Aron Pilhofer 🍩Mar 9, 2023

Holy cow. I knew Gannett was being driven into the ground by its debt and lousy owners, but @jbenton really brings the breadth and depth (mostly depth) of Gannett's plummet into sharp focus here.

This just took my breath away:

"In Q3 2018, USA Today reported a total daily circulation of 2,632,392. In its most recent filing, Q3 2022, that was down to 180,381."

https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/the-scale-of-local-news-destruction-in-gannetts-markets-is-astonishing/

The scale of local news destruction in Gannett’s markets is astonishing

It might not be as mustache-twirling a villain as Alden Global Capital, but its enormous scale has meant enormous losses for local journalism.

Nieman Lab
Show threadJeremy LoscheiderMar 10, 2023
@pilhofer @jbenton let's talk about this a minute because I feel like I'm missing a ton of context just because I don't swim in these waters. The world has changed a lot in the last five years, how much of this is rotten management (I'm sure quite a good amount), how much the preference for a more polemic press and online news outlets, and how much just that measurement of circulation has to evolve? Totally honest questions.
Show threadAron Pilhofer 🍩
@quietextrovert @jbenton Great questions, and hard to say for certain. But the stunning difference in performance between Gannett and its peers is pretty damning and has me leaning toward 1 and 3. Especially in local news (rather than cable tv).
Mar 10, 2023 at 12:25pmWeb