Thursday, April 16, 2009

Statements of fact that leave us wondering

"I am still employed 
as the Chief Digital Officer at Gannett."

-- Senior Vice President Chris Saridakis, writing yesterday in a note to Gannett Blog, where he addresses speculation he may be leaving after only 15 months as one of the company's most promising hires.

14 comments:

  1. If he did leave within 15 months, that would send a huge signal to the board about Dubow's ability to recruit and retain top talent. Doesn't he have a contract?

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  2. Indeed, he has a contract. But it doesn't force him to work against his will.

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  3. If I even had just a few of his millions, I wouldn't last more than 15 minutes here, let alone 15 months!!!

    Seriously, this guy is beyond wealthy and he chooses to spend his waking hours working at this dump!

    I bet that if we took a poll of Gannett employees and asked them "If you were worth over $100 million, would you still work at Gannett?" Almost everyone would say "NO FUCKING WAY".

    I can list a million things I would do and not one of them would include Gannett!

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  4. We need Saridakis to stay...PointRoll is currently being run by a team of Robot's that do not have any clue how to manage.

    Help!

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  5. What normally takes all of us "Gannett lifers" decades to figure out, this guy has been able to determine in 15 months. This place is a mess and is being run into the ground. Smart dude.

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  6. He could have left yesterday and would anybody have noticed or cared?????

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  7. re: pointroll robot management team...that is offensive to robot's. This management team has no interaction with employees.

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  8. He does not have any more companies with inferior capabilities for us to overpay him for so why should he stick around?

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  11. Jason Tafler the CEO or Pointroll and Paul Grassinger need a lot of help. They have thrown out some good people recently like Ken Graffeo, Brian Spence and others that don't agree with him. If you disagree with these two, then you can guarantee that you will be fired from Pointroll.

    I do know many people that think the current Pointroll management team is lost and clueless. They don't care about employees. They are too busy micro managing people and making offensive comments to staff.

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  12. The larger unknown question isn't whether or not Sadarkis is leaving, it's how many bright people like him have quietly left on their own in the past few years.

    My guess is that the value of those departures far outweighs the potential loss of Saridakis.

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  13. Personally, my only "big" plan in the near future is deciding where in Europe to take my wife and four small kids during my furlough in June (any suggestions?).

    Yeah, I have one: fly a kite from the Alps! LOL!

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  14. Gotta love the attitude here.

    Like it or not, Gannett is clearly the top of the heap in the newspaper business. Better run, and in a better position financially.

    Chris is a great guy who "gets it". I don't know about you, but I prefer to be around winners.... and in this life, winners usually have millions.

    It's not about the money. It's about winning. There is a strategy here to win, and to transform an industry. It's about vision. Chris has vision.

    Some of us get off on running things. Some people get off running other people and organizations down.

    I'm part of the former. I accept that organizations call forth the worst in human nature. I am liberated by this knowledge.

    The newspaper business and journalism are changing significantly. Like the change that Eastman Kodak had to negotiate a few years ago when silver halide photography disappeared faster than anyone expected. Second guess all you want. Decisions are being made. Bold decisions.

    Gannett is a great place to be in the media world during this storm. A furlough is a minor problem compared to what you'll get at Tribune or at the Philadelphia Enquirer, or if you're working at Belo or a host of other groups that don't have the fiscal discipline of Gannett.

    I'm going to make the piece of Gannett that I'm involved with the best I possibly can. I'm going to help Chris Saridakis any way I can, and I'm thankful that Craig Dubow has continued the financial and operational legacy that makes Gannett the healthiest of the dying. The problems are endemic to the industry, not just this company.

    Get positive, and quit running down the people who are making things happen.

    Ask yourself a simple question... what are you doing to assure the future success of Gannett and this industry? If it's bitching in a blog, you're part of the past, not part of the future.

    Here's a news flash, folks.... Gannett will endure, and emerge healthier, and eventually larger than ever before. Believe it, and act upon it.

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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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