In one of the least surprising developments in Corporate's hush-hush executive reshuffling, top newspaper division content boss Phil Currie (left) has told colleagues in an e-mail that he's leaving the company after more than four decades' work."Mark Silverman once accused me of burying the lead in an e-mail I sent to editors, so I won't do it here,'' Currie says. "I want you to know that on Dec. 31 of this year, I will be retiring. Given some vacation time I will be using over the holidays to be with my family, I expect my last official day in the office will be Dec. 19. I approached Bob Dickey about this in October, and he left it to me to choose the time of the announcement. I choose now."
One of GCI's most influential editors
A 44-year Gannett lifer, Currie did more than almost any other executive to shape the content of the company's newspapers over the past two decades. He was not universally popular. Yet, Currie remained optimistic about the industry's future, as this short February interview shows:
Currie has strong supporters -- including Cincinnati Enquirer top editor Tom Callinan, who says in a comment today: "Before this thread dips below the home page and is lost to posterity: It is unfortunate that this good man who has done so much for so many and cared so deeply over the years is getting raked by anons who really do not know Phil. Say what you will about News 2000 and RLRN or whatever other Corporate program, Phil put readers first as well as the families of those of us who moved often. His legacy is rich with recruiting some very good journalists, advancing diversity and standing up for us when the bean-counters intruded into newsrooms."
Currie's legacy; what's next?
When I worked for the community newspapers, publishers did not dare hire an executive editor -- sometimes even a managing editor -- without Currie's blessing. He was a driving force behind Gannett's more hare-brained quality control programs -- from the original "News 2000," to "Real Life, Real News." Yet, his crowning achievement may be the now-failing Information Center business model, foisted on newspapers two years ago.
Kate Marymont will likely take on Currie's responsibilities, a shift expected since the former News-Press editor in Fort Myers, Fla., got promoted to Corporate earlier this year.
(Confidential to Currie: That you would reference Tennessean top editor Silverman in one of your final e-mails only confirms you haven't paid attention to what's been happening in the field.)
Earlier: More video favorites on my YouTube channel
Please post your thoughts in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Finally! For four decades, Currie has served as the point man for the diminution of journalism in the pursuit of profit. The dismantling of newsrooms, the inability to recruit and retain top talent and the pathetic reputation of Gannett newspapers were the products of Currie and his ilk. Gannett's $6 stock price pretty much serves as the legacy of Currie's tenure.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Kate Marymont.
ReplyDeleteHow is Kate to work for? I used to work for her when she was in Springfield. I liked her, and she was a good news person. Did she change as she climbed the ladder?
Joe, Moe, Curly, Curry, whatever. Just another in a long string of overpaid clueless white guys. These guys have a lot to answer for.
ReplyDeleteI've seen most of them come to visit ever since my community got occupied by Gannett. Every time, I walked away shaking my head and thinking: "What a bunch of slick peckerwoods." Most of them were guys I wouldn't buy aluminum siding or a used car from ... that is, back when I was still in the middle class and could afford stuff like that.
This is the best news of the day.... while I consider somewhat racist the "white guys" comment from the earlier poster, Currie ruined MANY careers in Gannett, so I am pleased to see him go, regardless of race and gender. He was a typical Gannett stuffed shirt... who thought the only solution to improving newsrooms was to make them more "diverse" irregardless of talent or ability.
ReplyDeleteAnother rat abandons the ship. Problem is the only part of the ship above the water is the flag atop the mast.
ReplyDelete4:56 -- Nice racist comment.
ReplyDelete5:19 pm: OK. How do you feel about the "overpaid, clueless" part?
ReplyDeleteI am just astounded that we're in such hot economic water when we've been doing News 2000, First Five Graphs, Real Life, Real News -- did I miss anything?
ReplyDeleteI am soooooooo happy. Am I wrong or is this the last of the Watson sycophants?
ReplyDeleteIt is truly amazing that Currie would quote Mark Silverman--easily one of the most despised managers in Gannett--in his farewell note. But then, Silverman has been Currie's thug of choice for years. Silverman did Currie's bidding in paper after paper.
ReplyDeleteThe news of Currie's departure and the fact that Gannett stock is a mere $6 a share leads me to ask: What is the point of continuing Gannett as a chain of newspapers? What do the newspapers in the company get out of being lashed together by corporate? Thousands of people are losing their retirement savings as the stock declines. The talents of many journalists are wasted on mind-numbing formulas dictated by Currie and company. Why SHOULD Gannett continue to exist? Why SHOULDN'T the papers be sold to local owners? Do the papers now get ANY benefit out of being tied to corporate?
ReplyDeleteI think Currie wants to cash out all of his GCI stock before it becomes a penny stock.
ReplyDelete5:51 pm: They get the purchasing power of a large company to buy cheaper newsprint and other supplies.
ReplyDeleteWhy does this have a Fort Collins tag?
ReplyDeleteSorry: That should have been a Fort Myers tag; it's now fixed.
ReplyDeletePhil - How does it feel to leave as a complete and utter failure, now mocked by those who were forced to do your bidding?
ReplyDeleteOk, I agree, Currie was a disaster. But hold your cheers, because there are a lot more just like him on the 10th and 11th floors. You will see that when this round of cuts is over, and some of the real talent is frog-marched to the nearest sidewalk. Currie was only reflecting the bottom-line policies of others.
ReplyDeletePoint of continuing Gannett as a chain? There are economies that of chains, such as having a consolidated purchasing and business department for all newspapers. You see the other reason for chains with the regionalization going on across GCI, as printing operations are consolidated into regional centers. The downside of the chain concept is the same that brought down the Soviet Union: central planning. Gannett not only stifles innovation at its newspapers, it stomps on it until the last ember dies. Over time, it also results in bloated and inefficient central offices dedicated to improving their own lives rather than that of the individual newspapers. Witness, the Crystal Palace, which really wasn't necessary because GCI was centrally located to fly the flag from its location on the Potomac River in Arlington, Va.
ReplyDelete5:27, you forgot Moments of Life ...
ReplyDeletecurrie's memo said:
ReplyDeleteI expect my last official day in the office will be Dec. 19. I approached Bob Dickey about this in October, and he left it to me to choose the time of the announcement. I choose now."
OF COURSE he's choosing to leave 12/31. there's probably some perk he'd miss out on if he were jettisoned right along with all the workerbees who'll be dumped by dec. 5 or so! why NOT milk gci for everything he can get?!?!
my i.d. word seems perfect here:
boopu
The company is more diverse because of Currie. He may have made or broken careers, but he was willing to take a risk on some people. This blog may devolve into giving him lashes overdue but Gannett newspapers are in better shape than many others. Mistakes clearly have been made, but there are many great journalist inside our company. He gets some credit for that. The others were assimilated.
ReplyDeleteWho can forget Penetration and Satisfaction? Not me. (ow)
ReplyDeleteI never understood how Currie lasted so long. I can't think of any of his initiatives that succeeded - and I don't think its a stretch to say most helped kill circulation, drive off talent and frustrate staff everytime a new directive came down.
ReplyDeleteI'm really hoping there are people who can explain why he wasn't tossed aside years ago.
People have some respect for a man who devoted his career to Gannett for over 40 years.
ReplyDeleteSay what you may, Phil is a solid person who has devoted his career to journalism.
It is disgusting that you would allow such trashing of a truly dedicated individual.
Phil, I haven't worked with you for that long, but I would like to wish you much success, health and happiness in your retirement.
Thank you for your service to Gannett.
About the worst thing that can be said of Phil Currie is that he was short-sighted and failed to recognize that the end of the line for newspapers was near when the Internet started breaking big 15 years ago.
ReplyDeleteHe wasn't evil. He was the good cop counterpart to Watson and Neuharth.
Currie deserves to curry no sympathy (ouch). He was king of the "flavor of the month" journalism initiative. It was all crap. Around the country, editors were drying, "Please Currie, just leave us alone and let us do our job!" But no, they were always sidetracked by one stupid plan after another... all just sideshows to what really matters - good, solid journalism. And he was a little dictator as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd his diveristy crap was just that. Please corporate by hiring ANYONE of color, take a staff shot and send it to corporate to show them how many minorities worked in the newsroom.
There is the story of one Ohio newspaper that had maybe 20 newsroom staffers in a community with may 3% percent minority population and 8 of the staffers were minority. I may be wrong about the numbers, but it was WAY over the community demographics! Overkill via Currie! Of course, it did no good to hire a minority worker who just became discouraged and quit after two months because he or she was just a "showpiece" for Arlington!
THAT was Currie's legacy - ruining careers AND discouraging minority journalists from ever wanting to stay in the business. Some legacy.
Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, Stuck in the middle with you. Yes I'm stuck in the middle with you.
ReplyDeleteJim, I know you just got a intern, will you be hiring again but for full time workers?
ReplyDeleteHere's my favorite Currie story: When CN was launching its Sunday edition in the '80s, a boatload of corporate types showed up in Bridgewater to get in the way and slow everything down and prevent anybody from getting anything done -- the usual.
ReplyDeleteSo the lead story was about the opening of a waste-to-energy plant that had been a massive controversy for years. A crowd was there, balloons were handed out, and we ended up with a nice colorful image for P1.
Good enough for Phil? No way. He personally rewrote the photo caption, the overline, the headline and the lead of the story so all contained the word "balloons." Because the readers (in an area by the way with some of the highest education levels in the country) couldn't understand the picture without FOUR pointers explaining what they were looking at.
That pretty much sums up the kind of weird, micro-managed and fruitless contributions he made to newspapers all over America.
9:12 pm: If you haven't worked with Currie "for that long,'' why are you so certain the criticism here is unwarranted?
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of hearing attacks against diversity in the newsroom. I'm a white woman. I have worked with many terrific reporters and editors of color. I've learned a lot from their perspective on the news and it's made me a better reporter, too.
ReplyDeleteAttack individuals for their incompetence -- but please don't attack diversity policies which encouraged lily-white newsrooms to finally integrate.
There is nothing wrong with diversity, but when mandatory quotas dictate under-qualified hires, the quality of the newspaper suffers. For that, Currie is responsible in that he required publishers to receive his OK on staff changes. One example: One newspaper hired a black female sports editor whose prior career was operating a funeral home with her husband. Does anyone believe that move was made without approval in Reston?
ReplyDeleteIf the point, of course, was just to integrate, then Currie succeeded. "He meant well" is a wonderful excuse for failure, and Gannett's "All-American" reports were simply a quota-system designed to force newsroon - not to welcome diversity of views and opinions - but to hire poorly qualified and unprepared neophite journalists who seldom stayed more than a month or two into newsroom where seasoned staffers resented them and thought they were "untouchable" tokens with little to do or contribute.
ReplyDeleteQualified minority journalists are in short supply, so they cost a lot to hire. But under Currie, Gannett didn't want to spend the big bucks, so the diversity-in-hiring program too often amounted to window-dressing designed to molify NABJ and other professional trade groups.
ReplyDeleteA reader sent the following to me in an e-mail; I'm posting it below:
ReplyDeleteAddition by subtraction. If Kate Marymount takes Phil's place, that will be a very good thing for LICs across the country. Maybe we can even call them newsrooms again without getting a nasty gram that we're not with the program.
Kate knows today's newsrooms and knows what it takes to get things done. This should be such a refreshing change from Phil, who spent 40+ years with Gannett, but only about 13 of those in newsrooms. Yet, he has been a career-maker, and career-breaker, for nearly three decades. Is it any wonder Gannett is rife with bobblehead editors who jumped every time Phil rolled out another asinine initiative?
While everyone is jumping to crucify Craig Dubow -- and rightfully so -- is Phil going to ride off into the sunset untarnished? News 2000, Real Life, Real News, and the Local Information Center concept are not only his legacy, they are programs that destroyed good newspapering nationwide and eroded our credibility in our marketplaces. Is it any wonder our stock price is in a death spiral?
Enjoy retirement, Phil. It's a Moment of Life you should have experienced a long time ago.
Has anyone ever had to sit through one of Currie’s deliveries of MLK’s I Have A Dream speech? I was trapped in one of those about 15 years ago, sitting at the end of the table farthest from the door. He went on and on, like a community theater over-actor. Such defiant insipidity! I understood at that time that he was hopping from site to site, giving his MLK speech. What was the point of that?
ReplyDeleteJim @ 11:36pm:
ReplyDeleteYes, I completely agree with your points about minority hiring. While we have had a couple successes, they have been outweighed by numerous not-ready-for-prime-timers. Bottom line is, if you're a minority and you ARE good, why would you ever work on one of GCI's smaller newspapers that pay poorly?
I guess you would if, maybe, your significant other was your supervisor's boss, and you could get away with writing only 1-3 stories a week?
I'm just saying.
To hell with forced diversity. To HELL with it. Not only does it force qualified journalists out of the business entirely because of the color of their skin or the fact that they have a penis, it also makes the local public distrustful of the newspaper once word gets out about the mandated quotas in both hiring and quantity of news coverage. (And the word always gets out.)
ReplyDeleteThe only acceptable criteria is whether or not you can do the job.
Thanks to union rules, many of us more recently hired [insert gender or racial slur here] will be on the layoff roster.
ReplyDeleteSo your chain-smoking police reporter, your child molesting high school sports reporter, your dumb-as-a-post council reporter, your drunk photojournalist will once again be white dick swingers.
Yup, the union got me a black president, and then made sure I was the first to get fired - by making sure that seniority, not talent, decided who gets the good beats and layoff protection.
Google Phil Currie and you'll find a lecture entitled "Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds." Makes as much sense as "Real Life, Real People, Real News, Real Moments" or whatever TF that was.
ReplyDeleteGannett defeats one benefit of being in a chain by charging more than the open market for things such as newsprint.
ReplyDeleteIf you're close enough to the top of your organization to find out, you'll be stunned to find out how much you're paying for Gannett News Service.
Gannett, like every other institution does eventually, has reach the point of self-preservation above all other concerns, including the best interests its individual properties.
Speaking of newsroom diversity, Gannett is behind the times once again. Does making a plan to axe, one way or another, anyone over 50 contribute or detract from a work population that truly reflects the served communities?
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced Gannett knows what diversity means.
As someone whose career was impacted by Currie and his pick of a far less qualified applicant, I won't miss him. In my decades in this business, I have never seen mediocrity rise to such a level as it has in the upper ranks of Gannett newsroom management, thanks in large part to Currie.
ReplyDeleteForty years with Gannett deserves respect, according to a poster earlier? Hell, no. Accomplishment, not longevity, earns respect.
There is nothing more racist in Gannett than the "All-American Review," where newspapers actually score points based on the number of minorities in their newsrooms and the number of times they picture them in the paper. We used to have a rule at one Gannett paper that required editors to ensure there was at least one mug shot of a minority on every 1A. It was so absurd, that reporters were often asked to "find a minority" they could add to their story so we could make the mug quota.
ReplyDeleteFor those who want to read about Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
http://www.eeoc.gov/types/race.html
11:39pm... that last line is priceless!
ReplyDeleteI always found Currie courteous, creative and knowledgeable. He did attempt to wrap some distasteful changes in sugar, so the push towards the Internet was wrapped in the shit to the local information centers. Real Life, Real News was an effort to get newspapers to concentrate on community news, or local, local. I also think there won't be any change if Marymount is the successor, because these directions are coming from outside of their circles, and they are only carrying the waters of others. We would have the shift to the Internet, and local, local without Currie's LICs and Real Life, Real News.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Phil's supporters could cite some specific cases where he really, truly defended a newsroom against draconian cuts -- and won.
ReplyDeleteBefore this thread dips below the home page and is lost to posterity: It is unfortunate that this good man who has done so much for so many and cared so deeply over the years is getting raked by anons who really do not know Phil. Say what you will about News 2000 and RLRN or whatever other corporate program, Phil put readers first as well as the families of those of us who moved often. His legacy is rich with recruiting some very good journalists, advancing diversity and standing up for us when the bean-counters intruded into newsrooms. All of us are sad and indeed angry about the current state of the craft we care about so deeply. But taking it out on this man is misguided. I stand by him, with my name proudly attached to this post.
ReplyDeleteLeave it up to one of Currie's most insipid hires, one of the worst editors in the United States, to try to lionize him. Callinan is every bit as lobotomized as Currie is when it comes to journalism and newsroom management. Callinan relishes having his own private john so he can minimize his daily encounters with the rank and file. Callinan doesn't read his own reporters' work, neither before or after it runs. He routinely comes up blank when it comes to names of those who aren't his favorites. He has a collection of president's rings only because he's so good at asking 'How high' when Gannett tells him to jump. We are talking someone who should have gone into data-entry work long ago.
ReplyDeleteHis legacy is rich with hiring people who have destroyed some fine newspapers, case in point the Des Moines Register.
ReplyDeleteWhere did Currie defend a newsroom from truly draconian cuts? USAT, Freep.
ReplyDeleteManagement wanted to impose draconian cuts in 2007, and was talked out of it by Currie and others. I actually think this was a mistake in retrospect. Had measured cuts been made in 2007, we would not be facing what will be truly devastating cuts next month that will be very difficult to accomodate.
ReplyDeleteI wish more Gannett managers had the guts to write comments here -- and sign their name. Callinan is the only one I know doing that.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Callinan: If Currie cared so much about newspaper staffs, why did he inflict jerks like Mark Silverman on several papers? Currie knows Silverman is abusive and has impaired judgment about people, yet he chose to shove him down the throats of the staffs of the Louisville Courier Jounal, The Detroit News and, now, the Nashville Tennessean.
ReplyDeletePoor guy.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't look too great in that video.
I wish him the best of luck in retirement.
What I find so priceless is just how fast all of you "enlightened and tollerant" liberal journalists begin to turn on each other when the chips are down... such racism by whites and blacks equally... my, my, my.
ReplyDeleteDiversity apparently didn't do much to change the social atmospheres in our newsrooms, it seems.....
and of course, Gannett's dirty little secret always was that the LEAST diverse newsrooms were the large metro papers such as Detroit, Incy, Cincy and Louisville, and on...
I just love to hear how truly racists many of you really are! My, my my!
Having "run into" so many of the "chosen few" editors that Currie favored - Bob Garboni, that woman who has been at 20 papers the last few years...??? and seems to walk on water with gannett, Silberman (what a jerk. I met him at one of those Reston meeting and he truly was in love with his own voice,) and Callahan, it is sad that his pettiness and lack of understanding of newspapers ruined so many. Cared about our families????? When did Currie ever care about my family???? If you are an EE outside of his little gang of kiss-ups, you did not exist - maybe that was actually a good thing.... but he did NOTHING to stand up for our newspapers in places like Wisc., Indiana and Ohio. They became jokes under Gannett.
ReplyDeletePlease, if you are a Currie lover, just keep it to yourself....
Hiring someone for a position based on their skin color or forcing sources into a story who have no real relevance simply because a diversity quota must be met is racist.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are under the leadership of someone you know is not qualified to work as a copy editor at a weekly newspaper, you begin to wonder why they were selected for the position. If race is the answer, black or white, then it's unfair.
Racism and reverse racism exist.
I thought that the federal government had rules against hiring people based on their race, so when Gannett admits that is one of its criteria, it just seems like a blatant violation of law. I mean, they don't even let people mention things like that in classified advertisements.
over the years, several talented journalists of color came through indy on their way to better-paying, less regimented jobs elsewhere.
ReplyDeletei enjoyed knowing them while they were around, but wished them godspeed when they got a chance to work somewhere other than in gannett hell. but while they were there, the paper was more interesting to read.
what's wrong with gannett's diversity efforts is that they -- like everything else in gannett -- are done on the cheap and with the idea that all writers are interchangeable widgets; all photographers, ditto; same for copy editors. so send someone who's done very well on a central city beat out to fill a "diversity gap" in the suburbs just so there's a darker face in the sea of white. that's not diversity, that's tokenism.
I don't understand how race equals diversity. That's like assuming that everyone who is white brings to the table a certain set of "white" ideas and everyone who is black brings a certain set of "black" ideas and aren't aware or intelligent enough to think outside the little stereotypical boxes that Gannett employers have placed them in. Equating race with diversity seems racist.
ReplyDeleteIn my 20 years in Gannett, I was often told in annual performance reviews that I was a leader in getting more diversity into my news stories -- and I'm a (now 51-year-old) white guy.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, being told to put more minorities into stories, graphics, etc., IMPROVED the content of my work, because it forced me to find new sources. Those sources, in turn, provided different ideas and perspectives.
Having said that, I hated the cookie-cutter/nickel-and-dime/windowdressing approach to mainstreaming and diversity that Gannett imposed on its newsrooms. It was too often insulting to the very minority communities we were trying to reach.
It's like assuming all people over a certain age think and behave the very same way.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad pathetic thread this is.
ReplyDeleteI'm proud Gannett cared about diversity. If you don't push for it, it doesn't happen. In the newsroom or in the newspaper.
Jim's continued railing against the necessarily flawed effort to open newsrooms to the community sicken me. A gay man upset with efforts to help the 'other.'
Self loathing indeed.
Phil Currie's legacy is not without flaws, but he tried. I respect him and wish him best wishes.
As for Hopkins, why not join the Log Cabin? Bah.
I just love this thread - it proves just how petty and divisive the gannett elite really are when push comes to shove. I love all the fighting and bickering at all these sites among the "enlightened" Gannett media... and soon to be unemployed Gannett media. As an ex-Gannetter who spent tooooo many years with the company, I of course hate this company, as ALL former ruined workers at Ganett should!
ReplyDeleteSeeing these racist comments warms my heart! Ha!
Don't get sick on my account; I've never railed against any "necessarily flawed'' effort; those are your words. Rather, I've OCCASIONALLY criticized what has been a chronically underfunded program.
ReplyDeleteBesides, what is it about Gannett's diversity efforts that is "necessarily" flawed?
Also, for those wondering, the writer's reference is to the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay political conservatives. I would best be described as politically independent; for that and many other reasons, I don't belong to the Log Cabin group.
For the writer, however, diversity is great -- so long as it's left-leaning political diversity, apparently.
Hopkins has not 'occasionally' posted about diversity, but has consistently and repeatedly chimed in with 'atta boy' anytime any of our less restrained posters start some even more racist diatribe here.
ReplyDeleteBy flawed, I mean any effort to increase the rightful representation in a newsroom is going to be clumsy at times or even unfair now and then. But so is hiring the publisher's relative.
Rather than a voice of reason and sensibility Jim signals time and again that undesrving minorities are somehow partly to blame for our woes.
And like all deniers, his responses are always 'huh? Me?'
Criticism of Gannett's diversity program is fine. But not once has Hopkins endorsed the goal or even the need, and that is unforgivable and very telling.
Jim - in the original post referencing Silverman's bullying, the link to the original story at Nashville Scene has gone bad. I can't even find a cached copy of the story through Google. The only reference I could find is a follow-up from Scene referencing an incident where Silverman apparently threw a newspaper at the features editor. Is that the bullying you were referring to? Could you provide some additional details?
ReplyDeleteFor the uninitiated, when I worked for Gannett from 1987-2008, the newsroom diversity programs consisted of four main elements:
ReplyDelete1. Getting more pictures of, and quotes from, the widest possible number of demographic groups -- then including those pictures/quotes in everyday stories, photos and graphics. So: disabled folks, senior citizens, gays, immigrants, teenagers, etc. -- anyone we perceived to be historically underrepresented in the news pages.
2. A subset of this was called "mainstreaming." This entails including pictures of, and quotes from, a narrower group of exactly four Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-determined racial/ethnic demographic groups: blacks, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics. For example: An Hispanic senior citizen would count because they were Hispanic, but not because of their age.
Most important, for it to be proper mainstreaming, these photos/quotes had to appear in stories that weren't normally associated with these groups.
So, for example, a story quoting an Asian woman about the financial crisis would be mainstreaming. A story quoting an Asian woman about Asians growing politically active would not be considered mainstreaming. (But it would count as diversity.)
3. Gannett's "All American Contest" measured individual papers' efforts at achieving diversity/mainstreaming in news content -- and in newsroom hiring, retention and promotion.
Assuming the All American Contest hasn't changed, papers are also measured on newsroom employment: What percentage of all newsroom professionals (those above the level of, say, clerk) are black, Asian, Native American and Hispanic? How does that share compare with the overall share of minorities in the local community? (If the community is 14% minority, the newsroom would be expected to be at least 14% minority.)
4. Bonuses/raises for publishers/editors. I believe -- but I could be wrong -- that management's annual bonuses and raises are tied to how well their newspapers score on the All American contest and associated rankings.
How do I know all this? Among other reasons, I spent nearly two years packaging All American Contest entries at the Idaho Statesman in Boise.
I've served on diversity committees.
Also, on my own initiative, I developed a diversity-in-news training class for USA Today news employees. With management's encouragement, I taught the class at the main office in McLean, Va., plus the bureaus in San Francisco, Washington and New York City.
Finally, I literally wrote the chapter on diversity in news for a handbook published for new USAT employees -- again, at management's request.
Now, 4:42 pm: What have YOU done?
I'm another Currie hater.
ReplyDeleteWhen we needed him most -- ie the last six years -- he's accomplished nothing useful.
The upside: Odds are that the next person will be more useful.
You sure paint with a broad brush, 5:05 pm!
ReplyDeletePlease point to any comments where, as you claim, I "repeatedly chimed in with 'atta boy'" when readers here started a "racist diatribe.''
Also, please point to any comments where I suggested that "undeserving minorities are somehow partly to blame for our woes."
Finally, you say that "not once'' have I "endorsed the goal or even the need" for diversity programs. I believe you missed the following, from a post I wrote in April called, "After decades of diversity, looking for reader gains." In particular, I wrote:
"The premise behind news diversity seems simple: A more diverse staff produces more varied news. That, in turn, should attract more readers who 'see' themselves more frequently online and in print. On paper, that sounds smart. My beef is that I've never seen rigorous research showing that readership rates correlate with improvements in diversity. I've also never seen research showing that a more diverse staff necessarily leads to more variety in news coverage." You can read the full post at: http://tinyurl.com/4j4g7n
That may not be your idea of an endorsement. But, then, I'm a journalist, and that means I view everything a bit skeptically. Tell me something is a good thing, and I'll always ask for evidence.
5:14 pm: I particularly had in mind his year-long reign of terror in Louisville, from about 1996-97.
ReplyDelete2:18 those were my thoughts too. Boy oh boy racism running rampant. Shame on some of you.
ReplyDeleteWell, unless I got screwed out of my bonus by my former scurrilous publisher (which is possible, the worm) there was NO bonus for obtaining or exceeding diversity numbers in newsroom employment. My minoritiy employment in the newsroom was like EIGHT times the percentage of minority in the community. And I didn't get a dime of bonus!
ReplyDeleteI really think they're going to dismantle the newspaper division and Currie is leaving because he doesn't want to be the one wielding the axe, (but hey, Silverman might want to come back and do it - that's right up his alley). I found Phil personable when I worked at Gannett and I'm sad to see him go, but with no one at the helm as you guys head in to massive layoffs it makes me wonder a couple of things. First, who will now head GNS? They have no executive editor and now, no newspaper division head who oversaw its operations. And secondly, why assume Marymount will take over for Phil? A replacement is not necessary when the division is going to be shuttered or at least scaled back.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least Phil will likely have a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year - the rest of you are SOL. Looks like somebody made a smart move by jumping ship before it sinks completely - $6 a share? SMH.
Mr. Callinan, I second 1:36's comments and ask the same thing: If Phil Currie and others gave a damn about employees, why did they allow an investigation into bullying by Skip Hidlay to be swept under the rug? Why do they allow him to continue this behavior yet subject the people he left behind at the APP to "Hostile Workplace" training? It's very hard to believe that corporate gives a damn about us with people like him being allowed to make hit lists based on who he likes and doesn't like.
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing for Phil is that his buyout is FOUR weeks for every year of service, so, he will be on the payroll for a long, long time.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting 11:30. Some folks at CN thought those hostile work environment workshops were because of the recently departed publisher (who, by the way, was NOT the reason for CN's demise).
ReplyDeleteAs a former Gannett employee who served on an early News 2000 committee and worked on All American entries at several newspapers, I see Currie's retirement as a blessing for the remaining journalitst employed at Gannett newspapers.
ReplyDeleteThe more the corporation, and Currie, forced the newspapers to become cookie cutter versions of one another, the worse they became.
The "initiatives" we were dragged through dulled employees' innovation and initiative. A person can only be beaten down so many times before their desire to do something different retreats completely.
The best thing Gannett could do to save journalism would be to repeal all the phony "ideas" and programs and hand the running of the newspapers back to the second line editors who are better tuned into what local readers like and want.
Tell the publishers, here's your newspaper back. Make a profit. Send us the money. And then get out of the way.
The turnaround, I believe, would be remarkable.
It was me who made the comment about clueless white guys. I happen to be a white guy myself, but regardless of my skin color, there was nothing racist about what I wrote. Doesn't anybody else find it startling that all the top executives of this company are and always have been white guys and a couple white girls? This is the company that would have us believe it is Diversity Central. Yet the millionaire/corporate jet-level execs are about as diverse as a country club in Alabama in 1960: white, almost entirely male, christian and heterosexual. Gannett doesn't look like America. It looks more like pre-Mandela South Africa. And unfortunately, it's about as well-managed.
ReplyDeleteGood or bad manager, I'll bet this guy is sad about what's become of the industry. How could anyone not be?
ReplyDelete11:11 a.m. you are so right. The question, however, is do enough people remain at any of the community papers who've been there long enough to really understand what makes the community tick? I know that the paper I was at has lost so much of its link to the community that rebuilding what it used to be may be out of the question.
ReplyDeleteThat's so like Callinan to praise an exec such as Currie yet not have any inkling of the talent that's going to be walking out the door in the next month in Cincinnati, or walked out in September after the buyouts.
ReplyDelete@5:58. You got that right. At the cookies-and-punch get-together for the 15 journos who took buyouts in Sept., Callinan make some kind of so-long address that was totally embarrassing because he could not recognize at least four of the departees on sight. He didn't even bother to get a list of names so he could fake it.
ReplyDeleteIf I were fortunate enough to attend Phil Currie’s retirement party, I’d heap upon his weary shoulders roses and champagne. He has served Gannett, newspaper editors and newspaper readers very well. And, contrary to a lot of what I have read here today, he has done as much as anybody in America to support and encourage the freedoms of the First Amendment in a corporate setting.
ReplyDeleteThat’s not an easy job, people. You editors who have had to choose between “journalistic integrity” and the dwindling bottom line know well of what I speak. You, too, virtually without fail, have accommodated advertising needs even while the blood seeped from the lips wedged between your teeth. Phil, I firmly believe, kept that accommodation are far from us in the field as anybody could have done so.
Regardless, the world changed. And the First Amendment, which always depended upon another sacred democratic principle for survival (free enterprise), is unbelievably susceptible to that change; and to our ability to anticipate and react to change.
God bless you men and women who now are suffering the brunt of this evolution in the information industry. I think Gannett is working hard to take advantage of this new paradigm. Some had encouraged more action earlier, but for whatever reason (and I could point poison fingers, too) it did not happen. I’m not prepared to abandon the company because I think it ultimately will succeed. I pray that it does, because if newspapers, or some semblance thereof, don’t exist, will the First Amendment?
I am retired. But I am not dead. I need the information that newspapers provide, although they “don’t do it like I would do it.” But I worked as a reporter and editor and publisher for Gannett for almost 30 years, and I know that the company did good. Phil Currie was the architect of that good and I wish him well.
p.s. "Damshark" is Dan Martin.
ReplyDeleteDamshark must like newspapers that are dull and bland. Who is he kidding. If Currie wasn't able to use whatever influence he had to promote excellence over Gannett's pervasive mediocrity, he should have stepped aside so someone else could have given it a shot. Better to have a son of a bitch with great news judgment and an eye for talent than a nice guy leading everyone to believe he was a great newsman.
ReplyDeleteWell, I've avoided reading all of this and certainly commenting until today I couldn't stand it anymore. I owe much to Phil Currie, and the least I can do is stand up publicly and thank him.
ReplyDeleteReaders in every Gannett community can thank Phil Currie. Regardless of how we have changed in the way we deliver information, Phil Currie has remained the soul, the champion of the eternal values of good journalism -- public service, fairness, relevance, diversity. Phil never stopped trying to help us make our newspapers better. All of us should hope that we have work that we love and passion for that work for so much of our lives. And Phil is a good man, truly with the interests of Gannett employees at heart. As I have learned humbly over the years, you can never judge how a person has done their job unless you have tried to do it yourself. Few know all the ways Phil has championed and fought for his newsrooms and for journalism. I am better for having known him all these years.
Phil, congratulations on an incredible career, thank you from the bottom of my heart, and all my best wishes for this next stage of your life.
I work at a mid sized paper and I am a middle manager. This means I have to both produce and manage a staff. I have sat through plenty of site visits with Phil and I have to say he was good for the company. The core of his ideas was sound. It is unfortunate that the ever increasing pressure to produce revenue got in the way of a lot of these.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Tom Callinan was one of the better editors I have worked for in my 25 plus years in Gannett. It saddens me that these tough times is bringing out the worst in people. Lets be thankful for the houses that our Gannett paychecks have bought, the health benefits we have received when we really needed them and the education we were able to provide our children because of our jobs.
It is so easy to bite the had that feeds you.
10-4
Dan Martin, I liked you when you were publisher at the C-P. I always thought you were a good news man. Looking back, I think those were some of the paper's best days. I was sorry to see you retire.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you still care about us. (from one of your former reporters who may get the pink slip next week.)
To Courier-Post anonymous: Thanks for your kind words. I had a ball at the C-P because of the quality and talent of the people I worked with. I especially had fun working with the editorial staff and humbling often that giant competitor across the river. I guess that's why I'm confused about these moans of dull and lifeless papers and attempts to lay this at Phil Currie's door. As I recall, the liveliness and excitement began at home, not at corporate. I remember standing on the banks of the Delaware River and watching that giant warship, the New Jersey, slip nack into its' home berth in Camden -- a gift of the C-P news staff to its community. Sent chills up my spine. I remember those political crooks who cooled their heels in jail cells courtesy of the C-P's journalism. They didn't see anything lifeless and dull about the reporting that got them there. I wish that newsrooms were somehow vaccinated against sick bottom lines. Truth is, nothing is. Words are hollow at this time, but thanks and good luck anyway.
ReplyDeleteHey Dan,
ReplyDeleteI remember bringing home the New Jersey. That was an awesome thing to witness. Thousands of readers were there along with us that day, a testament to the power of the written word. Thanks for the reminder. It's been a great ride.
Kim (The Conqueror of Bayonne) Mulford: Everytime I pass Bayonne I sniff the air for that sewer stench you wrote about. They must still revile you there, which is good: You can tell the best reporters by the quality of their enemies. Fight on!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI just removed a comment in which a reader accused someone by name of serious improprieties. Please do not do that, unless you can provide evidence.
ReplyDeleteI love the smell of anonymous back-biting in the morning. It smells like...the Fourth Estate. It seems like I had a habit of always leaving a particular daily just before Gannett laid its "nett" down. Alas, I was finally caught - after going to work for what seemed like a nice, decent-paying mom-and-pop daily when shazam: Gannett personnel literally seemed to come from the sky, sliding down long ropes right into the newsroom. Naturally, they had the mom-and-pop publisher handle all the details, a sunny smile on his face, nobody's gonna get fired, things will be just great, etc...Once that crap was finished, the publisher and his wife suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again. These people had been very good to me. I tried to find them, but it was as it they never existed. And even after working harder than I've ever had before in my life - and actually enjoying much of it - I copped an Employee of the Year award. But the ethics, the double-standards, etc. I just couldn't take it anymore. I finally got so annoyed I quit without notice three months after winning the award. When newspapers quit being the proverbial watchdog of the community, what function do they really serve? Unless people can't live without getting the night's previous 11 o'clock news on the front page of their local daily, what's the bloody point?
ReplyDeleteJust heard the news about Currie. This guy was your ally one minute, your enemy the next. He sold more editors down the river than you can imagine, all in an effort to save his own ass and to endear himself to other greedy Gannettoids. What a two-face!
ReplyDeleteFrom Phil Currie to Mike Blecha Green Bay, March 5, 1985: "I noticed in your report to your editor, you said you'd like to have a copy of John Bremner's Words on Words in you office. It just so happens we ordered some and have a few extra. I'm including one with this note. No charge?
ReplyDeleteI just purchased a used copy of that book and somewhere from in the middle, that note dropped out.
Haven't heard any of the complainers mention the man was stingy and maybe things were more pleasant in 1985. Oh, yes, as copy of the note was sent to Ken Paulson.
I never liked anonymous wordsmiths. My name is Kenneth Myron Bonnell