I have been informed of an extraordinary power shift at the nation's top-circulation newspaper: Publisher Craig Moon, 59 (left), has just announced his retirement, effective April 17, in a memo sent to employees moments ago. Now, confirmed: Here's Corporate's statement. But there's no mention of a replacement.Moon's departure after six years as chief executive of Gannett's marquee brand followed steep advertising sales declines during the early part of this quarter vs. a year ago. His exit means the paper's two top jobs are now in play: Editor Ken Paulson has yet to be replaced since his departure at the end of January for Freedom Forum foundation.
Big, scary question: What does this say about early results from Detroit's big home-delivery pullback yesterday? The Detroit Media Partnership is part of his portfolio; the rest: USA Weekend, Gannett Offset and the Military Times operation, GCI's statement says.
Text of Moon retirement memo
To: USA TODAY Employees
Fr: Craig A. Moon
After 23 years with Gannett and six years as your president and publisher, I will be retiring on April 17, 2009.
I am thankful to have been afforded the opportunity to represent one of the strongest and most recognizable national brands in the USA and to have worked with some of the smartest, most engaged and passionate folks in the industry. I will carry forward a multitude of memories and life experiences I would not have otherwise benefited from without my association with you and the incredible USA TODAY brand.
Certainly the timing of my retirement coincides with industry challenges. The changing media environment and the recession are creating new opportunities. I am bullish on possibilities to adjust the business models and adapt new mindsets which could lead to the industry becoming a growth business once again.
Please remember, USA TODAY the brand and all of you in the short term will be challenged … but in the long term – you will come out on top. The brand is actually bigger than the business and that’s good. USA TODAY history plays to innovation – just look at the success of the new iPhone application. Because you are flexible, willing to take risks, understand new technology and are not stuck in the past … you are better than the competition.
Today’s business environment will require frequent operational adjustments. Opportunities have been created. Regardless of how good new ideas may be, many will not work. While some of the results are being affected by systemic media changes, much is recession related which should recover and the brand will build back into a growth model as long as you continue to move ahead during the recession.
I’d like to leave you with some important foundational points … Ÿ the brand’s success is built on the consumer’s preference and the relevant value you create Ÿ business travelers find value in your work Ÿ the business is about content regardless of the platform or delivery mechanism Ÿ USATODAY.com audience is growing and leads in the Mobile arena Ÿ foundations for new businesses in licensing Ÿ hotel products, eReaders and a host of new partnership opportunities are available for the brand to capitalize on.
It has been my pleasure to work with each and every one of you. I will miss the collaborating efforts of this extraordinary USA TODAY team.
All the best,
Craig A. Moon
Don't just sit there with your mouth hanging open! What's next?! Post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
Moon has been a disaster as head of USAT. It has been a regime of nothing but cutbacks, eliminating overseas offices, eliminating Hawaii and Alaska, eliminating smaller cities. USA Today is a much reduced product, thanks to Moon's penny pinching. Now the cows are coming home, he leaves with a plussed-up pension and to a life of comfort doing nothing. What a moron he was.
ReplyDeleteIf Moon had said "brand" one more time in his memo, I was going to puke.
ReplyDeleteAt what point did GCI cease being a news outfit and become a brand?
The timing of this annoucement is interesting. Dumbo and Moon go to Detroit on Monday, Moon announces retirement on Tuesday less then 3 weeks notice.
ReplyDeleteLong overdue purge of underperformers, in my opinion. At 59, Moon was at least six years from retirement, so he's going to have to live off his GCI stocks for a few years before Social Security kicks in. The implications of this, however, are much broader. There are a whole load of USAT managers now trembling in their cozy sinecures waiting for the shoe to drop on them. This operation is loaded with loafing, ignorant and do-nothing supervisors in desparate need of thinning out. Now there is no Moon and Paulson to protect them.
ReplyDeleteWho will replace Moon?
ReplyDeleteSo, let's get this straight:
ReplyDelete-- Moon got his butt handed to him in Little Rock and was rewarded with . . .
-- The Tennessean, where he successfully demolished the last of the Sigenthaler era for which he was rewarded with . . .
-- USAToday, where he pinched and pinched and pinched just as they were making serious headway as being a national player.
And for this, he'll retire to a life of luxury.
Awesome.
It's just silly to lay USAT's cutbacks at Moon's feet; like every other paper, it's been taking it in the shorts for a while and he just had to be the guy who made the tough choices.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fanboy -- I never heard him say Word One about the importance of USAT's journalism, for example, and I think a lot less of him for that -- but I suspect his replacement is going to be much, much, much worse.
If you people had any clue what you were talking about, you'd know that this is not good news in the least.
ReplyDeleteBring on the hatchet man. A general purging of USAT is now at hand.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Moon furlough?
ReplyDeleteAgree with 11:49 and 11:53: cutbacks at USAT have been Moon's execution of orders from the top. This is bad news all the way around.
ReplyDeleteVERY interesting timing. Pulitzers are announced around that time. What better time to anoint Detroit editor Paul Anger as USAT chief?
ReplyDeleteHis paper will likely have won a public-service prize for reporting on the mayoral scandal.
And he'll likely want to get away from Project Sunken Ship.
Could this be what they've been saving Kate Marymont for -- to be the new publisher of USA Today? With Tara Connell's new position, Marymont's old job is superfluous.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, weren't there rumblings that Moon had issues with ContentOne? Maybe that has as much to do with timing as does the Detroit experiment.
ReplyDeleteAnything that reduces the cost-cutting pressures on community newspapers is good news to me. Enough of USA Today not sharing the pain the rest of the company is enduring. No more of the freebie parking/gym/restauarant/six-figure-salaries/one-story-a-workweek lifestyles. No more of this sniffing the rarified air that is purer than those toiling in the community newspapers breathe. The more pain at USA Today, the less we feel is the way I see it.
ReplyDeleteI've had the pleasure to work with Craig for several years. It's obvious most of you don't realize just how much he's done to make USA TODAY the brand that it is. We left the newspaper industry years ago to extend the brand beyond print - most recently with brand licensing initiatives. I feel sorry for those of you who have such short attention spans and do not realize what a HUGE brand USA TODAY truly is.
ReplyDeleteI will miss Craig as a leader.
Hey 12:20, the last I checked, USA Today was the Nation's largest newspaper. If USAT is running well and SUCCEEDING, why should any pain be felt?
ReplyDeleteWhy should the top of the pile be punished for the bottom of the pile's mistakes....oh wait....we live in Obama's America where this is going on all over the place.
Silly me, I forgot that this is no longer the America of our forefathers where good, hard work is rewarded. Advancement is applauded. Success is justified and not used as a 'us vs. them' tool to make everyone equal.
Well, the market doesn't seem to be so happy about this move.
ReplyDeleteI had the pleasure of working with Moon and he is a nice guy and also a PRICK. Generally a nice guy who will be sorely missed by all of us pricks!
ReplyDeleteYou folks are amazing. Only totally clueless newspeople would think an editor with no publisher experience (Anger or Marymount) is the likely successor for this extremely important position. The only thing that scares me more than this major change is the ignorance displayed here.
ReplyDelete- And yes, I was a newsperson.
Hmm....Jennifer Carroll?
ReplyDelete12:20 Check again. If what I am hearing about Q1 results is correct, USA Today has turned into a real loser. Circulation and ad revenues down by stunning amounts. Moon headed up the operation, so he falls on his sword. That is what he was paid to do. Not much of a loss that I can see.
ReplyDeleteAnger was a publisher at one time for the newsperson who knows it all. But Hunke would be a prime choice.
ReplyDeleteI would love to fall on a $3.7M sword. I bet it has gold inlay and a lot of detail work.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMoon's resignation is NOT good news. For those of us who know, Moon took orders from the top and fought hard to save as many jobs as he good.
ReplyDeleteI worked with Moon at 3 different papers. He is the best publisher I've ever worked for. He wandered around talked to the staff. He knew more about advertising accounts (even mom and pop's) than most of the ad managers. He was an advocate for the newsroom and put his neck on the line many times. He let his editors make their own decisions.
ReplyDeleteMoon had a thing he did at every paper where he was pub. It would be announced that for 2 days (mostly each quarter) ANYONE could call his secretary, come into his office and pitch an idea to improve the paper. The only rule was if you're gonna bitch about something, then you had to give him a solution. He said it was amazing that it wasn't the EE's or OC members that had the ideas, it was the salespeople, librarian, beat reporter and janitor. How many pubs do you know who will do that?
Sure he had some failures, but at least he tried to create new products and initiatives. He put money behind them and gave the staff time to make something happen.
Who knows if Detroit will work, but wasn't it worth trying something new ... or fade away like the Seattle PI and the Rocky. Like Jim, I was in Little Rock when they closed the paper. If you haven't been through a closing, you don't have a clue. It's truly a death.
Yes, he could be a jerk and a hardass, but I never saw him blindside anyone. He'd jump your ass, and then move on. No grudges, just don't do it again.
Gannett is now left a weak and visionless CEO who has never even run a small newspaper and a clueless board. You think things are bad now...just wait.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete3:14, thanks for coming back over and over to help drive up Jim's hit count.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't like it, leave. But you're too stupid to do that. A cliche, for sure, but you're like a moth to the flame.
This is very bad news for USAT. No matter what you felt about Craig and his lack of personality, he was totally focused on making USAT the best it could be while fending off demands from above. He was tough but also open to a good idea. He wasn't perfect, but he spared USAT from some of the other tower's more stupid demands.
ReplyDeleteNotice the timing of the Moon retirement comes as publishers stream to McLean to kiss corporate's ring and get their Q2 marching orders. If there is a message here, it is that if you defy us, you will get the Moon treatment, too. How many publishers are going to buck that attitude. For all of his many problems, Moon at least stood up to corporate. Now he's been cut down, there is a message there for the rest.
ReplyDeletePlease watch your language.
ReplyDeleteWhat would USAT's circulation be without its third party hotel numbers? Does anyone know?
ReplyDeleteHey 12:25, sing it with me..."We're all in this together"
ReplyDeleteGood riddance to bad rubbish. Moon cloaked himself in some sort of bizarre cult-like mystique that was founded on very flimsy accomplishments. Look at his track record in Little Rock and elsewhere. A lot of his apparent success came from being posted to phenomenal growth markets and riding the upswings.
ReplyDeleteIf you were one of his insiders, great. If not, just like in a cult, you were cast out, humiliated, devalued, and subjected to smear campaigns. He carefully isolated effective leaders and destroyed their creativity and innovation, diminishing their contributions at a time when those values were most needed.
Folks .... I am reading good, bad, and nasty comments about Craig Moon. Do the majority of people here just want to bitch about life in general? Is that why we read so much crap especially negativity about others? I also have worked with Craig on a much lower level. Yes, he could be a hard-ass and would jump on you but that would be the end of it, as long as you did not do it again. Craig was great to work with, and if you did get to know him, he had a great personality..... he did so many good things for the biz. Congrats to him on getting out of this mess.
ReplyDelete@ 4:07
ReplyDeleteIf they lose one major account, it will cost 1 in 5 paid circulation
I have had the opportunity with work with Mr. Moon at a high level and I think he is an outstanding individual and a great leader.
ReplyDeleteThis is a loss for USA Today and for Gannett.
I do not think people will truly understand this loss when the brand equity of USA Today drops faster than Gannett stock. Moon has brought integrity and honor to the nation's largest national newspaper.
Thank you Craig Moon for your service and your leadership.
The increase to $1 per copy appears to have been a diaster for sales. Was that his decision?
ReplyDeleteAnything that reduces the cost-cutting pressures on community newspapers is good news to me. Enough of USA Today not sharing the pain the rest of the company is enduring.
ReplyDeleteDamn right.
Do the majority of people here just want to bitch about life in general?
ReplyDeleteYes.
I too worked with Craig Moon and he is a incredible person. Yes, he expected you to work hard and he held you responsible but he also respected everyone's opinion. He was, and still is, passionate about USA TODAY. Anyone that approached or asked to meet Craig, was met with an open mind. Those that took the time and cared enough about the product to interact directly with him, walked away being heard and with the knowledge that he cared about each and every person at USA TODAY and always had the best interest of the paper at heart. To the nay-sayers, you lost out on learning from and knowing a great leader.
ReplyDeleteCraig's leaving is not good news. But for you constant complainers on this blog, go celebrate and then realize that now there is NOONE in management looking out for you.
ReplyDeleteBe careful what you wish for, you cynical types.
Moon was a good guy. A newspaper guy. He'll be missed.
ReplyDeleteFrom Tim Chavez, former political columnist, The Tennessean:
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see those folks on this blog speak up for Craig as a good leader both in journalism and business.
I had the privilege of working with him at The Tennessean. And he didn't ruin the newspaper after Seigenthaler -- as one poor, tortured soul wrote above.
It was the editor Seig chose as his replacement that ruined the newspaper. Craig always had to fight with the newsside to get off their butts and into the community, instead of feeling as if they should be served as an institution.
Craig also had to fight against Currie and newsside at Corporate that protected the jobs of Seig's replacement and disasters such as Silverman, who now is destroying what is left of The Tennessean.
Craig actually provided new reporters for new beats without being asked. I was there when he did it. He'd fund the positions after being out among readers in the community who told him what they wanted to read. Imagine that. When was the last time one of the Moon critics on this blog did that?
It is exciting to know that Craig is returning here to Nashville to explore new ventures. The market is wide open for a strong publication or Internet hybrid because of Silverman and Seig's replacement.
I don't know what all you tortured souls will do without Moon to kick around. But I'm sure you'll find someone to blame instead of looking in the mirror.
www.politicalsalsa.com
Guess Chavez is hoping to get a job with Moon once he gets back to "his family" in Nashville.
ReplyDeleteMoon's closest friend and confidante is Frank Vega. That is all you need to know about him as a person, newspaper executive and "leader."
"Please remember, USA TODAY the brand and all of you in the short term will be challenged … but in the long term – you will come out on top. The brand is actually bigger than the business and that’s good. "
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a newspaper?
Thank goodness all his cutting cut only the news content, and left the brand. Americans love to read brand!
With Moon gone ... the Sun will come up tomorrow, tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow ...
Grin.