Hopkins has built a steady following by blogging on his former company and has published a number of investigative reports looking into one of the nation's largest newspaper company operations. His most recent report on Gannett CEO Craig Dubow's use of Gannett Foundation dollars to create a scholarship fund at Western Carolina University in his own name is worthy of mention. Although the amount of money directed to the scholarship fund is mere pennies in the bucket of the Gannett Foundation, the reporting is one example among very few where a blogger has employed original watchdog reporting.
From Gannett Blog:
Under pressure, Western Carolina University has now acknowledged that the Gannett Foundation quietly helped CEO Craig Dubow and his wife, Denise, establish a scholarship in their name -- with no credit to Gannett, and off-limits to most employees' children.
The university, in Cullowhee, N.C., disclosed the foundation's role in the Craig A. and Denise W. Dubow Endowed Scholarship Fund yesterday, only after I filed an open-records request last week for any public documents that could explain the whereabouts of $40,000 Dubow funneled to WCU in 2007 and 2006.
The gifts were authorized under a benefit available only to Dubow (left) and a handful of other highly-paid current and former executives, several of whom have used foundation money to fund scholarships in their names, too. Dubow, 54, was paid $7.5 million in cash and stock last year. Much of that stock is now worthless; shares have plunged 79% from a year ago.
There's nothing illegal here. But Dubow's actions, combined with the foundation's refusal to fully disclose them, show how brazenly Gannett pampers the top brass -- even as it slashed thousands of jobs, froze the pension plan, and imposed other harsh steps to restore prosperity. Only yesterday, Dubow warned: "Next year will continue to be difficult."
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