Monday, March 30, 2009

Urgent: Connell named head of new ContentOne

Gannett chief publicist Tara Connell keeps her vice president title, as she assumes control of the dramatically shrunken former Gannett News Service, the company just announced. The disclosure ends for now a high-profile soap opera over control of the nascent news and Web pagination system.

GCI's statement lists Connell, about 55 years old, as the contact person for questions -- an interesting ethical choice. Also, journalist Connell has been out of the newsroom for a long time. How else to explain at least three glaring omissions in the statement: her age; the name of the person she'll report to (powerful Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore is her current boss); plus, what becomes of Vice President Kate Marymont and her News Department, which controlled GNS as long as I can recall.

Connell is a former page one managing editor for USA Today. Corporate says a Connell successor will be announced. Brief iPhone post. Will update. Comment, below, please.

19 comments:

  1. The "high-profile drama" for control was manufactured by you and did not exist.

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  2. So where does this leave Kate Marymont? Is she Vice President in Charge of Thinking Up New Time-Wasting Contests, or what?

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  3. ContentNone

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  4. Pay close attention to this development, as I expect within months to see corporate increasingly shift features, news and sports over to ContentOne operations. I am somewhat surprised to see Tara didn't grab at the Easter/Passover opportunities for stories/ads.

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  5. All of our problems are solved.

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  6. >>>>The "high-profile drama" for control was manufactured by you and did not exist.

    Must say I agree totally with this. This blog's penchant for drama without evidence, which is then repeated over and over as if it is built on some reporting (which isn't there), is a major failing.

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  7. Deck chairs. Titanic.

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  8. Tara to the rescue!

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  9. Gannett web sites are becoming more and more like portals, not destinations unto themselves. I see less and less news, which is what drives me to a newspaper site, and more and more slide shows of random photos, routine calendar listings, vapid writeups about inconsequential local "newsmakers," links to Moms and other tripe, bad "blogs," and waste-of-time videos. A good newspaper site will tell us who's screwing whom.

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  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  11. Gannett's new PR spokesman??

    Jim Hopkins!!

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  12. Of course there is drama! Kate Marymont occupies a post that, dating back to the days of John Quinn, was the chief repository of journalistic integrity amid the corporate chaos of GCI. Things started downhill with Phil Currie. Now, it seems, we'll never know what Marymont could've done, since she and her position have been eclipsed by Tara Connell. Seems quite dramatic to me.

    Now the question is: Will Kate resign?

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  13. Sort of like printing a big unfounded story saying the Secretary of the Arm would resign and he did not or screwing up a big story about National Guard casualties in Iraq and having to eat it the next day. Or having a reporter just making up stories. Gee I wonder what national paper made those mistakes. People who work in really big glass houses should not throw stones. A lot of the drama here comes from disinformation planted to discredit the forum.

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  14. Yeah, if I were Kate Marymont, I think I'd be pretty pissed right about now.

    I don't think resignation is in the cards, though. Not that easy to go out and find another six-figure job these days.

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  15. Reply to 3:11 -- I'm afraid we got a good hint of what to expect from Marymont with her latest NewsWatch. Believe it or not, she wants to hold more contests. That doesn't sound like someone who would resign.

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  16. At least it wasn't Ann Clark.

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  17. I think Tara is the wrong choice for this job. I still don't know what Content One means for us.

    We have not even heard from Kate Marymount or Bob Dickey about what Content One means for USCP.

    Btw, I noticed that Craig Dubow does not mention who Tara Connell is reporting to. Does she still report to Gracia Martore? Do you actually think people would settle for a finance bean counter managing journalism and content?

    Does she report into Craig Dubow, a broadcast suit?

    Tara will receive zero respect from the newsrooms. We are already working on ways to prevent her from getting close to our "content".

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  18. Tara is a waste to Gannett. This job will be as influential as Michael Maness and The DIG!

    Another shitty corporate move that is going to fail.

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  19. @7:21 - you are a classic poster to this blog. you aren't sure what contentone will be but you are sure that she is wrong for the job. you are also looking at ways to prevent "her" from gaining access to your content. that should be an interesting activity since you don't know what contentone is.

    you are a typical know nothing

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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