"We maintained our usual
fiscal discipline throughout the year."
-- CEO Craig Dubow, February 2008, Annual Report to shareholders
As Gannett draws closer to disclosing how much it paid CEO Craig Dubow (left) and other top executives last year, public documents reveal how reluctantly the top brass sacrifices its own benefits -- even when the company's survival is at stake. Consider Dubow himself.GCI had planned to eliminate two benefits last year for all the top execs. "Beginning in 2008, the Company will no longer provide its senior executives with any allowance for home security systems or club membership fees,'' the 2007 proxy report to shareholders said.
But that language got quietly tweaked for the 2008 proxy report, filed a year ago tomorrow, March 13. The revised text: "Beginning in 2008, the Company will no longer provide its senior executives with any allowance for home security systems (other than for Mr. Dubow) or club membership fees." (Emphasis added.)
The report doesn't reveal the cost of Dubow's home security, or savings from eliminating club fees; those are included in the $120,629 in "all other compensation'' he got as part of his overall estimated $7.5 million in total compensation for 2007. But Dubow's country club fee was $70,000 when Gannett last disclosed the figure, on page 18 of the 2005 proxy report. (Detail, inset.)Please 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 sidebar, upper right.
I'm just sitting here shaking my head.
ReplyDeleteUn-friggin' real.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteAny Dubow scholarship updates?
I've never understood those perks.
ReplyDeleteYou get paid $7 million, and you can't afford your own security system or to pay for your own round of golf? What the fuck, people?
Jim - drawing on your experience as a biz reporter, are perks THAT crucial to attracting and retaining "good talent"? Does a prospective CEO really look at the offers from Company A and Corporation B and balance them out based on a security system?
The 7 million isnt 7 million today. look at his options they are worthless now. Also when he is getting threats on this blog from angry employees dont you think he needs security?? I still have my job at Gannett and I am just thankful I still have it for now. You all should to
ReplyDeleteWow.
ReplyDelete$70K just for a country club membership.
Seventy grand would buy a lot of rope, pitchforks and torches.
"Good talent" my ass.
Come folks, security systems are expensive. Oh wait, that's because my "good talent" Gannett salary is $43,000. Shit, I'd pick Company A over Corporation B for a free turkey sandwich.
ReplyDelete$70,000? That's two reporters. Or three. What an embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteDoes that $120,629 for all other include the Craig and Denise Dubow scholarship at Western Carolina?
ReplyDelete$70k isn't exactly on the high end for membership fees for a club; probably a decent club, but not the most expensive in the area.
ReplyDeleteBeing a CEO means smoozing - you smooze at the gym, you smooze at dinner.
You have to spend money to make money, folks.
You mean spend money to lose money, Since Dubow took office $23B in shareholder value is gone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he should spend $70K in management classes.
A CEO has to schmooze with the bankers, his counterparts, his board of directors. Not his country club buddies.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the company should be paying for any money-making schmoozing as a cost of doing business. Receptions, dinners, etc.
"$70k isn't exactly on the high end for membership fees for a club; probably a decent club, but not the most expensive in the area."
This comment says so much about the gap between the asshol - er, the rich - and the rest of us. $70K would solve the financial problems of more than 10 families that I know personally. Instead, Craig gets to golf, eat lunch on fancy china and play polo.
(Polo? Hell, I don't know what happens at country clubs. I've only been in one once, for an interview with a source, and felt like a fish out of water.)
But I'm glad Craig knows what goes on at the clubs, and that he still gets a security system. It gives me so much more confidence to know that he's being pampered and protected. His leadership has done so much for Gannett. He deserves it.
Call me a peon, but $70,000 for a country club membership? I'd be embarrassed to pay that much, if I could afford it (can't, of course); and he can afford it and doesn't even pay it himself! I am in freakin' awe.
ReplyDeleteAnd my security system? A dog.
(Polo? Hell, I don't know what happens at country clubs. I've only been in one once, for an interview with a source, and felt like a fish out of water.)
ReplyDelete-- you are correct. every country club has a polo field.
chevy chase, congressional and columbia are the better clubs in the area. they are all well above $70k for the initial membership fee. congressional has a great course but i've always enjoyed the laid back attitude of columbia. chevy chase is simply impossible to get into unless you are mainline wasp with very solid credentials.
ReplyDeleteshame on you leech
ReplyDelete1:15 said, "Also when he is getting threats on this blog from angry employees dont you think he needs security??"
ReplyDeleteOkay, what threats has Dubow had on this blog?
I challenge you.
Anger? Outrage? Disgust? Yes. All valid.
Threats? No way. You're making it up.
there have been - the blog admin has deleted them
ReplyDelete5:29 PM haha you truly are a joke all you have to do is look at the posts before Jim has deleted them so have called for his life. Also look at other posts online before you call me incorrect. It's gonna be funny when these people go to far and get thrown in jail. So yes their is more angry pissed off employees but some have made death threats.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the threat? When?
ReplyDelete1:15 pm and ESPECIALLY 5:37 pm are fabricating.
ReplyDeleteThe only threats I can recall of the sort these readers claim involved two New Jersey Group members last spring/summer, who were going to duke it out at a bar. (Seriously.)
You mean spend money to lose money, Since Dubow took office $23B in shareholder value is gone.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he should spend $70K in management classes.
3/12/2009 3:46 PM
Finally, somebody who sees through the bullsh$#%. Thank you for clearing up the difference between a successful business man and a failing one!
Who gets "paid" $7 million? While I agree that perks can be abnoxious, what a-hole thinks he actually takes home $7 million? That's all what if money. In reality it's got to be a lot less. I read where my current CEO (having left Gannett two years ago) "made $14 million. In reality, he actually took home $2 million. Big difference.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that it's the same at Gannett. They are pretty cheap in executive pay.
there have been threats on this blog. there was a post talked about taking a gun into work last year. last week there was an implied threat which you deleted.
ReplyDeleteWho wants the kind of "good talent" that accepts a senior-level position because he's going to get these ridiculous perks? I'd rather have somebody who's interested in the job, not the perks. I think the company wouldn't be doing as badly as it is if we had somebody like that.
ReplyDelete1:18 PM - LMAO Thank you, I needed that after putting in 40 so far this week.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I'm salary.
$2 million is cheap?
ReplyDeleteHell, $2 million ought to be the upper limit on pay. No one needs that much money to live on. No one.
There have been a lot of threats. Jim is lying because he doesn't want the blog to get a bad rep.
ReplyDeleteHis credibility continues to slide. He will fail and fail hard.
"You do not know these workers well enough. I do. That is why I am growing more concerned about this blog's recently rising temperature -- a rise that I worry reflects emotions across the company's global workforce of more than 40,000. Your employees are frustrated, scared and increasingly angry -- an anger bordering on uncontrolled rage."
ReplyDeleteFrom a post Jim wrote urging the board not to approve bonuses (http://tinyurl.com/d9orlk). So is that true or just incendiary?
There's nothing wrong with rage. That's not a threat. It's the truth. People are outraged, and rightfully so, by the actions of this company.
ReplyDelete