[Good ol' boys: Neuharth, Paulson, Overby]
Big Al's Billionaire Boys Club is alive and well. Look no further than the mini-bombshell Freedom Forum dropped on Gannett yesterday: The foundation named Ken Paulson to its No. 2 job -- establishing the top USA Today editor as front runner to succeed longtime Neuharth retainer Charles Overby in one of journalism's most lucrative jobs. At 84, wily Neuharth is once more showing us who's really linked in.
Under this succession scenario, Paulson, 55, is replacing another long-time Neuharth hand, Peter Prichard (left), as president and chief operating officer of the non-profit free-press foundation and its best-known project, the Newseum news museum, starting Feb. 1.Prichard, 65, is getting eased aside -- "hastily,'' according to Anonymous@2:20 p.m., who wrote: "Prichard suddenly found out he's going to be doing special projects for the next year before his planned retirement, so room will be made for Paulson to take over. Curious development, because I thought there was supposed to be an arms-length between foundations and the organizations that fund them. Short arms, I guess."
Overby is 61, according to Corrections Corporation of America, the for-profit prison chain in Nashville, Tenn., where he moonlights as a director. (Seriously!) If Freedom Forum's mandatory retirement age were 65, that would give Paulson about four years to figure out what to do with that $450 million monument to the 5-foot-six Neuharth.
Paulson is arriving at a tough time: Freedom Forum's endowment has plunged 25% amid the Wall Street Crisis -- to $450 million from $600 million. That prompted the Newseum to reduce its 250-member staff last month by 10%.
Boy's club pay: $400KBut really, what's amazing about this is how shockingly naked Freedom Forum continues to be in finding ways to employ Gannett executives when they get in a jam, or just can't bear the thought of retirement in the sleepy Virginia countryside. Al's Annuity, indeed!
And we're talking high-paying jobs, too! Prichard, who like Paulson also was USAT's top editor, knocked down nearly $400,000 in 2007, with benefits and an expense account, according to the foundation's public tax return. Overby got $523,000, including benefits and expenses. (And no worthless Gannett stock options, either.)
Paulson ran Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center in 1997 -2004, before landing at USA Today. But he and Neuharth go way back to Big Al's 1980s Playboy days -- when the sharkskin-suited executive was Gannett's big-spending, globe-trotting CEO, and Paulson was his chief of staff. "No one should be surprised by the Paulson news,'' wrote Anonymous@10:26 p.m. "Al Neuharth runs the Freedom Forum. Ken's been attached to Al's hip ever since he was on BusCapade with Al back in the late-1980's."
Well-connected trustees
Neuharth's actual Freedom Forum duties and authority are a bit of a mystery. His official bio gives this title: founder and senior advisory chairman. He and Paulson are both members of a board of trustees that Neuharth has astutely packed with allies, including his daughter, Jan Neuharth. Among the brand-name trustees: Former Sen. Tom Daschle (left) of South Dakota; President-elect Obama just nominated him to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.In 2007, as near as I can tell, Neuharth wasn't paid a dime for any work at the foundation, which is devoted to advancing free speech and a free press. But the year before, he was paid $425,545. And I can't see any discernible difference in his duties.
(But let's be nice to Al. After all, Boom-Z-Boom said, "living without me for the rest of his life is punishment enough.")
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[Image: today's USAT front page, Newseum]
80s Neuharth looks like Jack Woltz. "And let me be even more frank, just to show you that I'm not a hard-hearted man, and it's not all dollars and cents!"
ReplyDeleteHmmm, do we think Big Al's had some Botox there? Other work?
ReplyDeleteDon't dis Tom Daschle ...
ReplyDeleteHe's a good man.
Dascle a good man??
ReplyDeleteYOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING.
He and all the left leaning lib democrats are what is wrong with this country.
His nose is so far up Barry's ass that you can't tell where one starts and one ends.
10:11 You're crude and
ReplyDeleteworst of all
WRONG.
No I am not wrong and you must be a lib.
ReplyDeletePaulson is being given a poisoned chalice with this assignment. The Freedom Forum is on its last legs, having spent the lion's share of its reserves on this Pennsylvania Avenue project. Yes, it is beautiful, but it is very costly to run and there are not enough tourists willing to pay $20 a ticket to see it. We will see the results of this when the foundation files its 1099 forms, and I believe they are going to show some horrible results. Not only has the stock market collapsed, but the expenses of the Newseum have soared. I would not be surprised to learn the Foundation is bankrupt, and there is no tax advantage for GCI to pony up more money for this charity at this point, when GCI itself is in troubled waters.
ReplyDeleteGannett is not affilioated with the Freedom Forum or First AMendment center. ASA 10:26 said in another post Neuharth highjacked the foundation and took it over to build a monument to himself.
ReplyDeleteBelly up to the bar boys and don't weep for Al.
ReplyDeleteHe is deity in this earthly realm; but I too command the fates. We will be reunited in Cyberspace.
So shall it be written. So shall it be so.
Long live Naja and Neuharth.
Can she command Gannett to give us our jobs back?
ReplyDelete