Newspapers are seeing red in newsrooms nationwide. On Tuesday, Gannett said it would be laying off 3,000 employees, or roughly 10% of its total work force of about 32,000. Not only are big companies like McClatchy and Tribune cutting, but their smaller competitors are also swinging the axe with abandon. Although Gannett declined to give specific figures, Robert Dickey, the president of Gannett's beleaguered newspaper division, explained that "the fiscal crisis is deepening and the economy is getting worse. Gannett's revenues continue to be severely impacted by this downturn, and our local operations are suffering." The current Gannett cuts follow the elimination of 1,000 jobs in August through layoffs and buyouts; between the two rounds of cuts, the company will have shed about 12% of its workforce in under three months. The two most recent rounds came on top of a rolling series of cuts around the company earlier this year. While a total number is unavailable, hundreds of jobs were affected, including 50 at USA Today, 55 layoffs at four newspapers in New Jersey, 150 buyouts at the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News (about 7.5% of the total 2,000) and an unspecified number of graphic-design positions company-wide. In July, The Honolulu Advertiser said it would lay off 54 employees or 8% of its workforce, and 50 or more positions were cut at the Arizona Republic. Gannett Broadcasting also cut an unspecified number of positions. Nor is Gannett alone in implementing multiple layoffs in 2008. In September, McClatchy said it would be shedding 10% of its work force, or about 1,150 full-time employees, leaving it with approximately 10,350. This announcement followed the announcement in mid-June that it was cutting about 1,400 jobs, and an earlier restructuring plan that shed 2,000 jobs from 2006-2008, achieved largely through voluntary buyouts and attrition. The company will have shed over 30% of its workforce in three years, when the third round of cuts is complete. At the Tribune Co., Sam Zell's new management team has also made several sweeping rounds of cuts. The Los Angeles Times was hit especially hard on Oct. 27--when it announced it was cutting 75 positions, following an earlier round this summer that cut 250 jobs, including 150 positions in the newsroom. This summer, the Chicago Tribune cut 80 newsroom positions--or about 14% of the total 578--and an unspecified number of jobs in other divisions, like ad sales and production. The Baltimore Sun cut 100 positions across its various divisions. Several of Tribune's smaller papers were hit especially hard: The Hartford Courant lost 57 and The Orlando Sentinel cut 50 from its newsroom, with an unspecified number elsewhere--large numbers, given the papers' relatively small size. Advance Publications cut about 40% of the newsroom staff at the Star-Ledger, based in Newark, New Jersey--or a little under 150 positions, as well as jobs in production and distribution--after a highly public struggle with the unionized workers at the paper. At one point, publisher George Arwady said he would be forced to close or sell the newspaper if the unions didn't make some concessions on job cuts. Amid a legal dispute with minority owner Cox Enterprises, the Daytona Beach News-Journal eliminated 99 positions in June. Also in June, The Palm Beach Post--owned by Cox Newspapers--said it was cutting 300 positions, or about 22% of the total 1,350, including 130 from its newsroom. In May, Media General said it would cut 810 positions across its properties in the Southeast, with the vast majority falling on its publishing business; just 65 of the positions were in broadcasting or corporate. As part of the reductions, The Tampa Tribune (along with its sister broadcast station WFLA-Channel 8) is losing about 110 positions, or about 8% of the total 1,326, including at least 50 in the newsroom. Also in May, The Washington Post cut 100 newsroom positions--or about 12% of the total 800--through a combination of voluntary buyouts and attrition, meaning that no layoffs were required. An unspecified number of employees in other divisions also accepted the buyout offer. This followed two earlier rounds of buyouts in 2003 and 2006. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, also owned by Cox Newspapers, cut 189 jobs--or roughly 8% of the total workforce--through voluntary buyouts, attrition and layoffs. The cuts, to be completed by October, came as the paper eliminated its "geographically targeted news sections" devoted to various parts of the Atlanta metro area. This summer, The Wall Street Journal, recently acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., cut 50 jobs as part of a consolidation of certain functions. In effect, this meant the elimination of its global news, global copy, global pagination, Monitor, and the stand-alone WSJ.com editing desks. The Boston Herald cut 130-160 employees, focusing on the production staff, according to Herald President and Publisher Patrick J. Purcell, who announced the decision in a meeting with union leaders in late June. Purcell said printing will be outsourced to presses in nearby Chicopee and Norwood, Mass.; the Chicopee facility is owned by Dow Jones, the Norwood facility by Boston Offset. In February The New York Times said it would cut 100 newsroom positions by the end of the year, preferably through buyouts and attrition--but also with layoffs, if necessary. Overall, the NYTCO has seen its workforce shrink by about 3.8% since last year, according to executives.
The weakening economy hasn't affected Comcast Corp yet--but the fragile TV advertising market is starting to. Comcast's overall third-quarter results rocketed up 38% to $771 million versus $560 million in the period before. Quarterly revenues grew 10% as well, to $8.6 billion from $7.8 billion. Equity analysts have been expecting on average $8.56 billion. The company said revenue from Comcast's cable subscription business rose 7% to $8.1 billion, with video revenue climbing 4% to $4.7 billion. High-speed Internet revenue rose 9% to $1.8 billion, as the company added 382,000 customers in the quarter. But Comcast's local cable advertising--albeit a much smaller piece of the overall revenue picture--saw revenues fall 10% to $374 million, reflecting weakness related to the economic slowdown. The company's programming networks--including Versus, E, Style, Golf Channel, G4 and AZN Television--saw revenue rise 5% to $347 million. Typically, 55% of many cable networks get their revenues from subscription fees, with the other 45% coming from advertising. Comcast has made an effort to grow its business by having consumers buy into its triple play of services: video, Internet and phone. But in recent months, Comcast has noticed that customers are less inclined to add more services. "It's not that people who have our service are leaving," Steve Burke, Comcast's COO, told analysts on a conference call. "[What we see] is that there's less propensity to upgrade." He says this is especially true for new customers. Digital cable added 417,000 customers in the third quarter--less than the 503,000 added in the same period in 2007. Comcast said that 483,000 digital-telephone subscribers signed up during the quarter, with digital-telephone revenue improving 44% to $690 million. Comcast said its basic cable business at its systems continues to decline, with the company losing 147,000 in the latest three months. Analysts were expecting a much smaller dropoff. Comcast's stock was down 8% to $15.66 on midday trading on Wednesday, a day after its shares soared nearly 25% to $16.96--part of a massive, nearly 900-point surge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the anticipation of strong third-quarter earnings.
Maria Grasso has been named senior vice president, programming for OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. Grasso will supervise development of scripted, alternative, short and long-form programming. She will also manage the creative department, production and scheduling. Previously, Grasso was senior vice president, series development and current programming for Lifetime, where she was responsible for all scripted series. She is credited with creating one of Lifetime's biggest hits, "Army Wives," as well as the new "Rita Rocks." Robin Schwartz, OWN president, says Grasso wants to "contribute to the world through television in a whole new way." Grasso reports to Schwartz. In addition to her Lifetime creds, Grasso was formerly senior vice president, drama development, the WB--where she developed prime-time series "Supernatural," "Everwood" and "One Tree Hill." Earlier in her career, she worked at Will Vinton Studios, supervising "The PJs" and "Gary and Mike." OWN, a multi-platform company, is a joint venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications. OWN will debut in 2009 in more than 70 million homes on what is now the Discovery Health Channel. The effort also will include Oprah.com.
Big political TV advertising dollars could not make up for the bigger downward ad trend for Meredith Corp. in its fiscal 2009 first-quarter results. The company's broadcasting revenues slipped 6.7% to $70 million against $75 million in the same period a year ago. Operating profit also headed south to $11 million, from $14 million a year ago. The good news is that political revenues were six times that of the prior period--to $6 million from $1 million the year before. Meredith didn't get much benefit from the NBC Olympics in Beijing, either. Its sole NBC outlet in Nashville grabbed $1 million in Olympics business. Like many TV stations groups, Meredith blamed advertising weakness in core television ad categories, such as automotive, professional services, restaurants, retail and furnishings. All affected broadcasting performance in the quarter. Combined advertising revenues in these categories declined nearly 20%. Non-political advertising during the period was down 15% to $61.6 million. Overall, the company recorded 8% lower revenues--$370.4 million from $404.0 million. Net earnings fell 45% to $18.6 million from $33.5 million. Meredith's publishing division was also hit--down 9% in revenues to $300.0 million from $329.5 million. Operating profits were 40% lower to $33.1 million. Going forward, things won't be much better. The company says fiscal 2009 second-quarter publishing advertising revenues are down in the high teens percentages, compared to 8% growth in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Broadcasting non-political advertising dollars are off 20%, compared to 6% growth in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Meredith expects political advertising to perk up to $15 million--about what was expected.
A top executive at Food Network and HGTV said Wednesday that he doesn't anticipate advertisers canceling orders placed for early 2009 due to the economy, but getting a final read will come over the next week. "Today, we're bucking the trend somewhat," said John Lansing, the president of Scripps Networks, regarding performance in the current fourth quarter. "And I don't see why that wouldn't continue into the first quarter (2009), although we don't have a lot of visibility at this point." Advertisers have options to cancel spending commitments for the January-March period, and should be alerting the company about their plans in the coming few days, Lansing said. Scripps, which also operates the Fine Living and DIY networks in addition to its two flagships, sells about 50% of its available inventory in the upfront. While one executive at Scripps Networks Interactive (the networks' parent) said scatter pricing has softened in the current quarter, Lansing added that advertisers have still shown a certain "resiliency." The executives spoke on a conference call to announce results in the recently completed third quarter. Ad dollars in the segment that includes Scripps' five cable networks continued to rise--up 5.4% to $236 million, with profit also jumping (5.1% to $144 million). This month, Scripps saw the launch of Food Network Magazine, which features some of the channel's personalities. Scripps is committed to publishing six initial issues with partner Hearst. Early next year, the Fine Living Network, now in 52 million homes, will become Nielsen-rated for the first time.
It's the same TV football blame game: Congressmen blame the NFL, and the NFL blames cable operators. This year, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and 12 other senators are again worried that the same problems will occur this season, with NFL games not being available to all viewers who want to see those games. The NFL Network again plans to air a handful of games on its limited-distribution cable network that goes to 42 million homes. Also, like last year, games will also air on local broadcast stations where the teams play. DirecTV also can give customers access to these games. "The goal of our NFL Network games is to show them to a national audience," said the statement from the league. The NFL wants to sell its network to valuable national advertisers, who typically don't consider a network with less than 70 million cable subscribers a national TV buy. "[The] goal has been undercut by several of the largest cable operators that are discriminating against our network by either refusing to carry it or placing it on a much more costly tier than the sports networks that the cable operators themselves own," the league says. "These cable operators are denying their consumers fair access to this popular NFL programming." The NFL has responded that two big cable operators are to blame-- Comcast and Time Warner won't put the network on the more broadly viewed basic cable tier. Those operators want to place the network on a pricier sports or digital tier. "We continue to seek a negotiated agreement with Comcast, Time Warner and several other major cable operators so that our fans will not be deprived of our package of eight network games in the next two months," the league added. Last year, the NFL averted problems to a major late-season game--New England Patriots-New York Giants, which was to be aired on the NFL Network--by also allowing simultaneous airing of the game on NBC and CBS.
Looking to develop a type of ratings system for the growing number of place-based networks, the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) released guidelines Wednesday for what could become the currency for advertisers that buy the medium. After lengthy research, the trade group has come up with a metric known as Average Unit Audience, which takes into account both evidence that a consumer has seen a particular screen and the time spent exposed to it. Using factors referred to as "presence," "notice" and "dwell time," the metric seeks to go beyond a simple gauge of consumer traffic in the area where a screen is placed. Officially, Average Unit Audience is defined as "the number and type of people exposed to the media vehicle with an opportunity to see a unit of time equal to the typical advertising unit." At the core, OVAB has been searching for a way to quantify exposure to, and engagement with, the growing number of screens operated by its members--theaters, gas pumps, stores, golf carts, etc. But advertisers have lacked a way to compare the medium's performance with competitors, such as traditional television, print and radio. And OVAB felt that may have made them reluctant to invest in the digital out-of-home space. "We just want a seat at the table where other media are today," said OVAB President Suzanne Alecia, who unveiled the guidelines at an OVAB event in New York. Alecia said they are only that--guidelines--or recommendations for buyers and sellers, partly because the medium is changing rapidly. The guidelines could serve as a basis for further conversations between networks and advertisers. Or, to undertake customized research projects--possibly en route to the development of an ultimate currency. It will be up to the individual networks and buyers to decide whether to negotiate using an Average Unit Audience or to go in another direction. Alecia said the guidelines "represent the first iteration of establishing the necessary data. They're not going to stay static," she said. "They're going to grow as the industry grows and the technology grows." Research firm Sequent Partners assisted OVAB in developing the guidelines--a process that lasted eight months. OVAB, with 35 members, was formed in 2007. Members include Screenvision, Gas Station TV and Gannett's Captivate Network.
Hockey moms - what a marvelously potent voting bloc. While the liberal media is smitten with this new BFF, we need to see what the liberal media research has to say about their demographic power. We used a reasonably accessible syndicated research source we at MPG have at our disposal - Experian Consumer Research, Home of Simmons - to uncover the social mores of "Hockey Moms" and "Joe Six-Pack." To read more of Don Seaman's post, and the rest of today's political media commentary, go to the Red, White & Blog page.