Mike Reed Sets Goals for New Gannett

"Journey" should be double-hated on this board then.

 

You don’t like Steve Perry and Neil Schon?

 

Gannett just announced Fiscal Year 2021 results. In the investor materials the company disclosed a 22.4 million dollar loss in the fourth quarter according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP). GAAP is what all companies have to use in their reports to the SEC.

But never fear. According to the Gannett materials using non-GAAP the company made 42 million dollars in profits. According to a footnote in very small type Gannett has its own definition of net income that it likes to use in lieu of GAAP. I am sure all of you working at Gannett papers will be happy to learn that GAAP is not particularly relevant to Gannett and your company is doing really well.

The company is also confident that it will also be able to grow digital subscriptions from 1.6 million to 6 million by the end of 2025.

One point I did find interesting is that digital circulation is 1.6 million and print circulation is down to two million and declining. Electronic circulation will soon pass print.

 

At least from this Yahoo write-up / posting of their Q3 2021 call, at that point they had 1.5M digital subs. Gaining about 100k in three months isn't bad, but that's about 400k per year - assuming there is no slippage - and roughly 1.6M more in four years, for a total of 3.1M by the end of 2025. Hard to see how they're going to radically spike that number upward, since they aren't really offering more compelling content, just slashing everything to the bone.

 

One supposes they’re counting on a bunch of people forgetting that $1 per year introductory offer auto-converts to $13.99 a month.

 

The cousins seem to be doing well though....

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/tegna-sale-private-equity-firms-1235097233/

 

Let's see if I got this straight.

They took their national newspaper and made it a shell of its former self.

Then they took their local newspapers and attached them at the hip to the national newspaper, disposing of almost all locally-driven content in the process.

And they're losing big money.

Am I missing anything?

 

It depends. If you trust Generally Accepted Accounting Principals more than Gannett's Self-Defined Accounting Principals then you are correct.

 

Between the TV stations being sold and the newspapers being well, whatever the hell that was called with the new owners, the company I worked for no longer exists. Nice to know that those minimal raises and sacrifices we made all those years amounted to - whatever.

 

Car runs into the side of a Gannett paper's building. Local TV station breaks the news. Paper still does not have a story on its website.

 

If It Happens in Jackson, It's News To Us!

 

What are the chances that any Clarion-Ledger employee has been in that building the last two years?