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Archive for July 6th, 2011

Jul 6

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Jim Hopkins on Gannett and the Future of The Town Talk and The News Star

“They will be reduced to websites with just a small amount of local news, much of which will be determined by assignment and editing from afar.”

Jim Hopkins is the founder and editor of Gannett Blog, the leading media trade blog site about the nation’s largest newspaper company, Gannett Company. Gannett, of course, is the owner of the USA Today and 82 other daily newspapers in the United States, including five papers in the Gret Stet of Louisiana: The Shreveport Times, The Monroe News-Star, The Lafayette Advertiser, The Opelousas Daily World, and The Alexandria Town Talk.

Jim, a graduate of Brown University, knows a thing or two about Gannett. He spent over twenty years working at Gannett as both a journalist and an editor, the last eight of which were at the USA Today. Since launching Gannett Blog in 2007, Jim has kept a close and keen eye on his former employer, and in doing so, he’s helped shed significant light on Gannett’s digital transition and the ways in which corporate decisions affect local communities, Gannett employees, and the delivery of the news.

Last Friday, my friend Daniel and I were interviewed for a documentary about the American Way (which will be the subject of another post), and we both spoke, at length, about how Gannett’s ownership fundamentally changed our hometown newspaper, The Town Talk. Afterward, I reached out to Jim Hopkins and asked if he’d be willing to answer a few questions, and thankfully, he was happy to oblige.

Lamar: The Town Talk was founded in 1883, which makes it one of the longest continuously operating newspapers in the entire country. They were the first newspaper in the entire State of Louisiana to become computerized– way, way back when “computerized” was a word that actually meant something. There’s an entire book about the history of The Town Talk. To me, The Town Talk was always more than just a newspaper; it was a civic institution. In 1996, Central Newspapers bought The Town Talk for $62 million from the local family that had owned it from the very beginning, and shortly thereafter, Gannett bought Central Newspapers. Today, it seems like a shell of its former self. It’s no longer a civic institution. Their printing press buildings, which eat up an enormous footprint along our river, are all closed. Our paper is now printed nearly 100 miles away. The people who work there are now in constant fear of losing their jobs. And of course, because it’s the only newspaper in town, this is not reported properly. What should we blame for the decline of the newspaper as a civic institution? Is it the Internet? Is it corporate consolidation?

Jim: There are multiple factors. Readers, especially young readers have been abandoning newspapers for several decades. The Internet accelerated that trend.

The Internet also began siphoning off advertising beginning especially after 1995, when the Web proved to be commercially viable.

Newspaper publishers became complacent because they had long held monopoly positions in local markets. They stopped innovating and attending to customer service.

The sale of family-owned newspapers to big, publicly traded companies such as Gannett, Knight-Ridder, McLatchy and Lee Enterprises also played a role. Those are all companies that must attend to Wall Street’s demands, and Wall Street cares only about growing profits; institutional investors such as pension funds, mutual funds and other money-management outfits care very, very little for editorial quality.

Lamar:  Once upon a time, all of the ad revenue that The Town Talk generated was recycled locally; now, the vast majority of it is shipped up to Virginia and then split up between executives and shareholders. Once upon a time, our newspaper was a major contributor to our local tax base and a major local employer. Now, they’re attempting to sell the giant buildings that housed their printing press- a business that had been as old as the paper itself, and they’re routinely firing key employees in an effort to increase efficiency. What is the real goal here? Is there evidence these executive-level decisions have resulted in increased efficiency, productivity, or profitability?

Jim: The goal is to bolster profits by cutting costs, especially the one expense that can be controlled: labor. Gannett has done a very good job of keeping its profits high, but almost solely through consolidation of work through press closings and other austerity measures. The question is: How long before the company starts cutting into bone, which would then have the opposite effect on profits. Only time will tell. 

Lamar:  What’s the future of the Monroe News-Star?

Jim: I believe the future for all community newspapers owned by Gannett is the same: They will be reduced to websites with just a small amount of local news, much of which will be determined by assignment and editing from afar.

Lamar: What’s the future of The Town Talk?

Jim: See above.

Lamar: Is this an overly simplistic explanation of Gannett’s newspaper acquisition strategy? We’re going to only buy in markets we can already cannibalize, and then, hopefully, we can cannibalize the entire market.

Jim: I think that is an accurate assessment.

Lamar: I know several employees at our local paper had to consent to furloughs, and I believe, based on my own personal experience, that these furloughs delayed the efficient delivery of local news. How much did Gannett save by enforcing furloughs?

Jim: At least $43 million, according to Gannett’s regulatory filings. 

Lamar: How much did Gannett give out in executive bonuses?

Jim: Bonuses for the six highest-paid executives for 2008-2010 are in this table, in column No. 2. Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow, for example, received $1.75 million last year. 

Lamar: If you were CEO of Gannett, what are the first three things you would do?

Jim: Suspend the strategic plan. Recommend that the board of directors be reconstituted with an entirely new slate of members. Resign my position.

Lamar: If you wanted to buy The Town Talk, what would be your opening offer?

Jim: I do not have enough information to even guess at a figure. 

Lamar: Thanks. You rock. What’s the last book you read?

Jim: I almost exclusively read magazines, newspapers and other periodicals. Having said that, the last book I read was Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man.