In its quarterly report, filed today with the SEC, GateHouse CEO Michael Reed said the severe weather across the country had a negative impact on profits:
Commenting on GateHouse Media’s results, Michael E. Reed, GateHouse Media’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We saw a slight improvement in our overall revenue trends for the second straight quarter due in part to the strength of our online revenue, which grew 27.8%. We experienced double digit increases in our online traffic, with average daily unique visitors up 26.7% and monthly page views up 11.8% over the prior year. Additionally, since the initial roll-out of our mobile websites during the second quarter, we are encouraged to see a more than 100% increase in our monthly mobile page views, which reached nearly two million in December.
“We continue to experience choppy monthly year over year revenue comparisons as the economic recovery progresses. Our December and January performance was negatively impacted by the abnormally severe weather conditions in the Northeast and Midwest as local advertisers reduced their advertising spend. However, this situation is temporary and we are encouraged with the positive trends in the automotive and employment classified categories as well as the continued strong growth in our online business and the longer term trends in our total revenue.
“We expect our online revenue will continue to grow at high double-digit rates during 2011 from increased traffic and new online and mobile product offerings. We are pleased with the success of our behavioral targeted advertising efforts and will be increasing the number of GateHouse locations offering these capabilities. We are planning to expand our mobile websites and applications and roll out additional daily deal platforms at a number of locations. With the merger of Monster and HotJobs and the anticipated improvement in the jobs outlook, there will be increased emphasis on online employment classifieds and we are very encouraged by the trends in that category. We are also experimenting with paywall technology at certain of our larger locations including a partnership with Journalism Online.”
GateHouse Media owns more than 300 newspapers across the United States, including The Carthage Press, Neosho Daily News, and Pittsburg Morning Sun.
2 comments:
If my information is correct, GateHouse posted a $1.1 million profit in the fourth quarter last year, after posting losses for eight consecutive quarters. They paid out $1.4 million in bonsues to the top execs. The profitability of the company could have been more than doubled had these highly paid execs forgone their huge bonuses. You can read all about it in the filings. The company owes close to $1 billion in long term debt that comes due in 2014. Let's say the company has approximately 36 months to take care of this debt. They would have to pay approximately $27.78 million per month to satisfy the debt. If Mr. Reed can negotiate a deal to pay 20 cents on the dollar to put this debt to bed, the company will have to pay approximately $5,555,555 dollars per month for 36 months to take care of the debt (according to my calculations) That's paying 20 cents on the dollar. This would require astronomical cuts and astronomical revenue growth, all at the same time. These people are living in an unrealistic world. I cannot believe these people are able to rise to the heights of power that they do. I suspect the big wheels will ride the ship as long as they can, stepping off at the last moment with huge bonsuses and enough money to live the rest of their lives, while the worker bees go to the bottom. This is a perfect example of unrestrained greed and capitalism gone wrong. It reminds me of ENRON, except that I don't think GateHouse is making any promises that there will be retirement money.
I work for gatehouse house media. I just wanted everyone to know that they have laid off all the truck drivers at one of the New England sites. They will all be let go by beginning of April. I thought people should know, people at other gatehouse sites need to know.
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