Gannett Company

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"Gannett" redirects here. For other uses, see Gannett (disambiguation).

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This article is about the demerged Gannett Company, Inc. For the company known as Gannett until 2015 that now holds broadcasting and digital assets, see Tegna, Inc.
Gannett Company, Inc.
Public
Traded as NYSE: GCI
S&P 500 Component
Industry Print media
Founded 1906; 118 years ago (1906)
Founder Frank Gannett
Headquarters Tysons Corner, Virginia, U.S.
(McLean mailing address)
Key people
 John Jeffry Lewis
(Chairman)
Robert Dickey
(President and CEO)
Products Newspapers
Revenue Decrease US$ 2.885 billion (2015)[1]
Decrease US$ 169.431 million (2015)
Decrease US$ 146.091 million (2015)
Total assets Increase US$ 2.427 billion (2015)
Total equity Increase US$ 1.058 billion (2015)
Number of employees
 18,700 (2015)[2]
Slogan It's all within reach.
Website Gannett.com

Gannett Company, Inc. is a publicly traded American media holding company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, near McLean in Greater Washington DC.[3][4] It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. Its assets include the national newspaper USA Today and the erstwhile weekly USA Weekend. Its largest non-national newspaper is The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Arizona. Other significant newspapers include The Indianapolis Star, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, NY, The Des Moines Register, the Detroit Free Press and The News-Press in Fort Myers.

In 2015, Gannett spun off its broadcast and internet media divisions into an independent publicly-traded company called Tegna.[5]

History

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Gannett Company, Inc. was formed in 1923 by Frank Gannett in Rochester, New York as an outgrowth of a newspaper business he had begun in Elmira, New York in 1906. Gannett, who was known as a conservative,[6] gained fame and fortune by purchasing small independent newspapers and developing them into a large chain, a 20th-century trend that helped the newspaper industry remain financially viable.[7] By 1979, the chain had grown to 79 newspapers.[8]

In 1979, Gannett acquired Combined Communications Corp., operator of 17 television stations, as well as an outdoor advertising division, for $370 million.[9][10] The outdoor advertising became known as Gannett Outdoor, before being acquired by Outdoor Systems (previously a division of 3M), before the company was sold to Infinity Broadcasting, which later became part of Viacom, and was part of CBS Corporation, until 2014 when CBS Outdoor went independent and became Outfront Media.

The company was headquartered in Rochester until 1986, when it moved to Arlington County, Virginia. Its former headquarters building, the Gannett Building, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.[11] Gannett's oldest newspaper still in circulation is the Leaf-Chronicle located in Clarksville, Tennessee. In 2001, the company moved to its current headquarters in Tysons Corner, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

Beginning in 2005 at the Fort Myers News-Press, Gannett pioneered the mojo concept of mobile multimedia journalists, reporters who were initially untethered from conventional newsrooms and drove around their communities filing hyperlocal news via Wi-Fi in various formats including text for print publication, still photos for print and online publication, and audio and video for the News-Press website.[12] The practice has spread throughout the chain.[13]

On March 7, 2011, Gannett replaced the stylized "G" logo in use since the 1970s (notably used on its TV stations as a corporate/local ID with different animations), and adopted a new company tagline: "It's all within reach."[14]

In 2010, Gannett increased executive salaries and bonuses; for example, Bob Dickey, Gannett's U.S. newspapers division president, was paid $3.4 million in 2010, up from $1.9 million the previous year. The next year, the company laid off 700 U.S. employees to cut costs. In the memo announcing the layoffs, Dickey wrote, "While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs."[15]

Gannett Logo used until March 2011.

In February 2012, Gannett announced that it would implement a paywall system across all of its daily newspaper websites, with non-subscriber access will be limited to between five and 15 articles per month, varying by newspaper. The USA Today website became the only one to allow unrestricted access.[16]

On March 24, 2012, the company announced that it would discipline 25 employees in Wisconsin who had signed the petition to recall Governor Scott Walker, stating that this open public participation in a political process was a violation of the company's code of journalistic ethics and that their primary responsibility as journalists was to maintain credibility and public trust in themselves and the organization.[17]

On August 21, 2012, Gannett acquired Blinq Media.[18]

Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a dispute against Dish Network regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper digital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for Gannett's television station. Gannett threatened to pull all of its stations should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement.[19][20] The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours.[21]

Acquisition of Belo Corporation

On June 13, 2013, Gannett announced plans to buy Dallas-based Belo Corporation for $1.5 billion and the assumption of debt. The purchase would add 20 additional stations to Gannett's portfolio and make the company the fourth largest television broadcaster in the U.S. with 43 stations.[22][23] Because of ownership conflicts that exist in markets where both Belo and Gannett own television stations and newspapers, the use of a third-party company (Sander Media, LLC, owned by former Belo executive Jack Sander) as a licensee to buy stations to be operated by the owner of a same-market competitor and concerns about any possible future consolidation of operations of Gannett- and Belo-owned properties in markets where both own television stations or collusion involving the Gannett and Sander stations in retransmission consent negotiations, anti-media-consolidation groups (such as Free Press) and pay television providers (such as Time Warner Cable and DirecTV) have called for the FCC to block the acquisition.[24][25]

On December 16, 2013, the United States Department of Justice announced that Gannett, Belo, and Sander would need to divest Belo's station in St. Louis, KMOV, to a government-approved third-party that would be barred from entering into any agreements with Gannett, in order to fully preserve competition in advertising sales with Gannett-owned KSDK.[26] The deal was approved by the FCC on December 20,[27] and it was completed on December 23.[28] On February 28, 2014, Meredith Corporation officially took over full control of KMOV.[29]

Acquisition of London Broadcasting Company stations

On May 14, 2014, Gannett announced the acquisition of six stations from the Texas-based London Broadcasting Company in a $215 million deal, including KCEN-TV (NBC) in Waco-Temple-Bryan, KYTX (CBS) in Tyler-Longview, KIII (ABC) in Corpus Christi, KBMT (ABC/NBC) in Beaumont-Port Arthur, KXVA (FOX) in Abilene-Sweetwater and KIDY (FOX) in San Angelo. The company's COO Phil Hurley will also join Gannett to continue his leadership role at the six stations.[30] The acquisition was completed on July 8, 2014; in total, Gannett stations now serve 83% of households in the state.[31] Post acquisition, Gannett now outright owns and operates their first Fox affiliates, KIDY & KXVA.

Split and further deals

On August 5, 2014, Gannett announced that it plans to split into two independent publicly-traded companies, one focusing on its newspapers and publishing, which will retain the Gannett name, and one on broadcasting. Robert Dickey—who currently leads Gannett's newspaper group—will serve as CEO of the former company, leaving Gannett's remaining broadcasting and digital operations under the leadership of Martore. In a statement, she explained that the split plans were "significant next steps in our ongoing initiatives to increase shareholder value by building scale, increasing cash flow, sharpening management focus, and strengthening all of our businesses to compete effectively in today's increasingly digital landscape." Additionally, the company announced that it would buy out the remainder of Classified Ventures—a joint venture between Gannett and several other media companies, for $1.8 billion, giving it full ownership of properties such as Cars.com.[32][33] On April 21, 2015, Gannett announced that the publishing arm would continue to use the Gannett name, while the broadcasting and digital company would be named Tegna.[34] The split was completed on June 29, 2015. The split was structured so that the old Gannett changed its name to Tegna, Inc., and then spun off its publishing interests as a "new" Gannett Company.

On October 7, 2015, Gannett struck a deal to buy the Journal Media Group for $280 million, giving it control of publications in over 100 markets in the Midwestern and Southern U.S. Similar to what Gannett had earlier done with its broadcasting assets, the Milwaukee-based Journal had separated its publishing and broadcasting arms in April 2015, with the E. W. Scripps Company acquiring the television and radio properties owned by the former's technical predecessor Journal Communications and spinning out their respective publishing operations into Journal Media Group.[35] In December 2015, Gannett announced that its local newspapers would be branded as the "USA Today Network", signifying a closer association with the national USA Today paper.[36]

In April 2016, Gannett made an unsolicited bid to acquire the Tribune Publishing Company for $12.25 per-share, or around $400 million. This deal was rejected by Tribune's shareholders in May 2016; in turn, Gannett increased its offer to around $15 per-share (around $800 million). Following the first rejection, Tribune CEO Michael W. Ferro, Jr. stated on May 17, 2016 that he intended to make a bid to acquire Gannett instead.[37][38][39]

Acquisitions

List of Gannett Co. assets

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Main article: List of Gannett Company assets

Gannett's media properties include the following newspapers among the top 100 (by circulation—figures are approximate) in the United States:[61]

Print media

Directors and senior executives

On October 6, 2011, Gannett's chairman, president and chief executive officer Craig A. Dubow resigned, citing health reasons. He was succeeded by Gracia Martore, Gannett's chief operating officer, a 26-year company veteran.[62] Gannett has a ten-member board of directors[63] and 11 senior executives.[64]

Post-split, Tegna retained Martore as the CEO, and Gannett promoted the Newspaper Chief Robert Dickey to be the new CEO.

References

  1. ↑ http://investors.gannett.com/
  2. ↑ http://investors.gannett.com/
  3. ↑ "Contact Us." Gannett Company. Retrieved on January 10, 2011. "7950 Jones Branch Drive McLean, VA 22107-0150."
  4. ↑ "Tysons Corner CDP, Virginia." United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Neiva, Elizabeth M. Chain Building: The Consolidation of the American Newspaper Industry, 1955-80, in Business and Economic History, Vol. 24, no. 1 (Fall 1995)
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lieberman, David (March 4, 2011). "Gannett launches corporate branding campaign". USA Today.
  15. ↑ Bullard, Gabe (June 21, 2011). "Gannett Executive Bonuses Criticized Amid Layoffs". Louisville, KY: WFPL.
  16. ↑ Bercovici, Jeff (February 22, 2012). "Gannett Building Paywalls Around All Its Papers Except USA Today". Forbes.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Free Press, Others Ask FCC To Deny Some Gannett/Belo Transfers, Broadcasting & Cable, July 24, 2013.
  25. ↑ Public Interest Groups, Cable Companies Oppose Gannett-Belo Merger, AdWeek, July 25, 2013.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Gannett Completes Its Acquisition of Belo, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved 23 December 2013
  29. ↑ Meredith Corp. closes on $177 million purchase of KMOV, stltoday.com, February 28, 2014.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Gannett Government Media
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Gannett announces terms of offer to acquire U.K.'s News Communications & Media
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ Gannett to acquire Thomson properties, including 21 daily newspapers
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  57. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  58. ↑ Gannett completes the acquisition of WATL-TV Channel 36 in Atlanta
  59. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  60. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ Krantz, Matt (October 7, 2011). "Gannett CEO Dubow resigns; Martore named successor". USA Today.
  63. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  64. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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