Gannett CEO paid $4.7 million after mass layoffs, Citizen closure

Posted Mar 18, 2010

Dylan Smith
TucsonSentinel.com

Gannett CEO Craig Dubow.

Craig Dubow, the CEO of Gannett Inc., was paid $4.7 million in 2009, a year that saw the newspaper chain layoff thousands and close the 138-year-old Tucson Citizen.

Dubow was paid $3.1 million in 2008. His 2009 pay included a bonus of $1.5 million, according to the company's annual proxy report to shareholders. Dubow was on medical leave for four months last summer.

Gracia Martore, recently promoted to president of Gannett, was paid $4 million as chief financial officer. That's a steep raise over her 2008 pay of $1.4 million.

Gannett, the publisher of 84 daily newspapers in the U.S., saw its revenues decline 22 percent in 2009. The company lost 6,000 employees, many through layoffs. Two rounds of furloughs and a one-year wage freeze helped forestall what many analysts saw as impending insolvency for the company.

Gannett cuts its employee ranks by 16 percent last year, mostly in the U.S. newspaper division.

After dropping as low as $1.85 in 2009, Gannett stock now trades in the $16 dollar range. The stock's peak came at $90 in 2004.

More than 60 staffers lost their jobs when Gannett stopped printing the Tucson Citizen in May. Before the shutdown, the U.S. Justice Department conducted a months-long investigation into the company's attempt to sell or close the paper.

After the printing press stopped running, the company changed TucsonCitizen.com from a news site to a community blogging platform.

Gannett maintains its partnership with publishing chain Lee Enterprises in Tucson Newspapers, the operating agency for the Arizona Daily Star.