Gannett Co Inc

A federal judge on Tuesday declined to force Gannett Co. to keep open the Tucson Citizen, meaning the edition of the afternoon newspaper published Saturday was its last. U.S. District Judge Raner Collins denied a request for a temporary restraining order filed by Arizona Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard, who contended that closing the 138-year-old paper violated antitrust laws.

Employees at USA Today headquarters in Arlington, Va., say that at least 14 women working in the newsrooms have had miscarriages since September, 1987, according to an informal survey discussed at a November meeting. Gannett Co. Inc., which owns the newspaper, recently hired a consultant to test the air flow and carpet and ceilings being installed in a major interior-renovation project in the building, begun last April, that employees suspect may have contributed to the problem.

Craig A. Dubow, chief executive of the media giant Gannett Co., is taking a 17% salary cut as the company struggles with declines in advertising and circulation that prompted staff cuts this summer. Dubow told employees in a memo Monday that he would reduce his pay by $200,000 starting this month and continuing in 2009. That would put him on track for a base salary of $1 million this year and next. Dubow also said all company and divisional officers would have their salaries frozen for 2009.

The former sidekick to popular morning radio personality Rick Dees filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that she was fired because the station perceived her as too family oriented and not young or sexy enough to suit Dees. Liz Fulton, who was let go from her job at KIIS-FM about six months ago, also contends in the suit that she was often the object of Dees' on-air sexual jokes while employed at the station. Dees frequently referred to her on the air as Liz (Rugburn) Fulton, she said.

In the second top-level network shake-up this month, NBC News on Wednesday got a new president--Michael G. Gartner, a respected print journalist and executive who is co-owner of a small newspaper in Iowa. Gartner, a general news executive at Gannett Co. Inc. in Roslyn, Va., will succeed Lawrence K. Grossman, who is resigning after several months of rumors that he was unhappy with the way NBC was being run and planned to leave.

The ailing Oakland Tribune was saved from extinction less than an hour before sunrise Wednesday when the nonprofit Freedom Forum came to the rescue with a pledge to pump at least $5 million into the debt-ridden newspaper. Employees who just one day earlier had carried in cardboard boxes, expecting to pack up their belongings when the paper folded, were jubilant. They hugged one another, cried, sprayed one another with mineral water and danced in the newsroom after Publisher Robert C.

Spurred by an industrywide consolidation that has pushed cable prices to a peak, Cox Communications Inc. has agreed to buy Gannett Co.'s cable systems for $2.7 billion in cash. Under the deal, Cox would acquire one of the last available cable properties, Gannett's Wichita, Kan.-based Multimedia Cablevision unit, which has 522,000 customers in Kansas, North Carolina and Oklahoma. Gannett would concentrate on its 74 daily newspapers, which include USA Today, and its 21 television stations.

Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper company, is buying the Detroit Free Press from Knight Ridder Inc. and MediaNews Group Inc. will take ownership of the Detroit News from Gannett, the companies announced Wednesday. Gannett and Knight Ridder also announced an exchange of newspapers in Florida, Washington and Idaho. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed. Gannett is buying the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida from Knight Ridder.

Gannett Co., publisher of USA Today and the owner of 21 television stations, said quarterly earnings fell for the first time since 2001 as declining broadcast revenue and higher costs cut profit by 3.2%. First-quarter net income was $265.7 million, or $1.05 a share, compared with $274.4 million, or $1, a year earlier, McLean, Va.-based Gannett said. Per-share earnings rose because the company bought back stock. Sales rose 3.6% to $1.79 billion. Gannett shares rose $1.

Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, reported a 36% drop in second-quarter earnings as the newspaper industry's woes caused a sharp decline in revenue. The McLean, Va., company reported profit of $233 million, or $1.02 a share, compared with $366 million, or $1.56, in the year-earlier quarter. Gannett shares dropped 78 cents, or 4.5%, to $16.57. The publisher of the nation's largest newspaper, USA Today, and 84 other dailies sold several papers in the year-ago quarter that added 32 cents a share to earnings.

Tribune Co. and Gannett Co. said Monday that they were working on a joint venture to expand Tribune's Metromix local entertainment website network throughout the United States in a bid for more revenue from national advertisers. Metromix will be owned equally by Chicago-based Tribune and Gannett, based in McLean, Va.

An arbitrator found that Tribune Co.'s sale of the Advocate of Stamford, Conn., to Gannett Co. violated a union contract because the terms do not require Gannett to honor newsroom employees' collective bargaining agreement, according to court papers filed by the union. Local 2110 of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America promptly filed a request to extend an injunction that a federal judge issued last month temporarily blocking the sale.

Tribune Co. said it agreed to sell its daily newspapers in Stamford and Greenwich, Conn., to Gannett Co. for $73 million. The Greenwich Time and the Advocate of Stamford have a combined circulation of 39,000 and are the smallest of the 11 dailies owned by Chicago-based Tribune, which also owns the Los Angeles Times. Tribune is the No. 2 U.S. newspaper publisher by circulation behind McLean, Va.-based Gannett.

Turning up the heat on the already simmering auction for the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Co., Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, has emerged as a possible bidder for Tribune's newspaper properties, the Chicago Tribune learned Saturday. Executives from the McLean, Va.-based media giant, which publishes 90 U.S. newspapers, including top-read USA Today, were in Chicago last week to hear presentations on Tribune's financial condition, two sources close to the situation said.

Gannett Co., the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, posted a 12% drop in third-quarter profit after selling fewer classified and car advertisements. The company's shares posted their biggest decline in a year as overall sales fell short of analysts' estimates. Profit declined to $261.4 million, or $1.11 a share, from $297 million, or $1.13, a year earlier, McLean, Va.-based Gannett said. Sales rose 2.7% to $1.91 billion, less than the $1.

Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, said it expected to report first-quarter earnings at the low end of Wall Street estimates. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial on average said the company, which publishes USA Today and 90 other daily U.S. newspapers, would earn 98 cents to $1.02 a share.

Three major newspaper companies are investing in Topix.net, a start-up technology company that collects and sorts news stories from various sources on the Internet. Tribune Co., Gannett Co. and Knight Ridder Inc. are each taking a 25% stake, the Palo Alto-based company disclosed Tuesday. Topix's founders will retain the remaining share. Financial terms were not disclosed under the deal, which will be formally announced today. Topix launched its site a little more than a year ago and had 1.

Gannett Co. and Tribune Co., the two biggest U.S. newspaper publishers, will pay McClatchy Co. $310 million to gain a larger share of CareerBuilder.com and two other websites. The transaction values the biggest U.S. help-wanted site at $1.55 billion, the companies said. Each will pay $142 million to increase their stakes in CareerBuilder to 42.5%.

Gannett Co., the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, said Wednesday that second-quarter profit fell 8.3% as newsprint costs jumped and advertising growth stalled. Net income dropped to $310.5 million, or $1.31 a share, from $338.6 million, or $1.37, a year earlier, McLean, Va.-based Gannett said. Stock option costs cut earnings by 3 cents a share. Sales gained 6.1% to $2.03 billion, buoyed by the purchase of the Detroit Free Press.