Gannett's Moment of Judgment

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The largest newspaper chain in the U.S. is Gannett Co., which also owns 23 TV stations and a bunch of digital properties, including PointRoll, Ripple6and ShopLocal.

So this week’s news that two big credit ratings firms are thinking about downgrading Gannett’s stock into junk territory, where it would join The New York Times, is affecting investors big-time.

More than 11.3 million shares of Gannett traded hands during today’s session, which ended at $5.31, down 7.97 percent after four consecutive losing sessions. GCI is now valued at less than one-seventh of its high point of $37.75 in the past year.

If you are looking for a benchmark for how traditional media companies are weathering this economic storm, you could do worse than studying Gannett’s trajectory. Or, if you prefer, you could check out the NYT, which reached a new low — $4.68 a share — today before rebounding slightly to $4.86 and then eleven cents higher in after-hours trading.

No matter how you parse these numbers, our leading old media companies are in very deep trouble.

Tags: Gannett Co. Inc., GCI, Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, David Weir

In addition to serving as a BNET Media analyst/blogger, David Weir is a veteran journalist and the author of several books. Weir is a co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as an editorial board member of The Nation.

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1

macnamband

02/02/09 | Report as spam

RE: Gannett?s Moment of Judgment

Ironic that Al Neuharth's USA Today, founded 27 years ago with the revived style notion of a single sentence lead, a short nut graph, and 'three sources and you're done' should now be coming down to its closing paragraph. No adjectives needed. You could argue it was the right format in the wrong medium, and a print publisher's last attempt to make money on the short attention span. It was greeted by so many journalists then as superficial, almost embarrassing. Now, the idea of it's collapse almost makes you want to cry.
2

hotweir

02/02/09 | Report as spam

RE: Gannett?s Moment of Judgment

As I watch these media empires collapse, I am reminded that the unforgivably rich and arrogant among us will be brought low, whilst the least among us will be made whole. Such is written in the oldest of books.