Word: gannett
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...media are intimately linked to the military-industrial-banking-complex, which has every thing to lose it as Brecht put it in Mother Courage, 'peace breaks out "'Morgan Guaranty Trust (MGT) holds top percentages of voting stock in the Washington Post (MGT is the third most powerful voter), the Gannett Newspapers. CBS, Time, and ABC. The bank also holds the leading percentages of voting stock in defense corporations such as United Technologies (where MGT holds the number-one voting position). General Dynamics (third position). Hughes and Northrup, and also makes major loans to Boeing, Lockheed, and Grumman...
...idea for USA Today, which now occupies 160,000 sq. ft. of a Rosslyn, Va., office tower overlooking the capital's monuments, was nurtured about three years ago in a bungalow mere blocks away from Neuharth's home in Cocoa Beach, Fla.; the Gannett team worked behind windows coated with reflective paper to discourage the curious. By April 1981 the plan had progressed to prototype issues, which were mailed to public figures, journalists and financial analysts for comment. Some of the reaction was pungent. Publisher Joe Murray of the Pulitzer-prizewinning Lufkin, Texas, News returned his dummy issue...
...idea seemed especially daring for Gannett: The country's sixth largest media company (reported 1981 sales: $1.4 billion), it specializes in small, mostly monopoly markets. Of its 88 dailies, only three, including morning-evening combinations, have weekday circulations above 150,000. Some critics contend that the new paper is a personal bid for recognition by the driven maverick Neuharth; they find evidence even in the office suites of USA Today, which are decorated in black, white and gray, the only colors Neuharth wears in public. Says one Gannett insider: "It's Al's ego trip." Responds Neuharth...
Part of the reason Gannett proceeded was that technology made it relatively cheap. By transmitting page proofs via satellite to pressrooms borrowed primarily from its own regional newspapers, USA Today has installed a production system for about $500,000 per printing center, vs. millions of dollars if it had built new factories. Papers will be sold primarily through newsstands and vending boxes rather than costly, complex home delivery. Most of the staff, and virtually all the executives, came from other Gannett papers and were guaranteed that their old jobs would be held open at least through December...
...will be determined by a very tough public and by advertisers looking for the best possible increase in sales." Business Analyst R. Joseph Fuchs of Kidder, Peabody and Co. Inc. rates USA Today's chances as "better than even." John Morton of Lynch, Jones and Ryan notes that Gannett is at worst taking a gamble in which potential rewards greatly exceed risks: "This is not an enormous investment, it is like buying a moderate-size newspaper, and it promises an enormous return...