Another Furlough at Gannett

Gannett has announced a one-week furlough for the first quarter of 2010.  Here's the memo from Bob Dickey.

I thought this was a really interesting paragraph.

....we are heading into the new year with some solid improvements under our belt. We have seen some promising trends in advertising with ad declines slowing throughout the year and as we begin the holiday shopping season, we are also seeing some indication that retailers may be spending more on advertising.

Look, Bob, here's a piece of advice from one writer to another--when you are referring to changes that are "under our belt" don't refer to them as "solid improvements."

Then notice his desricption of the "promising trends"?  "Ad declines are slowing" Notice that they are continuing to fall, they are just not falling as fast as they were before.  Gannett will still have to continue cutting costs in order to stay ahead of falling ad revenue.  Naturally, cutting costs also decreases quality and puts downward pressure on both circulation and ad rates--which leads to more furloughs and cost cutting. In other words, a death spiral.

But at least there's good news--the death spiral is getting slower, and or course, Bob has made solid improvements under his belt...

Comments

[Mark DeSimone]

Telling employees in the same breath that things are improving yet they will have to endure furloughs is very telling. I think a more appropriate message would have been that he is taking a pay cut along with his employees.

[BobH]

Take a look at the graph (Newspaper Ad Revenues by Quarter, 2005-2009) in this article, and tell me if you can see even a 'slowing of the decline.'

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=117749

He is right that retailers are looking at doing more advertising, though. Things will improve generally in the ad biz (and therefore the media biz) in 2010, but newspapers are not in trouble because of the recession -- the recession has merely exacerbated their problems.