This just in from Chief Digital Officer Chris Saridakis, addressing speculation that he may be leaving the post after 15 months.
Hi Jim,
I hope you are well. I appreciate your concern about my employment status at Gannett and hope that I can offer some insight. I understand that there is a fair amount of speculation, but I am still employed as the Chief Digital Officer at Gannett and continue to work with my very dedicated team to execute on our plan to grow the revenues and diversify Gannett’s businesses. 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?).
All the best,
Chris
Christopher Saridakis
SVP & Chief Digital Officer
Gannett Inc.
7950 Jones Branch Dr
McLean, VA 2210
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 rail, upper right.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
29 comments:
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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Yeah, I gotta suggestion. Take your "furlough" vacation here in the U.S. instead of Europe.
ReplyDeleteMaybe take a tour of empty newspaper offices around the country.
Maybe see the Grand Canyon. It's almost as big and empty a space as what is between your boss's ears.
Maybe take that vacation money and contribute it to a fund for medical insurance for Laid off Gannett workers....
Like those suggestions?
Good to hear because this company really needs you. You seem like the only descent person within the top brass. Whose going to take care of that organic garden while you're gone?
ReplyDeleteI personally have hear that parts of Italy are amazing but I would love to see the castles in Germany. Please keep the rest of us in mind while you are on furlough. The biggest problem we have is how are we going to make our mortgage payments,pay for our kid's daycare and how can we make ends meet to feed a family of four. Just to put things in perpective. Us single moms are being hit the hardest.
Wow! that was tactless.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. What a pompous "let them eat cake" comment from him. As in his only problem is where to take his family on vacation in EUROPE.
ReplyDeleteOh geez. That is so obnoxious and arrogant, I'm literally out of adjectives.
I like his note Jim, but it sounds like he punted.
ReplyDeleteI still think he is leaving. He only talked about "today" and not about if he is leaving.
What happened with the Victory garden? - shouldn't you stay home and weed? Let them eat vegetables!
ReplyDelete10:20P...what an immature response. I hope Chris is sincere and is not leaving Gannett. He visited our paper and was a breath of fresh air.
ReplyDeleteAuchswitz, so you get a sense of what it's like out here in Gannettland waiting for the matron to order us to walk to the left, or to the right.
ReplyDeleteGo Fish.
ReplyDeleteIn the Gulf of Aden.
10:20P...what an immature response. I hope Chris is sincere and is not leaving Gannett. He visited our paper and was a breath of fresh air.
ReplyDeleteManagement clearly still doesn't get it. Even if he can afford to take his large family to Europe during his "furlough" he shouldn't publicly flaunt it.
ReplyDeleteObviously, if management meant what it said about sacrifice due to extraordinary circumstances, this guy should have been asked to take a six month furlough. Maybe then he would miss the money as much as some of the folks who are fighting not to miss house payments because of the loss of wages.
I don't think class warfare is a good thing, but these multi-millionaires are all but begging for it with statements like that.
Saridakis won't need an airplane to get him and his family to Europe for their vacation. His hubris and arrogance, combined with an overabundance of hot air, are more than enough to power his balloon.
ReplyDeleteClass act.
ReplyDeleteYuck. If he'd left off that last sentence, it would have been fine.
ReplyDelete(Are the "four small kids" his? Sounds weirdly distant...)
Wow--don't know the guy. But how could he be so clueless as to how lucky he is to have that his only concern.
ReplyDeleteIf he would have just stopped the note beofre that sentence I would have had a high opinion of him.
What a smug son of a bitch.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering where I'm going to get the money to pay this month's fucking bills, and this bastard is talking about going to Europe.
Just remember, pal, karma's a bitch.
I actually think you are all missing the point. This guy didn't answer the question and smartly turned the debate on his vacation rather than on whether he is leaving Gannett.
ReplyDeleteLooks like we all fell for the bait!
I don't care where he goes or what he does with his millions, I just care that he stays at Gannett and helps us survive. It sounds like everyone responding would have preferred a more "corporate" response from Saridakis?
2 am wins the prize.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised it took 18 comments before someone noticed the very, very passive language. ("I'm still employed" and "continue to work with my team.")
It's like Monty Python: Not dead yet!
I am turned off by some of these crude posts. As a fellow Wilmingtonian, I see Chris and his wonderful family as a very active and positive part of this community. We should only hope that the rest of the Gannett management team is as generous as they are.
ReplyDeleteIf Chris leaves, it would kill morale and certainly make me question the future of Gannett.
At least he took the time to respond to the postings here. At a time when this blog is shunned by Gannett management (to their detriment I think), I have give Saridakis credit for coming in here and posting.
ReplyDeleteWe noticed it. It was fairly obvious that he didn't want to address the question directly. It's just more fun to call him out for being a jerk with that whole woe-is-me, I-don't-know-where-to-go-on-vacation/furlough crap.
ReplyDeleteSaridakis took the time to respond and look at the crude, self-serving comments that result. Is that what we want this blog to be? He must be a communist! like all top brass, right? In the 1950s, Congressman George A. Dondero denounced modern art as a communist plot.
ReplyDeleteEvery day, you market ideas that some people are annoyed with or more likely, afraid of. And in the face of fear, we lose eloquence and start calling things names, usually names that don't make a lot of sense.
Nothing is a communist plot any more, but there's never a shortage of boogy men available to the people in the community that you're frightening.
Saridakis is one bright guy with great ideas that Gannett needs more of (and no, i do not work for Gannett)
I'm no fan of Gannett or any of the top brass, but frankly, I think his European vacation comment was just a stab at being conversational, not rubbing it in anyone's face that he gets to take his family to Europe. Yeesh -- if you had the money (and you don't actually have to go bankrupt to go to Europe), you'd take your family, too. Going after THAT sentence is ignoring the real message in his response and really looking for something to gripe about.
ReplyDelete11:30 Pm
ReplyDeleteComparing local markets to a Nazi concentration camp is incredibly cruel. How dare you compare your situation to the fate suffered by thousands at the lunatic rage of the Nazi's?
if I understand correctly nobody is -
Rousting your forcibly from your home
Ripping your family apart shipping you to different parts of the country
forcing you to do physical labor with no food
or executing you
You're inhumane.
10:22 -- Maybe he was trying to be conversational, but it came off as insensitive at at time when hundreds of employees are being laid off.
ReplyDeleteAnd, for the record, if I had the money I would leave GCI before I took a vacation to Europe. I guarantee that move would feel much, much better.
Maybe losing him would be a big deal. Maybe not. He's done nothing to save the company so far, but he has sold some of his private holdings to Gannett, making a bundle of money.
Seems to me he's out for No. 1, which isn't a bad thing. I just don't need to hear about his vacation troubles.
LOL...typical Chris. Great at punting topics and distracting people.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in Chris speak the diversion was an "F off, clowns."
Chris is good talent but not as accomplished as he sounds. Pointroll grew under Chris/Andy/Keith. Now it is floudering.
However, Pointroll is going the wrong directions without real leadership.
Anyone starting a Tafler countdown?
I don't find the Europe comment any more insensitive or out of touch than Jim's updates from Ibiza or Palm Springs.
ReplyDelete10:22 -- Maybe he was trying to be conversational, but it came off as insensitive at at time when hundreds of employees are being laid off.
ReplyDeleteAnd, for the record, if I had the money I would leave GCI before I took a vacation to Europe. I guarantee that move would feel much, much better.
Maybe losing him would be a big deal. Maybe not. He's done nothing to save the company so far, but he has sold some of his private holdings to Gannett, making a bundle of money.
Seems to me he's out for No. 1, which isn't a bad thing. I just don't need to hear about his vacation troubles.
4/16/2009 8:41 PM
Spot on and I couldn't agree more. I haven't seen any "saving of Gannett" and wouldn't be surprised if he does a "Craig Moon" disappearance.
Honestly, I have never head of the guy before now. If he is the digital boss, somehow I suspect that relates to our shitty websites, so how good could he be? If he is the second coming, then maybe he should redesign our sites for us, since we are mostly stuck with the same crappy site.
ReplyDelete