Former Enquirer Publisher Bill Keating Looking To End Gannett Stock Lawsuit? $1.3 Million Settlement Deal On Table

Keating Case Settlement Talks

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A two-week old court filing in Cincinnati discloses that Bill Keating's lawyers said they would accept $1.3 million to settle the retired Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper exec's lawsuit against his investment advisers.  Keating contends a $20 million investment portfolio was mismanaged.  He and his wife, Nancy, lost $6 million on holdings in Gannett (43,558 shares) and Fifth Third Bank (225,000 shares).  Settlement discussions with a private mediator have taken place.  They failed.  But with the case heading for December 8 trial there is a good chance the talks will be revived under court supervision.  The court filing says:  "The parties engaged a mediator and conducted a partial day of mediation to no avail.  More recently Defendants increased their offer to $500,000 and Plaintiffs reduced their demand to $1,300,000."  That indicates there was movement.

The defense contends Keating was sophisticated about business and investing and should have known that investors can lose money, as well as make money, in stocks.  The trend line is not always up:   "Plaintiffs took on the risk inherent in the market when they invested the portfolios in securities."  Keating is a former GOP congressman from Cincinnati who ran Gannett's newspaper operations in Detroit and Cincinnati.  He was chairman of the Associated Press from 1987-1992.  He was vice president and general counsel of Gannett.  Keating claims he ordered his investment advisers at Sena Weller Rohs and Williams LLC in Cincinnati to aggressively liquidate his stakes in the Gannett media chain and the bank.  He said he wanted a diversified investment portfolio.  He says his orders were not followed.  Keating had served on Fifth Third's board of directors.  The investment advisers said Keating never gave orders to liquidate and reinvest.  In the pre-trial statement filed with Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Jerome J. Metz Jr., -- the same document that disclosed the settlement offer -- Keating's investment advisers describe the lawsuit as a case of sour grapes that grew out of Wall Street's sharp declines.  The defense lawyers pointed out that all securities markets got clobbered by the same percentages that Keating got clobbered:

"The evidence will show that Plaintiffs received and reviewed monthly statements, quarterly statements and dozens of letters regarding their portfolio.  Since they did not object then, they cannot do so now.  Plaintiffs can prove no damages.  During the period of their relationship all securities markets declined between 40% and 50%, the same amount that the portfolios declined.  Even though Plaintiffs have not alleged a conversion, they argue that a conversion measure of damages, or the New York Rule should be used.  If the proper measure of damages is used Plaintiffs have none, since they are in essentially the same position they would have been in had they received what they now claim they wanted."

Another Veteran Ohio Journo Sent Packing By Gannett's Cincinnati Operation: Bengals Blogger Chick Ludwig Booted From Cincinnati.com

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Retired Dayton Daily News sportswriter Chick Ludwig -- who spent 12 years as that newspaper's Bengals beat writer -- has been sacked after a year at Cincinnati.com.  He wrote a popular blog (1.3 million page views) mostly about the NFL football team.  Ludwig said his contract wasn't renewed, apparently for economic reasons.  Ludwig spent 30 years with the Dayton Daily News and hooked up with Cincinnati.com last October.  Cincinnati.com is the Cincinnati Enquirer's companion website and is a property of Gannett Co., Inc. the giant media company that owns USA Today.  Gannet's stock was down $1.24, or 8.8%, Friday o n the New York Stock Exchange.  Investors were disappointed by the company's third quarter earnings report .  So adios, Chick, a Cincinnati native who appears to be yet another victim of Gannett, and the entire traditional media's, constant cost-cutting mode.

This is some of what Ludwig had to say about his departure, which he wrote on the blog.  He was classy and didn't offer sour grapes:

"The awesomeness, intensity and belligerence that marked 'Typing Away With Chick Ludwig' has come to an end.  I often use the term 'knifed' when a Cincinnati Bengals player gets terminated, released or waived. Now the time has come for 'The Chickster' to get knifed.  My contract is up, and I haven’t been renewed. The economy has claimed yet another victim. So this is my final entry for the Cincinnati.com Blog Network.

"I’d like to think my specialty is the written and spoken word. And all I ever wanted to do was offer opinion, insight and analysis on the Cincinnati Bengals, and bring a little levity to your day. Hopefully, 397 blog entries and 1.4 million page views are signs I made a dent, if not a smidgen of difference, in your daily life.  My immediate plan: Fire up a Hav-A-Tampa sweet jewel, sip a glass of Rolling Rock, take a nap and prep for my Sunday, Oct. 17, speech at the Maketewah Country Club Caddie Banquet (cocktails 5:30, dinner 6:30)."

By the way, The Chickster remains the Bengals correspondent for the Sporting News.

Cincinnati Enquirer Editor Declares War On Content Parasites: 'We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Of course, he seems to have swiped the line from a movie script. The editor of Ohio's third largest newspaper said in a Sunday column that the Gannett Co. Inc. property is using technology "that scours the media landscape for illegal use of our content." Cease and desist commmunications reportedly have been sent to blogs, radio stations and Websites. Yet none were identified -- which means the Enquirer is sitting on a huge story framed against the Internet, the free flow of information and intellectual property rights. Editor Tom Callinan also borrowed -- without crediting the source -- the "mad as hell" line from the 1976 film Network, a movie that won an Oscar for Peter Finch. In Callinan's appropriation of the line, he altered it only slightly by adding "we" in place of the screenplay's "I'm." Perhaps a studio in Hollywood is scouring, too. Meanwhile, there is little known about the Gannett-owned newspaper's threatened legal actions against the unnamed pirates alleged to have taken its content without permission:

"We're no longer willing to idly watch our good efforts stolen . . . In recent weeks, we have sent warnings to several blogs, Web sites and radio stations. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore."

But what of others who may have had their material recycled in the Enquirer? For example, the Sunday sports section -- the same edition of the paper in which Callinan's declaration of war appears -- contains a quote from Cleveland Browns President Mike Holmgren. The quote dates back to late February when it originally appeared in other newspapers and Websites. Holmgren's remark is about Tim Tebow, the University of Florida star who is hoping to become a high draft pick in the NFL's quarterback selection process. Holmgren wondered about Tebow's delivery, his throwing style. Here's the Cleveland Browns president's quote from the March 7 Enquirer sports section: "It's always been my opinion that that's the most difficult thing to change in any quarterback. I've read he's got a number of guys coaching him up on that and he's trying to change it, but it's really hard to do, I think. Particularly in pressure situations."

But that quote didn't originate in the March 7, 2010 Enquirer. It is all over the Internet. The Akron Beacon Journal's Maria Ridenour used a truncated version of Holmgren's remark on Feb. 27, which is 10 days before it showed up in the Enquirer. The quote was on the Feb. 26 version of the Seattle Seahawks team Website. Actually, there are some 836 references to the quote that turn up in a Google search. None of this is to suggest that the Enquirer stole the quote. It is meant to suggest that Holmgren's remark was widely circulated, and even appeared under copyright as content in several news and Web sites before finding its way into the Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer. It was neither fresh nor new in the universe of sporting news. The Houston Chronicle -- which claims a February 26 copyright on the Holmgren comment -- would look silly sending a cease and desist letter to Cincinnati.

[UPDATE: 6:16 pm: Tom Callinan and I have now exchanged e-mails. I won't publish the verbatim version of his reply. My e-mail can be seen below. But it appears he is informing me that he does not consider the content parasites to be a significant problem for the newspaper after all. His private communication seems to run totally counter to what his column said today. He noted that radio stations aren't really problematical. He would not name any violators. The radio stations don't have much of a news staff in this economic climate. He said he would not out any of the blogs or people that the Enquirer has a problem with because the problem often goes away without much head butting. He said the Enquirer uses a program called Attributor to track down possible offenders. Here is what I wrote to the Enquirer's editor: "I found your column quite interesting and have posted about it on The Daily Bellwether. I wonder if you would be willing to identify those who have gotten warnings for stealing content. That is huge news. You have covered similar disputes in the paper between record companies and downloaders. There does not seem to be any reason why this issue should not be aired in the Enquirer's pages, or online. I would be willing to publish the letters if you would give them to the Daily Bellwether. That would be strange, obviously, because the Enquirer is in the middle of the story. You have publicly said thievery is taking place, but you haven't said who the thieves are. You have tarred a lot of competing media -- blogs, radio stations, Websites. Anyhow, thanks for your time. I think you have raised an important issue. I think you should disclose more and be more transparent." ]

[UPDATE 2 - 3/8/2010 9:44 am: The Cincinnati Beacon reacts to Callinan's column. It notes that there is plenty of derivative work floating around the journalistic sphere in Cincinnati, and that the Enquirer might be doing some poaching of its own from blogs and other outlets. From the Beacon: "So, Mr. Callinan, let’s tone down the rhetoric a bit. People shouldn’t steal your stuff, but before you talk about parasites and your hard work, let’s take a bit of a reality check, okay?"]

[UPDATE 3 - 3/9/2010 5:52 pm: Larry Gross weighs in today and points out Gannett's local version of Metromix tried a pickpocket job on Cincinnati's alt/weekly CityBeat earlier this year. Talk about content parasites. It was a raid of the corporate kind; something that could have been dreamed up by Wall Street banksters. CityBeat has been running an annual Best of Cincinnati contest for years. Metromix tried to horn with its own best of. CityBeat raised cane and got the best of Metromix, which slunk away from its copycatting.]

[UPDATE 4 - 3/10/2010 9:52 am: CityBeat's Kevin Osborne shows that the Enquirer is selling ads and making a profit from an advertiser accused of wrongfully appropriating material from the PBS series called Antiques Roadshow. The Enquirer's conduct, the Cincinnati CityBeat writer contends, puts Editor Tom Callinan's claim of victimization from "content parasites" on thin ground. In other words, the Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper is raking in money from someone that WGBH in Boston is suing in federal court for alleged trademark violations.]

Former Enquirer Publisher Bill Keating Feuds With Financial Advisor: Claims $2.5 Million Loss On Gannett Stock

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- So far, this peek into the lives of the rich and famous, about wealth and how it is managed in Cincinnati, hasn't seemed to make many ripples here in the city where it is unfolding. Bill Keating, a former GOP congressman from Ohio who ran Gannett's newspaper operations in Cincinnati and Detroit, contends his $20 million investment portfolio was mismanaged. He wanted his newspaper stocks dumped, and dumped quickly. His lawyers claim Keating and his wife, Nancy, took a $6 million hit on holdings in Gannett (43,558 shares) and Fifth Third Bank (225,000 shares) that Keating ordered aggressively liquidated. Keating says his orders were not followed. Keating says in an affidavit filed with his lawsuit in Hamilton County that his instructions were given before the economy slipped into recession and the share prices sank to historic lows. Both the bank and the newspaper chain have been beaten up on Wall Street -- Fifth Third for lackluster management and Gannett for the erosion of print publishing in the face of online challenges. Keating had been an insider at both corporations. He served on Cincinnati-based Fifth Third's board for much of the 1980s and 1990s. At Gannett -- the nation's largest newspaper publisher -- he ran the Cincinnati Enquirer, was president of the company Central Newspaper Group, was v.p and general counsel of Gannett Co. Inc., and ran the Detroit Newspaper Agency which published the News and Free Press. He was chairman of the Associated Press from 1987-1992. His brother, Charles, was the poster boy of the S&L scandal in the early 1990s.

In his Jan. 6, 2010 affidavit, Keating said: "Both before and after investment accounts were opened with SWRW LLC, I and members of my family made clear on numerous instances our instructions to William T. Sena Sr. and William T. Sena Jr., to immediately liquidate the Fifth Third and Gannett holdings and reinvest the process so as to create a well diversified investment portfolio."

The Sena's see things differently. They have submitted several memos (see an example above) that were sent to Keating about efforts to manage the $20 million account. The financial advisors said their strategy was to unwind the portfolio piecemeal. The Sena's lawyer, Charles Reynolds, said during a Hamilton County Common Pleas court hearing last month that Keating gave no direct order to liquidate the shares:

"There are no documents which say sell Fifth Third. There are no e-mails that say sell Fifth Third or Gannett. There is nothing in writing that exists that says sell Fifth Third. All we have is the oral representations supposedly in place to sell Fifth Third. It is a 20-month relationship. Each month the Keatings got account statements. Several times a week, there are phone calls. Interspersed with that is written communications from Bill Sena describing what the account is doing."

Reynolds also noted during the hearing that Bill and Nancy Keating could have sold their stocks at any time on their own:

"Mr. and Mrs. Keating were the trustees at all times in question and they could have at any point before or after June 2007, diversified their portfolio. In fact, it would have been a simple matter to buy an S&P 500 fund and achieve complete diversification without the need to buy individual stocks. They elected not to do that. They elected to come to Sena, Weller, Rohs, Williams and Mr. Sena Sr., in particular, to use his investment expertise to make those stocks decisions, including the buy and selling of Fifth Third stock."

The lawsuit is pending under the caption Charles Miller, Trustee et al v. Sena Weller Rohs Williams LLC et al, Case No. A0911952. It is assigned to Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Jerome J. Metz, who has scheduled a case management conference and hearing for Feb. 17 in his Cincinnati courtroom. The docket is available on the clerk of court's website.

This Is No Bull: Ohio Journalist Writes She Didn't Know 'Male Cows' Can't Have Babies

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (TDB) --It's no secret the fate of the U.S. newspaper industry is grim. Stocks in publicly traded media companies like Gannett Co. Inc. are near all-time lows, advertising has dried up, job cuts are common and readers are deserting print for the Internet. And some wonder if the intellectual scale of the nation's corps of journalists has grown thin -- that acuity and sense, background and exposure are eroding. Now there is anecdotal evidence the concern could be legit. In Ohio, a photographer for Gannett's Chillicothe Gazette has admitted publicly she wasn't sure that bulls can't have babies. A bull, of course, is the male version of a bovine animal. By definition, its sexual genitalia must be intact and capable of reproduction. Cows have a uterus; bulls have testicles and the equipment for delivering their seed. There are other clues in the English language that bull is a word that equates to male -- bull elephant and bull moose come to mind.

The newspaper photographer won't be identified by name here. She is a graduate of a prestigous university in Boston, and grew up on Long Island. She wrote this week that she had the chance to meet with a local 4-H club member who explained the "differences between cows, heifers, steer and bulls." Still, the journalist needed more information:

"'Male cows can have babies?' I asked, honestly thinking this was a possibility. Nature, you know, throws curve-balls all over the place. Again, laughter. In case you're wondering, they meant that bulls can reproduce, not actually have babies."

You can read the photographer's account of her puzzlement here. It doesn't sound like she was flinging bull. She said she and her reporter partner know virtually nothing about rural life and agriculture:

"So here we are, forced to confront the limits of our city educations. I, from Long Island, and Loren, from Buffalo, have had no contact at all with farm animals. Ever. Although a goat at a petting zoo once ate my hairband and some of Loren's sorority sisters once had pet ducks." To their credit, the journalists want to go out to a farm and learn. Maybe there's hope for newspaper people after all.

OH-02 GOP Jean Schmidt: Cincinnati Enquirer's Online Edition Seems To Have Scrubbed Her June 21 Column

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Was there something the newspaper found fabricated or deceptive? Republican U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt's guest column appeared in Saturday's print edition of Ohio's third-largest daily newspaper under this headline: "Others also have been wrong about Chinese drilling off shore of U.S." But in the column, Schmidt never said she was wrong. Unfortunately, you cannot read it online today in the Enquirer (but The Daily Bellwether has the full-text below). The Gannett Co Inc.-owned newspaper -- which was criticized by Schmidt for having "lost sight of the larger picture" -- does not have her article posted on the Internet.

The omission from the paper's Opinion section is odd. An editorial appeared the same day in the Opinion section with several reader-authored limericks about the emergence of cicadas in Cincinnati. The editorial remains accessible on the Web, and the editorial and accompanying limericks can easily be found by clicking this link.

Meanwhile, a search Monday afternoon for Schmidt's guest column turned up nothing on Google. Perhaps the Enquirer will eventually post her column. So far, there's been no explanation about why it is unavailable online.

In print, Schmidt was combative. She refused to admit that her statement on the House floor June 5 (captured by YouTUBE) "that the Chinese are drilling off the coast of Florida" is totally false. Both Vice President Dick Cheney and conservative columnist George Will have retracted similar claims. Schmidt did not -- and so all can see the position she has taken -- the The Daily Bellwether is reprinting her June 21 Cincinnati Enquirer guest column. Read on for the complete text of Schmidt's article:

"A recent story that appeared in this newspaper strongly implied that I simply made up a portion of a statement I have on the floor of the U.S. House. On June 5, I stated that the Chinese were drilling for oil in conjunction with the Cuban government. I was not the only one to have made that statement. House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), and the Chairman of the Senate Energy Subcommittee Byron Dorgan (D-N.J.) both made the same assertion. In fact, USA Today, a newspaper owned by the Enquirer's parent company, Gannett, reported Feb. 22, 2007: 'After the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba opened its oil program to foreign investment in 1993. Today, companies from Spain, Norway, India, Malaysia and China are involved, either drilling wells offshore or using horizontal drilling to reach reservoirs in shallow coastal waters.'

"I am now called into question by one Gannett newspaper for saying what is published in another Gannett paper. By the way, USA Today has not retracted its story.

"According to a report issued by the Congressional Research Service, the Cuban government has signed agreements with oil companies from Spain, India, Norway, Venezuela, Malaysia, Vietnam and China for oil and gas. I am certain that citizens of Ohio's Second Congressional District, as they pay more than $4 a gallon to fill their gas tanks, are breathing a sigh of relief that oil companies from at least seven countries have the right to exploit resources within 60 miles of our borders -- a right that the congressional Democrats will not grant to our own domestic oil producers. And that was the larger point of the statement I made June 5.

"While the leadership of the current Congress dawdles, other countries are acting to increase oil and gas supplies. As we consider legislation to allow the United States to sue OPEC, increase taxes on energy producers, and re-start investigations of price gougers and speculators -- actions that will not lower gas prices by one cent -- other nations get it. In fact, it seems that even communist nations understand the law of supply and demand better than the Democratic congressional leadership. It is truly a shamed that The Enquirer lost sight of the larger picture. There is no way to ease the burden of rising energy prices without finding and taking advantage of, in an environmentally sensitive way, our own domestic resources.

"At the very least, we should be discussing the issue. The Enquirer missed a golden opportunity to further the discussion."

Cincinnati Enquirer Parent Gannett Co. Inc's (GCI) Stock Chart: When Will The Asteroid Strike?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Cincinnati Enquirer has been writing a lot lately about Fifth Third Bank and its problems in a difficult business environment caused by a slow-growth economy. But the Gannett-owned newspaper has been largely silent about the near 50% plunge in its own parent company's stock price over the past year (see table). According to the chart, Gannett has done worse than its peers in the media industry, and worse than the S&P 500. None of that has been widely reported by The Enquirer, a major source of news and information in Ohio -- both online and in print. And the steep reversal in Gannett's value on Wall Street since last June is an indication that the company's business practices and business model are out of step with reality in the 2008 economy -- that it hasn't yet figured out how to compete, grow, or rally when faced with adversity. The Ohioans who depend on the company for news and information and entertainment may find themselves left in the lurch if there are cuts. John Friedman at MarketWatch, a financial news service that operates online and serves the nation's investment community, noted in commentary Thursday that Gannett and the New York Times, another newspaper giant, are both headed down, down, down:

"Meanwhile, Gannett, the publisher of USA Today [along with more than 80 other dailies, including Cincy], said its May ad revenue had dropped 14% from a year ago. Its classified ad figure fell 19% for the month, underscoring the impact of online services."

A link to Friedman's commentary is here, and its speculates the New York Times could become a takeover target as its share price falls. Gannett stock traded for a time at $91 a share in 2004, but was around $24 when the Bellwether checked today around noontime. At that price, the yield on the dividend is near 6.55%, which is better than any bank savings account pays. But how long will it be before the dividend is cut? And how long will it be before Gannett considers selling off its newspaper holdings like the Cincinnati Enquirer?

Size Doesn't Matter: Ohio Newspaper Pages Could Shrink This Year

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Get ready for smaller newspapers. Gannett Co. Inc. -- the national chain -- publishes the Cincinnati Enquirer, Chillicothe Gazette, Mansfield News Journal and several other newspaper in Ohio, along with USA Today. The media company says the broadsheets in its stable are probably going to become tinier this year in order to trim costs. In other words, the pages delivered to subscribers' homes and businesses won't be as large. The company is trying to maintain its profit margin -- but is planning to downsize the product sold to its customers. Gannett tucked the news into the annual report it released nearly three weeks ago:

"Challenges for 2008: Looking forward to 2008, the company faces several important challenges, including:

Advertising revenue for our newspapers will be affected by the continuing real estate crisis, softening national economic conditions in the U.S. and the U.K. and strong competition for ad spending;

Newsprint prices are expected to increase due to newsprint industry consolidation. We will continue to manage our newsprint cost carefully by further web width reductions and use of lighter basis weight paper;

We will continue to align expenses with revenue levels through further centralization and consolidation actions and other cost control measures."

Newsprint is the paper that newspapers are printed on. Earlier this month, the Tribune Company announced that it was shrinking the page size of four of its newspapers.

University of Cincinnati's Student Newspaper: A Big Media Takeover Target?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- An e-mailer passed along a link to a business story in today's New York Times about media giant Gannett Co. Inc.'s interest in acquiring college newspapers. Gannett owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, and its president and publisher, Margaret Buchanan, is a member of the University of Cincinnati board of trustees. That has led to speculation there may be some behind-the-scenes maneuvering under way by Gannett to purchase control of the News-Record, the campus paper owned by the University of Cincinnati.

U.C. is a state school, and its newspaper is already printed at a Gannett plant in Richmond, Ind. So there is a pre-existing relationship. The e-mailer wrote, "Gannett is moving in on college newspapers. It raises troubling issues of corporate editorial control, using free student labor, and their attempt to gain access to a demographic that spends a lot of money."

The Daily Bellwether phoned Len Penix, a lawyer and former Cincinnati Post reporter who now serves as faculty advisor at the News-Record. Penix says the campus paper circulates about 7,350 copies each of the three days a week it is printed. He said he has heard nothing about a potential sale to Gannett. He said the university owns the newspaper's name and gives it space to operate on campus. He said the paper self-funds through advertising revenue -- about $250,000 for the 90 issues that appear yearly. He said it has a board of overseers that includes a dean, the provost, students and faculty members. Penix predicted any move by the state school to sell the newspaper would trigger a backlash of campus opposition.

"I think the reaction would really be negative. The faculty wouldn't stand for it. The students wouldn't stand for it -- they'd probably all quit. We do have a relationship with Gannett, but it's not the Enquirer. All they do is print us. We self-fund, we pay for salaries and distributors. We're editorially independent of the school, they passed a rule several years ago that the News-Record will be editorially independent. I have been here for 18 months, and I haven't heard anything about the paper being sold."

Cincinnati Enquirer Makes Deal With P.T. Barnum's Circus: Sends In The Clown

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Cincinnati Enquirer -- a morning daily owned by media giant Gannett Co. Inc. -- is trying a cross-promotion with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in a bid to shore up readership. The newspaper plans later this month to deliver a tabloid section through its Newspaper In Education program that focuses on Bello the Clown. Bello is a circus star whose strawberry blond hair is spiked and stands straight up. The day-glo locks are the clown's trademark. The boxing ring has Don King, the three rings have Bello.

There seems to be a dash of P.T Barnum -- the late, great huckster and promoter -- extant in the Cincinnati Enquirer's arrangement with the circus. The Enquirer, in its pitch to educators, describes the promotion as purely an educational effort: "Thanks to a generous sponsorship from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, local teachers can use the pageantry and excitement of the circus to build skills in the classroom. NIE teachers will receive a special NIE Bellobration tabloid delivered with their classroom newspapers on Tuesday, Feb. 12."

Coincidentally, that also happens to be the day discounted circus tickets go on sale through the Enquirer's Newspaper in Education program as is made clear by clicking on this link. The deal -- $20 tickets are cut to $18. Some SW Ohio teachers are wondering: Is this actually about schooling, or using schooling as a stunt torn out of P.T. Barnum's sucker-born-every-minute playbook?

Newspapers are struggling these days, and staff and newshole cutbacks are common, as are declining stock prices for the publicly traded media giants like Gannett. Meanwhile, clowns -- at least Bello the Clown -- seems to having another good year. His past reviews have been great. Hairbotique.com raved about his spiked do.

"The hard working superbly skilled gymnast manages to keep his tresses neatly in place through a serious of physically demanding and daring feats such as being tossed up in the air by an elephant and then scrambling up a scary looking 60-foot Sway pole that is a mere 2-inches in diameter. Once Bello is at the top of the pole, that he climbs with his bare hands, he perches on top and swings the pole ins a series of death defying wild arcs which elicts oooohs and aaahs from the meserized crowds below. The act, created by his father Eugene, is both thrilling and scary to behold."

Wall Street Foresees Horrible Year For Newspapers: Are They Killing Themselves?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The newspaper industry is ailing, and Goldman Sachs sees its condition getting even worse in 2008. Advertisers and readers already are deserting, and the downturn is expected to accelerate as the overall national economy slows. If Goldman Sachs is correct, newsrooms should be shivering because bad times are going to be badder and more jobs will disappear as the industry contracts. Mediabistro noted today that the newspaper division chief at Gannett Co. Inc., the nation's largest newspaper chain, has decided to get out. Gannett owns The Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio's third largest metro daily, where budget cuts have been trimming staff along with space for comprehensive news coverage.

Meanwhile, Daily Bellwether contributor Bill Osinski -- a former Akron Beacon Journal reporter who also spent time on news staffs in Atlanta and Detroit -- sees the newspaper biz as culpable for its own decline. He thinks the budget cutting is a death wish. Osinski's take:

Newspapers On Suicide Watch
With recent studies showing that major newspaper corporations have lost an astounding 42 per cent of their stock value in the past year, one could be forgiven for concluding that rumors of the industry's death have not been exaggerated. But this could be a case of a self-fulfilling death wish.

To wit, imagine this transcript of a recent telephone conversation:
Operator: Hello. Suicide Hotline.
Caller: Yes. Max Media here. I'm trying to commit suicide, and I need help.
Operator: That's what we're here for, friend.
Max: No, no. I run a chain of newspapers, and I've been predicting their demise for years. I just need a little help in figuring out how to put me and my thousands of employees out of our misery.
Operator: But we're supposed to stop such things.
Max: Work with me a little here, will ya. Look, I've done all I can think of to ruin my business. I've had wave after wave of buyouts and layoffs, so I've run off most of my best and most experienced editors and reporters; I'm giving my product away on the Internet, even though I don't have a clue about how to sell ads in cyberspace; and I've dumbed-down the newspapers to the point where I'm driving off droves of readers every day.
Operator: Sounds like you're doing a pretty good job of doing away with yourself. But why are you so determined to stay in despair? Look, I still get the newspaper. I like it. I get lots of info I can't get anywhere else. And who's going to tell me what's really going on in my city when you're gone? Why don't you just wake yourself up, dust yourself off, stop trying to be like radio and TV?
Max: Hmmm. Put out a better product. What a concept.
Operator: See, I told you. Everything's not as bleak as it may seem.
Max: Nah. I'd rather be right and fail than succeed but prove myself wrong. Besides, I just can't wait to write my own obit.

Rural Ohio Weekly Newspaper Sues Gannett: Says Media Giant Has Swiped Its Name

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Newspaper giant Gannett Co. Inc., which owns familiar nameplates across the nation from USA Today on down, faces a trademark infringement lawsuit in Ohio federal court. The publisher of a 10,000-circulation weekly called the Pike County Advertiser contends publicly traded Gannett ripped off the name and has been using it on a competing local publication. Pike County has about 28,000 residents in southern Ohio and is considered a portion of the state's Appalachian region.

The lawsuit, Case No. 2:07-cv-01290, is pending in Columbus before U.S. Magistrate Nora M. King. Gannett's lawyer, John C. Greiner of Cincinanti, filed a response earlier this week that described the lawsuit as baseless. He also claims the Pike County Advertiser had abandoned its nameplate. Gannett puts out a string of weeklies in rural Ohio that use the name Advertiser. Its dailies in the state include the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Pike County Advertiser LLC said it controls the trademark, and used it starting in 2003. It apparently temporarily suspended publication last year. It says Gannett has taken the name "with intentional and willful disregard" of the competitor's rights.

"Plaintiff published its newspaper on a regular weekly basis with each issued having a circulation in excess of 10,000 copies. Through its circulation, together with publicity and advertising, the name of plaintiff's newspaper had acquired good will, value, and a special significance to the public and to its readers, advertisers, and suppliers past, present and prospective, who understand the name Pike County Advertiser referred to plaintiff's newspaper."

The lawsuit adds that Gannett's publication "imitates plaintiff's Pike County Advertiser in virtually all respects, including among other things, its name, size, design, format, layouts, typeset and content organization."

Gannett denies that it has imitated the weekly.

Ohio Chain Newspaper Columnist Peter Bronson Writes: Chain Newspapers Suck

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Peter Bronson is an ultra-conservative columnist at the Cincinnati Enquirer, an Ohio newspaper owned by the nation's biggest newspaper chain, Gannett Co. Inc. On Sunday, he lamented how big newspaper chains -- like Gannett, which was not mentioned by name -- are sucking life out of local papers and harming their sales by peddling junkfood news.

"Wherever the population density can support more than one freeway exit, the chains move in and sterilize any hint of local flavor. So a chain newspaper in Metropolis often looks exactly like the same franchise in Gotham City. They're like McDonald's -- same interior decorating, same stories and opinions, as uniformly alike as slices of Wonder Bread or fast food fries. Being dropped in the middle of a chain newspaper can be like being taken to a Waffle House blindfolded, then trying to figure out if you're in Iowa or Idaho. There are no surprises -- no local flavor as tangy as pickled eggs, or buffalo jerky. Just the same old predictable menu . . ."

The entire column on junkfood news somehow just doesn't get around to noting that the Enquirer is owned by Gannett. Probably veiled because it was too hard for the powers to swallow. Bronson insinuates the chains are overwhelmingly liberal, but then seems to back off and contends the newspaper chains are really intent on serving up a crappy diet to their customers. "And I wonder if a steady diet of junkfood news causes high blood pressure, indigestion and poor circulation."