    #582
  7. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    When people who work full time at your newspaper still qualify for food stamps or other public support - you really shouldn't have editorials telling people or institutions what they should do, who they should support or what their priorities should be.
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2020
    DanOregon, Apr 30, 2020
    #583
    HanSenSE, I Should Coco, 2muchcoffeeman and 5 others like this.
  8. BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo

    BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo Well-Known Member

    My line is spray painting garbage cans at the town dump during a summer in college. I found out after about a week I was allergic to the spray paint, which made me wheeze something fierce. So I got to do odd jobs around the dump. It built character, at least.
     
    BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo, May 1, 2020
    #584
    sgreenwell likes this.
  9. goldy220

    goldy220 New Member

    goldy220, May 1, 2020
    #585
  10. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    You are talking about that massive Apollo private equity loan that allowed New Media to buy Gannett. It added close to $2 trillion of debt to Gannett's balance sheet, and yeah, given the risk attached to that massive dollar amount (which was 3 to 4 times the earnings of the combined companies), they put a ton of covenants on it -- limits on CapX, included. It's not so much what New Media agreed to, as it was about what it would take to get that kind of financing for a very risky deal.

    That financing happened in 2019, so it wouldn't have put any limits on what Gannett was doing in 2018.

    But even prior to the deal and that balance sheet becoming a $2 trillion debt bomb, Gannett was way in over its head in debt already -- hundreds of millions of dollars of long-term debt that had been getting more onerous. I am not sure what covenants were attached to most of that debt. But these were not private equity loans for merger purposes (or for a start-up promising huge growth). Gannett was dependent on continuous borrowing to keep the company operational. It's very difficult to do capital expenditures, which are a form of investment, when your business is dying and you are borrowing in order to stay operational. You are relying on lenders who want safety and protection, so it limits what you can do.
     
    The Big Ragu, May 1, 2020
    #586
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    Can't "like" this post enough.

    About 20 years ago, when our son was a year old, I mentioned in a newspaper column an offhand reference to taking longer in a checkout line due to using the WIC vouchers for a few items.

    The owner/publisher left me a note asking me to please refrain from mentioning that, because it was "embarrassing" to his newspaper.

    The 48-year-old me would have marched right into his office with his note, shouting, "If it's so embarrassing, maybe you should pay your employees more." Unfortunately, the chickenshit 28-year-old me grumbled to my co-workers and said nothing to the owner.
     
    I Should Coco, May 1, 2020
    #587
    sgreenwell, Sports Barf and BurnsWhenIPee like this.
  12. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    What a story! This business and those who run it disgust me. Thank you for sharing.
     
    Fredrick, May 1, 2020
    #588
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