Gannett News Vehicles
- Thread starter denver9
- Start date
svp
Well-known member
This shouldn't be surprising to anyone. With gas headed toward $5/gallon, I'm guessing nearly every station will eliminate take home vehicles and the only person that will take a vehicle home is the person on-call. Just make sure you negotiate for more money the next time you change jobs.
Denver9,
Make sure you thank your esteemed management at 9News for me. I uploaded that Alien story to share with everyone, and even credited them with a text graphic on the video that said ©2008 KUSA-TV, Denver, and 9News called YouTube and had it pulled for copyright infringement.
Denver9,
Make sure you thank your esteemed management at 9News for me. I uploaded that Alien story to share with everyone, and even credited them with a text graphic on the video that said ©2008 KUSA-TV, Denver, and 9News called YouTube and had it pulled for copyright infringement.
bootywright
Member
Save that $ for the CEO
I just did the math:
At more than $4 a gallon, it costs an average of $15 a day for one of our photographers to take his car home. That's $75 a week, $3900 a year. Multiply that by 10 photographers at our shop, you're talkin' $39,000 a year just for gas for take-home cars! That's A LOT of money!!!
But wait. You know what else is a lot of money?
From: Associated Press | Gannett Blog
"Gannett CEO gets a 36% raise as company's stock plummets...
Craig Dubow received pay and compensation valued at $7.9 million in 2007 -- 36% higher than the previous year..."
Source: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=139613
I just did the math:
At more than $4 a gallon, it costs an average of $15 a day for one of our photographers to take his car home. That's $75 a week, $3900 a year. Multiply that by 10 photographers at our shop, you're talkin' $39,000 a year just for gas for take-home cars! That's A LOT of money!!!
But wait. You know what else is a lot of money?
From: Associated Press | Gannett Blog
"Gannett CEO gets a 36% raise as company's stock plummets...
Craig Dubow received pay and compensation valued at $7.9 million in 2007 -- 36% higher than the previous year..."
Source: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45&aid=139613
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cameradog
Well-known member
Before you get your panties in too big of a wad, you might want to know that $3.35 million of that $7.9 million package, or almost half, was in the form of stock options rather than cash. His base salary was only $1.2 million. That means the CEO almost certainly did NOT receive $7.9 million in 2007, since the stock price has been declining and wouldn't be an attractive incentive to exercise the options. Stock options are actually a strong incentive for him to improve the company's financial situation, not a compensation for bad performance.
The way stock options work is that the executive is granted the right to buy stock at a particular price over a set period of time. He isn't given the stock. If he wants it, he has to pay for it with cash. But he doesn't have to buy it if he doesn't want it. Usually the stock options are not available immediately, but the executive has to put in a certain amount of service before the options become vested, often a year (in Dubow's case, the vesting period is four years). Then he has a certain amount of time to exercise the options, or they expire.
To illustrate, suppose the stock options are granted on January 1, 2007, and the stock price that day is $30. Then suppose the options can be exercised any time between January 1, 2008 and January 1, 2010. At 1/1/08, he can buy the stock if he wants. If he doesn't buy it by 1/1/10, it's gone forever.
Suppose the company does poorly, and the stock is at $25 per share on 1/1/08. His option is for $30 per share. If he exercises the option at that point, he will lose $5 per share, because he will essentially be paying $30 for something he could buy on the open market for $25.
Suppose the company does well, and the stock is at $35 per share on 1/1/08. Since his option is for $30 per share, he might exercise his option and immediately see a capital gain of $5 per share. He'll only be paying $30 for that for which everybody else is paying $35.
So you see, this guy doesn't get his big payday unless he turns the stock price in the other direction. This is not uncommon in a situation where the stock price has been declining. The board of directors says to the CEO, "Look, you've got to do better, so we'll give you a competitive compensation package IF you can bring the stock price back up."
So you may be wondering, if that guy didn't actually get $3.35 million of his compensation package, why is it counted as part of his compensation? That has to do with some rather esoteric accounting rules governing expenses. Basically a company that uses accrual accounting has to match expenses to the period in which their benefit is received. In my example, the stock options aren't available to the guy until 2008, but they are compensation for work done during 2007, so they have to be recognized as an expense in 2007 even if they never get used. The expense isn't a real expenditure, but an estimate of what it is likely to cost the company IF the options are exercised in the future. Most companies use what's called the Black-Scholes model for estimating the value of stock options, which I don't even pretend to understand.
So, in other words, all this story means is that Gannett booked $3.35 million in compensation expenses in 2007 that Craig Dubow didn't see. He won't even get the chance to see it for four years. If he doesn't turn the company around, he may never see it.
So now let's consider a couple of other aspects of this. The article says that this $7.9 million was a 36% increase from 2006. That means his 2006 compensation package was valued at $5.8 million. Did it have stock options also? Suppose it didn't. Suppose that full $5.8 million was in cash. Then, in 2007, when you remove the stock options he couldn't and probably won't exercise, he received at most $4.55 million. It's possible here that he actually received a pay cut of more than a million dollars, with a promise from the board that he would get it back later IF he can restore the company's performance.
So how would you like it if your boss came to you and told you he was cutting your salary for bad performance, but you could get it back later if you did better? How would you like it if you got your salary cut, but then everybody else in the newsroom criticized you for getting a raise? Now Dubow's compensation isn't sounding so sinister.
It sure is easy to be outraged by something you don't understand.
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Hank Scorpio
Well-known member
A Step Above Productions
Well-known member
The reason people are upset witht the fact that they are loosing their take home cars is simple - and has nothing to do with what the CEO gets.
Photogs don't get much when it comes to pay and respect - a take home car is a little perk that helps them get through the day. If Booty's math is correct taking a car away is equal to a $3900.00 pay cut and in most cases Photgs are in the mid 30's far pay... that is more than a 10% paycut.
Photogs don't get much when it comes to pay and respect - a take home car is a little perk that helps them get through the day. If Booty's math is correct taking a car away is equal to a $3900.00 pay cut and in most cases Photgs are in the mid 30's far pay... that is more than a 10% paycut.
wide angle
Member
It's actually more than that. Don't forget tax, title, license & insurance.
cameradog
Well-known member
You could be the CEO of a large company and make that kind of money. Why don't you?
tresbeez
Well-known member
i work for an ABC O&O and we lost our take home cars about two years ago. i live fairly close to the office so i ride my bicycle to work everyday. it sucks losing the overtime we sometimes got from overnight callouts but, really, i think it hurts our news coverage more than it hurts me. i dont get called before 9:30am of after 6:30pm anymore. i dont carry my phone with me on the weekends and i dont bring it to bed with me. it has actually been kind of good for me because i can be more at ease at home, have more quality time with my family, and i, literally, dont bring my work home with me.
Camera Face
Active member
Let's give 'dog some credit; it takes some big huevos to come on a photog board and be the only guy sticking up for wealthy corporate CEO's.
Keep fighting the good fight, 'dog.
cameradog
Well-known member
I'm not really sticking up for this CEO. The guy makes an amazing amount of money. He doesn't really need me to stick up for him.
The point of my comments is this: How can anybody else criticize what he makes or how he's compensated, when they don't actually know what he makes and don't have the slightest clue how he's compensated? These folks are mad just to be mad, just because this guy has more than they do. It's envy and irrationality and intellectual dishonesty all rolled up together.
Did it ever dawn on anybody that maybe there's a reason this guy makes so much money? Did it ever dawn on anybody that maybe the board thinks that this guy is the best guy for the job, and in order to keep him from going to another company with a better offer, they have to make him a competitive offer that happens to be in the millions of dollars? Did it ever occur to anybody that maybe if the company did skimp on its compensation, and the guy went to another company, that perhaps the company would be in worse financial shape, and all those folks at the bottom grumbling about what he makes would be out of jobs?
No, these people would rather criticize someone else who worked hard to gain a position of financial security rather than examine why they're still scrabbling in the dirt for a few crumbs as a result of their own laziness. It's always better to blame someone else for your own problems than take responsibility for them yourself.
The real world includes America. Vast opportunities exist for people in America. This guy Dubow went to school and studied, then worked his way up and became the CEO of a large corporation. He wasn't just "given" the job. The guy went to UT Austin. People in the real world can't get into UT Austin?
I think you're the one who needs to join the real world, where people have to take responsibility for their own choices in life and quit blaming other people.
Hank Scorpio
Well-known member
Well I guess you can't argue with someone who has all the facts.
***note sarcasm***
***note sarcasm***
Wideangle
Well-known member
The irony of your little rant is that I'd be willing to bet that my yearly pay is considerably more than yours, not to mention the level and amount of work I do to earn it. Why is it always the little dogs that seem to yap the most? If you're into
" CEO hero worship", then that's your deal. Just do us all a favor and keep it to yourself. This is a working man's website and as far as most CEO's are concerned,
the hard working people that frequent this place are more expendable than the
equipment they use to fashion their craft. Hence the lack of sympathy and agreement
most will have for your posts. Kind of like wearing a white sheet to an NAACP meeting...
You're playing to the wrong audience.
FTOJRLST
Well-known member
You're math assumes that all your photogs live more than 31 miles from the station. That may be the case at your station but I don't think it's the norm.
I'm not even the closest at only 8 miles out. I think our farthest guy is only 20. Even the average on that at 16 would make the gas perk slightly less than $8 per round trip in a Ford Explorer at about 17 MPG.
Driving back and forth to work 240 days a year would only cost $1920 a year.
Again - your're guys may live farther away in your situation.
High gas prices have affected just about everything in all walks of life. It should be no suprise that take home vehicles would become an issue. It will affect news coverage as well. That 30 or 40 mile drive to a ribbon cutting or car accident will be a thing of the past.
Unfortunate? Yes. Reality sucks sometimes. Life is adjustment.....and the beer is good. (Stole that line from a Robert Parker novel.)
Unfortunate? Yes. Reality sucks sometimes. Life is adjustment.....and the beer is good. (Stole that line from a Robert Parker novel.)
Buck
Well-known member
The sooner you can deal with losing your vehicle, the better. No amount of bitching is going to change things. Yes, a crew won't make it to a house fire while the flames are still bright orange, but the news will still go on. The assignment desk will manage somehow.
We had ours taken away about 5 years ago. Does it suck? Yes. It sucks hard...especially these days. It was a great perk, but that's just what it is a "perk".
I often get more OT because I have to come in early to pick up a car and stay late because I can't go straight home from a late live shot.
We had ours taken away about 5 years ago. Does it suck? Yes. It sucks hard...especially these days. It was a great perk, but that's just what it is a "perk".
I often get more OT because I have to come in early to pick up a car and stay late because I can't go straight home from a late live shot.