Following is the text of a letter I've sent to the presiding director of the Gannett board of directors, regarding recent events associated with the Gannett Foundation.
Dec. 23, 2008
Karen Hastie Williams
Presiding director
Gannett Co. Inc.
Crowell & Moring
1001 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20004-2595
Via e-mail
Director Williams:
Yesterday, I sent a letter to Barbara Wall, chief ethics officer for the Gannett Co. Inc., with a request that she forward it to you. Ms. Wall has not confirmed receipt of my letter, so I am now sending it directly to you.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
13 comments:
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Jim - Good luck getting anything from the board, either!
ReplyDeleteWhat really amazes me is the fact that the Foundation money spending is such an insult to the rank and file Gannett employee who has no such access to funds for their children, since the scholarship money appears so limited.
Is there ANY WAY that these facts about Gannett spending be made available to ALL Gannett employees. I am sure they would be outraged with Dew-bow and Co. greed and self-padding!
can this mess be reported directly to the irs? and is there maybe a reward that could help support g'blog?
ReplyDeleteThe board’s fiduciary responsibility seems to make this a matter which they can’t avoid.
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, it’s hard to believe that the SEC, IRS and WSJ wouldn’t be interested in this either as Dubow’s actions certainly have provided enough “red meat” for more than a few regulators, etc. to sink their teeth into.
If Spitzer’s not ready for a comeback, then perhaps Cuomo is listening.
Good work Jim. Here are other directors and senior executives that should receive this letter:
ReplyDelete1. John Jeffrey Louis
2. Neal Shapiro
3. Howard Elias
4. Scott McCune
5. Arthur Harper
6. Donna Shalala
7. Duncan McFarland
8. Marjorie Magner
9. Doug McCorkindale
All of these directors should question Craig Dubow about this unethical behavior.
Craig Dubow was issued 100,000 Restricted Stock Units on December 12, 2008. That is $750,000 of "free money" given to this lame ass of a CEO. This board of directors are a bunch of "fuck-ups". Who is running the show over there? Do they not see that the executive management team, the sr. management team, the entire employee base of Gannett think that he and Gracia Martore should go? They have all lost confidence in him.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteYou spend entirely too much time patting yourself on the back. Ego problems?
Here's a thought for ya.
ReplyDeleteCraig et al should transfer ALL the Gannett properties to the Foundation, and then sell them off.
That would benefit Craig & his cronies by giving them lots of money to play with. Forty thousand dollars is chump change compared to what a bunch of cash cows could bring in at a sale.
And it would benefit Gannett's now-former employees by placing them under the ownership of somebody who actually gives a fuck about journalism and the communities they serve. Man, even GateHouse looks good these days.
The IRS has Form 3949 A Information Referral. Jim, here's a couple links for you:
ReplyDeleteHow Do You Report Suspected Tax Fraud Activity?
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=106778,00.html
and the form itself:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3949a.pdf
That can be your Christmas gift to all the Gannettoids, LOL.
Gannett's BOD has no fiduciary responsibility over the GF. Regardless of the relationship between Gannett and the GF...
ReplyDelete12:02 am. The board has a duty to watch over company assets on behalf of the shareholders. Those assets include the newspapers that Gannett's CEO has been giving to the foundation -- where they are then sold, to fund among other things, the management grants program.
ReplyDeleteTo follow your logic, the foundation would then be constitute a private interest, subject to the same conflict of interest rules that say:
A “conflict of interest” exists when a person’s private interest interferes in any way with the interests of the Company. A conflict situation can arise when a director, officer or employee takes actions or has interests that may make it difficult to perform his or her Company work objectively and effectively. Conflicts of interest also arise when a director, officer or employee, or members of his or her family, receives improper personal benefits as a result of his or her position with the Company.
8:52 pm: Really? Maybe you're right. Could you cite five recent examples?
ReplyDeleteYou can complain about the donation. You might even have good points. But as long as the approved policy has been followed, you don't have a beef.
ReplyDeleteThese things have all been apprcved by the Board, so complaining to them could only get approved policies changed in the future. Big deal.
I am often amazed at the misinformation on the blog. I guess people are natural inquisitive. Reporters are that way. But at my company (I am a former Gannettoid) we have a similar program for top executives and the Board. They can endow scholarships to anyone they want. That's a perk of management, one of the few that are left.
In these kind of things it's important to look at all aspects of things. Like the proxy reported that country clubs for executives were eliminated, and most home security systems. You don't read this here, but it's fact in the proxy.
As for the IRS, this is a joke. Maybe you should report to homeland security, or the department of education. You would get the same response. It's an approved policy so as long as rules are followed there isn't an issue.
11:53,
ReplyDeleteEven if there's no legal issue here - and the only reason that is still up in the air is because Gannett ain't talking, except for the poor woman whose job it is to administer the Foundation funds, who apparently doesn't know anything - it still stinks to high heaven.
I've got a damn beef, and so should every conscientious shareholder. In selling the newspapers to fund the Foundation, they're saying that those papers are less important than the work the Foundation does. That might be OK if the Foundation were doing anything beyond handing out backpatting grants on behalf of the top executives, who don't have to play by the same rules as the rest of us. It might be OK if the Foundation were giving out grants to support Gannett employees and the communities where they live. It might be OK if it were doing anything beyond naming scholarships after top executives and giving money to select schools and colleges.
If Dubow or Connell can explain just how the money to WCU supports the mission of the Foundation, then I might go along with your kiss-ass line of reasoning. But they can't. They're using it to supplement their own tiny donations from their huge salaries, getting personal credit for money raided from the corporate account.
IT'S NOT THEIR FUCKING PLAY MONOPOLY MONEY. Foundation funds are supposed to serve a greater purpose beyond giving Craig cachet at his country club.
THAT'S my damn beef.
Sorry about the profanity, but this is perhaps pissing me off more than the fact that these assholes can't run the company properly.
They're running the company - and our careers - into the ground while strutting around and playing Big Executive On Campus. Fuck them.
And for those who say this is an accepted practice and common corporate perk, I say: Why is that? And does that make what they're doing right?
We are in a new age of business these days, folks. If you try to talk out of both sides of your mouth, preaching austerity while living large yourself, you're gonna get fucking caught and publicly humiliated, because people have come to realize that's not right, in a very fundamental sense. That's what Jim has done, and I applaud him for it. I just wish I had an extra couple thousand bucks to send his way. I'd send him my holiday bonus this year if I were getting one.
Sincerely,
Pissed Off