Staff writers at Reviewed suspect that management published stories written by AI under the names of non-existent writers. Parent company Gannett denies it.
The USA Today parent is sifting through nearly 1,000 applications for reporting jobs covering the singers. Responses have come from Emmy-award-winning journalists, TikTok influencers and a reporter working at the White House.
The country’s largest newspaper chain said that Google’s power over ad technology has contributed to the decline of local news.
The union representing the company’s newsroom employees criticized the CEO for cutting jobs and hurting local journalism.
Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the United States, began another round of layoffs Thursday, joining a host of other media companies cutting jobs in recent weeks. Employees at Gannett’s newspapers, which include USA Today, The Indianapolis Star and The Detroit Free Press, began receiving layoff notifications Thursday, part of an effort to cut about 6 percent of the company’s roughly 3,440-person U.S. media division.
The moves at the nation’s largest newspaper publisher include a week of mandatory unpaid leave and voluntary buyouts.
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Television Lessons From A Newspaper Company
Today’s news consumers are smart. They know opinion, preaching and lectures when they see them, including on our own networks. If we want to retain their trust, we must never forget that viewers see forming an opinion as their prerogative, not ours.
Gannett Co. has created two new U.S. business units, Gannett Media and Digital Marketing Solutions (DMS), in a restructuring. The Gannett Media unit will oversee content, news, B2B, print distribution and the subscriber journey—but through a digital-first lens, it says. DMS will function as a “differentiated marketing platform,” serving the company’s client base.
Gannett Co. has relaunched its over-the-top properties in partnership with Amagi, a next-generation media technology company providing the platform for the USA Today News and USA Today SportsWire 24-hour streaming channels. […]
Gannett’s USA Today national sales team will lead the go-to-market strategy on behalf of both companies. It will take the lead on pitching clients and agencies about the new partnership, which is being dubbed the “combined power of local.” Several new ad products will help national brands reach local audiences across the local news sites from the combined Gannett and McClatchy portfolios.
Gannett Co., whose newspapers include USA Todayand 260 other dailies, set a goal of reaching 10 million paid digital subscriptions in the next five years. The move comes as the publishing industry faces an ongoing decline in advertising sales, decimating newsroom employment.
Certain employees making more than $38,000 must take one week of unpaid leave in April, May and June.
Gannett: Reporting Jobs Will Be Last To Be Cut
Executives of the newly merged Gannett, which was purchased by GateHouse, have said that while they plan major cost cuts, they hope to protect reporting jobs. Gannett CEO Mike Reed and the head of its new operating unit, Paul Bascobert, talk about their plans.
The merger creates the largest U.S. newspaper owner, bringing together about 260 daily papers, including the Arizona Republic, the Providence Journal and the Austin American-Statesman, as well as hundreds of weeklies.
Shareholders cleared the way Thursday for New Media Investment Group and USA Today owner Gannett to join forces in a deal that will create the largest U.S. media company by print circulation, and one that will also vie for the biggest online news audience nationwide. In separate votes, shareholders of each company approved New Media’s $1.13 billion acquisition of Gannett. The companies can now move forward to finalize the deal, which is expected to close Tuesday, Nov. 19.
The FCC held a meeting with private equity firm Apollo Global Management this week to ask questions about its agreement to finance New Media Investment’s planned purchase of Gannett Co., the publisher of USA Today, sources say. The FCC is concerned that the $1.8 billion loan Apollo is providing to finance the merger could violate its duopoly laws, sources say.
GateHouse and Gannett say their $1.4 billion merger will allow GateHouse to accelerate its newspapers’ move to digital while paying down huge sums GateHouse borrowed in order to fund the acquisition. But it’s unclear exactly how it will make that happen.
GateHouse Media, a chain backed by an investment firm, is buying USA Today owner Gannett Co. for $12.06 a share in cash and stock, or about $1.4 billion. The combined company would have more than 260 daily papers in the U.S. along with more than 300 weeklies.
The Wall Street Journal reports that USA Today publisher Gannett Co. has recently held merger talks with GateHouse Media, according to people familiar with the matter, a possible deal that would bring together the nation’s two largest newspaper groups by circulation. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
The two largest newspaper chains in the country, USA Today publisher Gannett and Chicago Tribune owner Tribune, may reignite merger talks, now that both have dispatched with hostile takeovers by smaller suitors. Sources say that there have already been back-door reach-outs in recent months.
Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, notched an important victory Thursday in its attempt to fend off a hostile takeover bid. The company, which publishes USA Today, announced that all eight of its board nominees won election based on the results of a preliminary vote. That’s a rejection of Digital First Media’s efforts to win control of Gannett by installing its own board members.
MNG Enterprises, which has dramatically slashed head count at newspapers like the Boston Herald and the Denver Post, stepped up its bid to acquire USA Today publisher Gannett on Tuesday by urging shareholders to help it replace the company’s board.
The bid by MNG Enterprises to take over USA Today publisher Gannett now has a showdown date, May 16, which the Gannett board set as the date of the annual shareholders meeting.
Battling Takeover, Gannett Touts Digital Growth
Under the cloud of an aggressive takeover bid, Gannett reported a dip in fourth quarter revenue Wednesday. But the company said it was encouraged by growth in digital advertising.
Alden Global Capital’s strategy: Buy newspapers, slash jobs, sell the buildings. Now it’s bidding to buy Gannett, operator of the nation’s largest chain of daily newspapers by circulation, including USA Today — as well as its $900 million in remaining property and equipment — for more than $1.3 billion.
Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain and the publisher of USA Today, rejected a takeover bid by MNG Enterprises, the hedge fund-owned company also known as Digital First Media, on Monday. The decision by Gannett’s board of directors was unanimous.
Newspaper circulation is down sharply, and so is employment in the newspaper industry. Financial cutbacks have led to the shutdown of nearly 1,800 daily and weekly newspapers since 2004. Two developments this week brought the issue into further focus. Facebook, whose success has contributed to the news business’ decline, announced Tuesday it would invest $300 million over three years in news initiatives with an emphasis in local coverage. More ominously, the hedge fund-backed Digital First Media, known for sharp cost-cutting strategies, bid to buy Gannett Co. , the publisher of USA Today and several daily newspapers across the country.
The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter,” reported Monday that MNG, Enterprises, better known as Digital First Media, which is backed by a hedge fund, holds 7.5% of Gannett’s stock and has been rebuffed repeatedly by the company when it has approached it about a sale. Digital First plans to offer to buy Gannett for $12 per share, nearly a quarter above its closing share price Friday of $9.75.
Gannett, owner of USA Today and the nation’s largest newspaper chain, has instructed its head-hunting firm to look for candidates outside the newspaper industry as it searches for a new CEO. The incumbent, Robert Dickey, 61, announced last month that he will step down in mid-May.
Gannett veteran Maribel Perez Wadsworth is the new publisher of USA Today. She currently is president of the USA Today Network, which includes USA Today as well as 109 other media brands across the country. She takes the reins as incumbent publisher John Zidich retires.
Gannett, parent of USA Today, has hired a headhunting firm to search for a new chief digital officer — but the search so far has been a slog,
Asset purchase agreement drafts have passed between the two companies and a deal may come as soon as today. Tronc’s board of directors held a meeting last Thursday and its lawyers have been at work on the deal since, with a likely price of $18.50 to $19 a share.
