Daytona newspaper retirees

10/18/2024

Noting a Gerald Stanow cold case just solved in Port Orange (victim Kathy Whitman)

08/15/2024

Interesting items from AP and others about a reporter at a Cody Wyoming paper admitting he used AI to fabricate quotes and pad stories. So how did these deceptions get past the copy desk?? Does the paper still have a copy desk?

12/08/2023

Hope a public defender or ACLU gets involved

An 18-year-old migrant faces an aggravated manslaughter charge for the death by heart attack of the sheriff's deputy who arrested him on a resisting charge, while the migrant was on a sidewalk eating dinner and speaking to his mother by phone at his motel in St. Augustine. The death of the deputy wa...

11/25/2023

Relieved to learn this a,m that the Matt Damon obit was a revival of an old hoax. Why did Facebook circulate it?? Will the incompetent fact-checkers get fired??Ten demerits for Zuckerberg.

11/23/2023

Gratitude for the many first responders working this holiday, Not just the military, police, fire and medics, but also truck drivers, airlines, TSA people, shelter workers, clergy, hotel and restaurant crews, farmers and media.

08/22/2023

Publisher is sued for alleged reverse discrimination in new federal case.

07/05/2023

A relative of a former Pennysaver worker called me asking how to get her N-J pension checks sent to different bank. I directed her to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. in Alexandria Va, 800-400-7242. Pathetic that Gannett no longer provides retirees with simple FAQ information

12/09/2021

Bidding Ping Pong continues for Lee Enterprises. Alden offers $24 a share, Lee counters with in-your-dreams $100-plus a share.

The board of Lee Enterprises has unanimously voted to reject an unsolicited takeover proposal from Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund known for cutting journalists at local papers to maximize profits.

11/25/2021

Alden hedge fund takes aim at Lee chain. I think E&P's hed is misleading...Lee is NOT saying "No, thank you " to Alden... it's holding out for more money. Alden might pay way above market for gems like the Omaha and Buffalo papers.

In 2018, news media analyst Ken Doctor penned a that, in part, read: “Alden Global Capital is making so much money wrecking local journalism, it might not want to stop any time soon.” Now, fewer than five months since the ink dried on Alden Global Capital’s acquisition of the Tribune titles, i...

10/19/2021

Might want to browse through the latest Fitch "B" bond rating for Gannett, which projects a continued slide in ad and subscription revenue, not fully offset by online revenue growth. https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitch-assigns-b-first-time-idr-to-gannett-outlook-stable-01-10-2021

Company says the new loan will reduce its cost of capital by nearly 200 basis points.

10/05/2021

An E&P roundup on a few small Gannett papers being sold to local owners.

Gannett remains at the top of the leaderboard for newspaper ownership. It publishes over 1,000 weekly titles and more than 100 dailies, amassed over the years through independent acquisitions and headlining mergers. But the company turned heads in the newspaper world when it recently began selling o...

09/20/2021

If this journalism subsidy actually makes it into law, I wonder if Gannett will apply for it, and would any of the tax credits actually go to reporters directly, or just go to the hedge fund.

— News —Democrats’ New Tax Hikes Contain Subsidies For JournalistsBy Ben Zeisloft•Sep 19, 2021 DailyWire.com•FacebookTwitterMailJustin Sullivan/Getty Images The Democrats’ $2.9 trillion tax plan involves a tax credit for local news journalists.On September 13, Democrats on the House of ...

08/31/2021

Tampa Bay Times sells former printing plant to hedge fund Alden Capital. Some of the $21 million is slated to beef up the newspaper's pension plan.

The sale will allow the company to significantly reduce its debt and contribute to pension plan.

08/07/2021

I wish the earnings report had included how much expense Gannett is postponing by refinancing its loan from the Apollo hedge fund. This quarterly profit, as a Fed chairman might phrase it, could be "transitory."

Gannett, owner of USA TODAY, reported its first quarterly profit since its merger in 2019 as its digital subscription strategy gained momentum.

06/23/2021

Federal regulations are useless if the SEC turns a blind eye. https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/06/alden-global-capital-and-tribunes-board-are-dancing-at-the-edge-of-the-law

Tribune board members acted in their own interests, not their newspaper chain’s, while Alden failed to disclose a secret investor meeting and misrepresented its cash position.

06/01/2021

I apply several grains of salt whenever I read anti-N-J gripes on neighborhood forum sites like NextDoor. But I was surprised to find dozens of Port Orange people grumbling about delivery problems and subscription screw-ups in recent days. Using a call center in Colombia has not been popular, either. Is the Circulation Dept. nearing collapse?

04/29/2021

Hmmm,,,. so a News-Journal subscription will no longer include access to its USA Today wire service stories??

Gannett’s flagship national paper quietly started to put some of its premium stories behind a paywall. A subscription costs $4.99 a month.