Gannett announces furloughs

Could be a reverse stock split is in New Gannett's future. Every 20 shares could be converted to 1 new share in order to get the share price comfortably above $1.

 

I'm kind of interested if there is money to be made with the stock here. Not in buying, of course - in shorting. I have no clue if that's feasible though, since it already seems destined to be de-listed, and admittedly, I don't know about the mechanics here (except from video games and the defunct Protrade).

 

True. They also recently announced a poison pill to keep institutional investors from wresting control by increasing their stakes on the cheap.

I think McClatchy did a reverse split a while back. Didn't help them much in the end.

 

Because I wanted to make some money off the decline, I bought Puts against Gannett stock a while back. A put is an option contract covering 100 shares that expires on a certain date - up until the expiry date, you have the option of forcing the other party of buying your 100 shares of Gannett (or whatever stock you are trading options on) at the Strike Price of the option. If the strike price of the put to be above the market price of the stock, you make money.

I had no trouble buying the puts to open. It was tough to sell the options and close the positions because the options were illiquid. Apparently the spite that was driving me was too much emotion to trade on. Still made a couple hundred bucks.

 

Also, some research on Gannett/TEGNA for TV contracts.

In 2008/09, during the recession, they made all of their TV people take a week off. However, if you were under contract, you didn't have to.

After that, they wrote it into individual contracts that you HAD to follow whatever the corporate furlough policy would be in the future. (In TV news, on-air people like anchors and reporters have contracts -- unless theirs is expired and they're working without one as an at-will. Off-air, producers are almost always under contract. After that, it can vary with photographers, video editors, assignment desk editors, managing editors, etc.)

 

Jesus somebody’s in a pissed mood. Or maybe YOU are a suit!

 

Here's the thing, since we're painting with a broad brush -- it's bad for everybody.
As someone who has worked on both sides and has been back in sports for a few years, I've known more than a few sports reporters at the many different shops I've worked at who would take advantage of the system at all costs and wouldn't raise a hand to help someone out even if the building was on fire. Yes, most sports reporters are hard working and team players. So are news reporters.
There were more than a few times during legislature sessions when capital bureau reporters would stay and cover the session even though it was over eight hours and they knew they weren't getting overtime. And they sure as hell weren't going to get those hours back down the line.
Now, maybe Fredrick works at a shop where most of the people have been there over 20 years and they still operate like the old days.
Also, last time I checked, Gannett wasn't furloughing just sports reporters, they were furloughing news reporters and reporters whose knowledge, especially when it comes to health and medicine, is dearly needed at this time.
The business is bad for everyone, and the sooner Fredrick stops looking at it through sports-colored glasses, the better.

 

This may be the biggest indicator how much things are changing in this world, that Sports Barf is making sense.

 

I can accept that.

 

If you have an account at Schwab and want to short you just go on-line and trade. They have a box you check to sell short just as you do for a buy or sell order. Sometimes it can be hard to get shares on a thinly traded stock or you have to pay an additional fee to acquire the stock, at least at Schwab. I think there are better brokers out there than at Schwab. I use them because they have good customer service and I have been there 30 years and am too lazy to change brokers.

 

Thanks! The stock has "jumped" up 25 percent, to just under a buck, after - in what seems like an Onion-style parody article - they adopted a poison pill.