"She and all the executives at Gannett deserve their salaries. It is foolish of you to think that this management team has not done a good job. Just compare Gannett to your peer set. Who do you think is better positioned? Martore and the rest of the Gannett Management Committee have done an excellent job in a time when most leaders bankrupted their companies. This blog is slowly coming back to the old ways of beating on your leaders. If you do not like it here, then find another job."What do you think? Join the debate in the original post, where you can read my response. Or post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
I think people would be more sympathetic to Martore if she had not "earned" her raise by cutting and slashing her way through newspapers and then denying the folks she laid off a decent severance package.
ReplyDeleteHer raise, on top of the immoral "transitional pay" arrangements smacks of hypocrisy of the highest order.
She, and her ilk, have done more to harm newspapers than the internet, television and the "I want it free generation" have combined.
Ironically, my confirmation word is "brula" which is just one letter from "bruja" Spanish for witch.
The decision to offer "transitional pay" in lieu of conventional severance effectively shifted layoff costs to the taxpayer, and helped make possible the likely large 2009 bonuses for Martore and other top executives. In my more than two years of blogging about the company, that decision was an all-time low.
ReplyDeleteLet's see. We peons actually do what we get paid to do and get furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs.
ReplyDeleteMartore and friends, who like all other top-level newspaper executives were asleep at the switch when the web ate their business, continue to reward themselves handsomely for their decade or more of demonstrated incompetence.
There is no level in hell low enough or hot enough for these people.
This comment reeks and sounds like someone with strong ties to 11th floor in Crystal Palace.
ReplyDeleteI think I am better at my job then she is at her job but I will not get a raise and she will. That is what is so unfair about this. Not drinking her own medicine destroys the trust of the employees in the organization and in her. You lead by example. This shows that she is to myopic and self possessed to understand that.
ReplyDeleteLike Tara Connell in the past, Robin Pence and Laura Dalton's number one job as direct reports to Martore are now to monitor this blog and post positive, pro-Gannett statements.
ReplyDeleteGutting the company to save it. Brilliant strategy. And, yeah, the "transitional pay" strategy verges on evil.
ReplyDeleteREALLY? Just what does she do to deserve such a salary? Does SHE work in filthy conditions, water dripping on her head, food stamp wages, staff cut below bare minimum, furloughs, wage freezes, does SHE have to pay for her health insurance out of those food stamp eligible wages? NO, SHE DOES NOT! She doesn't deserve 50K a year!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the solution? What can anyone do about this terrible injustice and all the others?
ReplyDeleteWhat is Kate Marymont making these days? What is she doing to earn it?
ReplyDelete"If you do not like it here, then find another job."
ReplyDeleteAnd that's exactly why they continue to cut jobs, cut pay, impose furloughs and generally treat people like crap. They do it because they know the job market stinks and many people feel stuck where they are. Well, I tell you what, Anonymous@6:27a.m. -- As soon as I get offered another job, I'm outta this toxic dump!
You are all so silly. You sound like a bunch of complaining children. The fact that this lady receives a $950,000 salary plus bonuses and other perks should not be questioned. Take a look at the stock performance. Has it not gone up over the last year? How about the morale in Gannett these days. It is clearly much better than last year! People are happier.
ReplyDeleteWho deserves credit for that? The people bitching on this blog or the executives and the individuals working everyday to provide for their families in a tough economy.
I agree with Anon 6:27a. We should praise our leaders as they have pulled us away from the brink and put the company back on track.
Aren't people proud of the hard work they all do? Is it so much to ask that we show some respect and praise for people who are public officers of this company that must make tough decisions and not lead by Gannett Blog opinion polls?
Let's show some respect and instead of beating on this management team all the time, find a way to reach out and thank them.
Corporate greed breeds a nation in need. The chichens will come home to roost.
ReplyDeletei think all the employees should be getting a raise cause these executives already make a killing to live, so they should let the money trickle down to us struggling folks, and yea gannett is only doing good cause they cut so many people and furloughed us to make there money...geeee and this lady gets a big ass bonus...not right
ReplyDelete@5:51 AM
ReplyDeleteDid you type that with a straight face?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhat's the solution? What can anyone do about this terrible injustice and all the others?
2/08/2010 8:12 PM
Get organized and shut them down. It will put you at risk, but their is no reward without risk. Just as every soldier does not return from battle, not every rebel will escape administrative retribution.
You are working in an environment that cannot be fixed by hoping and sitting on your hands, thinking these thieves will find God.
Otherwise, STFU and work til they come for you.
12:40 PM
ReplyDeleteHow?
in hard times, REAL leaders take pay cuts and find ways to minimize the pain their staffs feel and to show that their hard work is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteobviously, gannett has no real leaders. so when the economy turns around, those who can leave will do so and gannett will get to hire a few cheap rookies who can't do any better or haven't heard what hellholes gannett operations are.
You are all so silly. You sound like a bunch of complaining children.
ReplyDeleteLet's show some respect and instead of beating on this management team all the time, find a way to reach out and thank them.
2/09/2010 5:51 AM
If that doesn't top it all! Upper management to the rescue. Pleaaassseee! Just STFU!
Employees are layed off with so much as a kick in the behind, furloughs are handed out like cookies, severances are reduced to "transitional pay" (which should actually be called FY pay)and Gannett up to it's ears in debt. And then to have to gall to write: find a way to reach out and thank them.
Is that your way of pissing down our backs and telling us all it's raining? Well, that just confirms it.
Look, even if Martore did an exceptional job last year, given the carnage and cutting, she's tone deaf when it comes to accepting a $250,000 raise. .
ReplyDeleteOf course, maybe this means she can make donations to her favorite private school causes in her own name this year.
It is hard to respect someone when they have no respect for you. Respect does not only go one way. If they want respect they should show some.
ReplyDeleteTHANKS FOR GIVING MARTORE 950,000 K, AS WE ARE FORCED TO FURLOUGH ONCE AGAIN
ReplyDeleteTHANKS FOR LAYING US OFF TO HELP THE STOCK GO UP
THANKS FOR NOT BEING HONEST
THANKS FOR POSTERS WHO SHOULD SAY WE SHOULD SAY THANK YOU
i am sure the person telling us to say thanks doesnt make 30 k or under a year NOW SUCK IT
ReplyDeleteJudging by Martore's example, I guess that we can all expect 36% raises this year for the tough choices we've made and hard work we've contributed to the GCI bottom line?
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable! These Pod People at Gannett believe this B.S.ing lies! When does the B.S. stop? When they get laid off?
ReplyDeleteThe whiners constantly demand RESPECT but they never give respect to readers, advertisers, co-workers,leaders or quite frankly themselves. I am not sure what they hate more; their own miserable lives or the Gannett management team. Grow up!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe whiners constantly demand RESPECT but they never give respect to readers, advertisers, co-workers,leaders or quite frankly themselves. I am not sure what they hate more; their own miserable lives or the Gannett management team. Grow up!
2/10/2010 4:44 PM
You don't know anything about our lives - we certainly know your's now!
I don't know what I hate more: cannibals that eat their young or just pure ignorance and no common sense. People like you are the reason Gannett is not going anywhere soon. Don't forget that high salaries can only be sustained as long as a company is doing good business. Once the well runs dry (laying off thousands of employees), the next things needs to be done in order to keep the money flowing (wage freezes, furloughs, transitional pay). What's next? A once good company reduced to narcissists like you that rather step on a corpse than show compassion. Well, the old saying still holds true even if you don't agree: What comes around goes around.
I'll hate what the company has become: a joke in the industry. I'll hate the same idiots that are in charge who see nothing wrong with the way they are earning their money (on the backs of the lower-paid staff). We are complaining about oil sheiks that are bathing in money due to their oil fortunes, but Gannett management behaves in the same manner. This arrogance and self glorification isn't healthy and a killer on any business. Yeah, I wish the economy picks up again and this time it will be the employees leaving the pasture for better pickings. I will be one of them that's for sure.
I certainly want a supervisor/boss/upper management to show some common sense and put down some ideas that brings Gannett to it's former glory. Not some do nothing and every day is great at Gannett that looks like some deer caught in the headlights once the heat is on.
So 6:56 YOU who have never made a payroll in your life are sooooooo much smarter than the folks leading Gannett, the one newspaper company by the way that is leading its own industry while many, many others declare bankruptcy or worse. Why is it that folks like you think they are so much better than co-workers who have worked their asses off over the years to get where they are? Just because they have a title and have to make difficult decisions they are stupid and callous and show you no respect. The world changed my friend and folks like you want to wallow in stories about the past, just like the owners of the railroad did back in the day when the commercial airliner put them out of business. You NEVER offer real solutions you simply attack what you don’t understand. Gracia got a large raise. Ok, so what. She still makes nothing compared to similar leaders in the financial industry, auto industry, airline industry etc. But you would never admit that. No you’d rather criticize what you don’t understand because that is so much easier than actually coming up with an original idea that will both serve our consumers and earn revenue. I am proud to work for Gannett. So attack me. I am encouraged where my company is going so call me a sycophant. I am content with my career so call me an idiot. Come up with an original idea that will actual impact the market place and lets talk. Ask Jim; he had a great idea for a Travel Website. He too learned that it sounds easier than it is. Good ideas don’t guarantee sustainability. You need resources, great leadership and creativity. But hell dude you just keep howling at the moon and the big bad managers that you don’t respect. That is so much easier. Now write one of your silly little retorts about Kool Aid etc.
ReplyDeleteJim said
ReplyDeleteThe decision to offer "transitional pay" in lieu of conventional severance effectively shifted layoff costs to the taxpayer, and helped make possible the likely large 2009 bonuses for Martore and other top executives. In my more than two years of blogging about the company, that decision was an all-time low.
So Jim, how is it an all time low. The Transitional Pay program was created by our government in particular to pay extended benefits for union autoworkers. So if a smart CFO learns about the program our government created, why is that a "Low?"
You were a business writer for heavens sake and you know nothing about this program?
8:13 pm: So what if it's legal? Just because CFO Gracia Martore CAN do something doesn't make it RIGHT to do it. She had a choice, and she made a very, very bad one.
ReplyDeleteJim - Wrong in your opinion. Can you explain why it was wrong? People get their unemployment and the trust makes up the difference. Please explain in simple terms how the decision is the lowest thing you've ever heard. What exactly do you object to? Remember you were a busienss reporter. Put it in terms a business reporter would use.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the blog started off reporting the facts, informing readers and educating folks. In the past week the haters have returned and now the personal attacks have once again begun and anyone with a differing opinion is an ass, a kool aid drinker or a corporate idiot. Its a shame really. We can't have a balanced discussion. You are either a Gannett hater or "One of them:. Sounds very union-like actually.
>>Why is it that folks like you think they are so much better than co-workers who have worked their asses off over the years to get where they are? Just because they have a title and have to make difficult decisions they are stupid and callous and show you no respect.>>
ReplyDeleteShouldn't you and your ilk ask yourself this question????? It's not me thinking I am better than my co-workers - I think I showed with my statement that I don't resort to killing their spirit with slapping them in the face like upper management does with every layoff, pay freeze, furloughs, transitional pay and whatever else evil idea your ilk comes up with to make our lives even more miserable.
>>You NEVER offer real solutions you simply attack what you don’t understand. Gracia got a large raise. Ok, so what. Come up with an original idea that will actual impact the market place and lets talk.
Wow, 8:13, I've really hit a nerve, huh? First of all: It is not my job to offer an original idea. That's what we have upper management like YOU for, right? That's why YOU get paid more than us common folk, right? That's why YOU have a degree, right?
Once one like me came actually up with an idea, it's people like YOU who steal it and get the big bucks for it, right? And I'll get is a pat on the back and I can go my way. LOL! This is rich - to go on the Gannett blog and steal our ideas. What a low life!
>>So Jim, how is it an all time low. The Transitional Pay program was created by our government in particular to pay extended benefits for union autoworkers. So if a smart CFO learns about the program our government created, why is that a "Low?">>
Now I have to say that's not only a stupid comment, but totally moronic. Why is that low? Because you are destroying lifes and make an already difficult situation even more unbearable. If that is not callous I don't know what is. However, that's what common with folks like you and nothing new. Slapping each other on the back and congratulating yourself how you SAVED Gannett. Wow, I'm not impressed! As I mentioned before I don't like the treatment former or current employees receive. You don't like it: tough!
Now go behind your desk and think of an idea that brings Gannett back to it's former glory without destroying lives. That's what Gannett pays you for, right?