Updated at 1:51 p.m. PT: A tipster says Philadelphia Media Holdings -- corporate parent of The Philadelphia Inquirer -- hired Ketan Gandhi only recently, for a position that was to be determined. Then, last Wednesday, PMI abruptly announced a change in publishers at its subsidiary of suburban weeklies, Broad Street Publications. Gandhi got the job.Earlier: Ketan Gandhi has been named publisher of Broad Street Publications, a chain of suburban weeklies owned by the corporate parent of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Inky published a short notice of Gandhi's appointment yesterday, in this briefs column (see fifth item).
Gandhi left Gannett without explanation in late March, fueling one of the bigger ongoing mysteries on Gannett Blog. (Just look at the string of comments on this post alone.) At the time, Gandhi was publisher of the Home News Tribune in East Brunswick, and the troubled Courier News in Bridgewater. Gannett has never acknowledged his departure.
He was finally replaced at East Brunswick and Bridgewater by Asbury Park Press Editor Skip Hidlay -- an appointment Gannett announced May 8 in an especially incomplete press release.
Your reaction, in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, use this link from a non-work computer; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
[Image: this morning's Home News Tribune, Newseum]
Something is really wrong with this story, on a variety of issues.
ReplyDeleteI've been on the outside of Gannett for several years. The advertising management side.
Collins had been carrying water for Gannett for forty years. His reputation was known full well in the early '80's. He had enough dirt of sorts on the major players to protect him.
Donovan was probably the pick of Sherlock and Riddle in consort with SCJ. Who else to fill the Collins shoes?
If Gandhi was so bad, out of sync, why did they move him to begin with?
The Inky would steal talent from anywhere...no surprise, and the CP makes for an easy target.
The Gannett legacy lives on. Not much has changed in twenty years.
A shitty, incestuous business.
It also shows the value of posting your resume on Careerbuilder.
ReplyDeleteSalary of $220,000? should have left some details off the public posting.
@12:15 p.m.: Got a link to that CareerBuilder resume? Lots of Gannett Blog readers would like to know more.
ReplyDeleteBetter copy the content NOW..before it dissappears....just like him.
ReplyDeletei would love to see the resume.
hope that paper is ready for useless Desi products for a community that keeps to themselves and has no interest in paying regular price on any items. ask all the happy customers of the Home News Tribune how much they enjoyed having a few ads in those products.
ReplyDeleteExcellent. Now we will really guarantee that that shitty paper from Philly will die.
ReplyDeleteWOW that's 3 that I know of that have grabbed a lifeboat from the HMS Gannett
ReplyDeletePeter Ricker left Gannett too...formerly from Vineland...Indy...and then the Inky. Now in Phoenix.
ReplyDeleteHoward ??? left Hawaii, joined JRC, had brain transplant, and then joined the Inky.
The stories go on.
There are a FEW currently employeed managers from A large Jersey PaPer that have been making the trip across the river to visit(wink) there old Friends
ReplyDeleteIt's still not clear whether this was a saftety net cast by Ketan's former colleague's who now help run the Phila operation ... or, whether this is the reason that Ketan suddenly left Gannett, perhaps because they found out he was negotiating for such a spot. Hard to believe this once rising star was fed up enough with Gannett to make what seems like a lateral move across the Delaware.
ReplyDeleteAgain, Jim, you alluded to knowing a lot more about the circumstances as to why Ketan left, and you have left this readership hanging with your lack of follow-up. We don't have to tell you that this event drove your traffic over the last several months, so clearly there is widespread interest in exactly what happened in East Brunswick / Bridgewater. Comments?
@3:19 p.m.: I'm sorry I haven't responded sooner to your entirely reasonable question. I have published everything I'm comfortable publishing, given sourcing issues. Bear in mind that libel laws haven't been repealed, and I don't have Gannett's crack legal department, or its treasury, backing me up anymore.
ReplyDeleteWhy not? Philly has a future even with declining revenues. A private ownership has less beholden interests. No ox to gore other than Tierney. Good for him.
ReplyDeleteScrew Gannett.
The Howard >??? is Howard Griffin and to clarify- Ghandi isn't working for the Inky or the Daily News. He is in charge of their weekly newspaper division.
ReplyDeleteThis is only tangentially related to the discussion at hand, but Gannett's troubles in New Jersey are starting to hit the smaller papers, too--The Daily Journal in Vineland lost three newsroom employees over the past couple of weeks (two to buyouts and one who was let go). They're down to barely enough staff to keep things moving right now, with no apparent efforts to hire anybody else. Perhaps even worse, several of their current newsroom staff are actively pursuing new job opportunities elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteand now that Gandhi is the publisher, consider some layoffs on the way. After what ganneet did to him...COWboy has got to cover his own..you know what
ReplyDeleteLatest rumor: Enron-style accounting practices may have been the reason the NJ Gannett papers were showing whatever profit they were for the last few years.
ReplyDeleteThe current buyouts and layoffs are the results of re-doing the books on a reality basis.
I doubt very much there were Enron-style accounting practices in NJ the way Gannett audits the books every year. They would have been caught much sooner.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing but the utmost respect for Ketan Gandhi. He was the best thing that happened to East Brunswick. He believed if you couldn't handle your job you shouldn't be there at a time when survival was a major issue. He is sadly missed by those of us that understood what a leader is.
ReplyDeletei think gannett is looking to hire him back :)
ReplyDelete