Craig Dubow and Gracia Martore have been meeting with each of Saridakis's direct reports prior to the board meeting so they can tell the board of directors that they know the Digital Management team. This is the first time they have met them and have a substantial conversation.
I was also told that there are going to be several more departures in Digital over the next two months.Finally, Martore has decided to have an "all hands" meeting with Digital this week and apparently she will only do a five-minute update and then take pre-selected questions that are emailed beforehand and approved. She will not take live questions.
The Digital team believes that the management team has not done enough to reach out to the Digital employees and only now Martore realizes what is at stake.
Correction: An earlier version of this post gave an incorrect date for the annual meeting. It is tomorrow, May 4.
Doesn't sound like Martore knows what the hell she's doing.
ReplyDeleteNeither Martore nor Dubow know anything about digital, although they mouth the importance of technology to the future of Gannett. The reason for the pre-selected questions shows how weak Martore is on this subject, and her unwillingess to be publicly embarrassed by some technical question. This means nothing but drift for the next few months, until they realize they are over their heads, and need a new digital guru.
ReplyDeleteSeems like chief digital officer ought to be a plum, seven-figure job to fill. Or, not?
ReplyDeleteYes, but I don't think they are going to fill it. Martore and Dubow are taking over the reins, in part to understand what digital is and to sketch out a strategy to bring in more revenues. This is a big mistake, but it may be better than reaching into the corporate ranks of those-in-waiting for general manager posts and pick one of them.
ReplyDeletemoving forward they aspire to wrap their heads around this division after having an "a-hah" moment
ReplyDeleteI heard from my manager that they were trying to keep Saridakis up until the last day as he was selling his stock.
ReplyDeleteSaridakis's farewell email has a lot more meaning to the Executives than the rest of the company. He was essentially blasting Jack Williams for hisweak paid content strategy. He was also ripping on David Hunke's new role in taking over all national and local sports content from the newspapers.
Martore is basically clueless. Apparently she called the CEO of Point roll, Jason Tafler, to the Crystal Palace yesterday. Looks like she is becoming a quick study on Digital.
Dubow is no where to be seen and has said nothing other than, "Chris and I remain friends".
I heard that Saridakis sent Martore and Dubow a document that itemized over a hundred outstanding projects that Digital is working on and now The "Craig and Gracia" duet is trying to decipher it with limited help from the Digital management.
ReplyDeleteI also heard that Robin Pence, corporate communication Queen, is unhappy with how the duet handled Saridakis's departure. They didn't realize how popular he became across the company.
We will as listen very carefully to Gracia at the All Hands call.
What is the deal with Humpke taking over all sports content? I heard that too and now it seems like he is trying to take over local market newspaper sports along with content one and syndicate it back out to us.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that we will lose local sports writers to USA Today?
When Saridakis mentioned that company, Narrative Science, is this what USAToday/Gannett is using?
Communication takes a sender and a receiver. Shame on Saridakis and the management team if it's true about the hundreds of digital projects. Sounds like more of a game than professional exchanges, and that's just wrong. Grow up people.
ReplyDeleteNow I have to take Gracia Martore's site: For all who complain that she takes over the communication between Digital and the Executive Office - who else stepped up to the plate to do it? If Digital is so self-assured and I mean without Saridakis, was there even somebody to attempt to run the show????? Maybe, just maybe, the Executive Office had a wake-up call and noticed that it is not enough to hire a leader of a team who is well liked, but that it also requires devotion and commitment to the company. All I saw was a bail-out of Saridakis and not much left on moving forward. I can bring ideas to the table, too, but acting on it is another story.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am only seeing Gracia stepping up to the plate as usual. Where's Dubow? Not a word comes from him - pitiful! And to remind the rest of the Gannett employees: We all started out knowing "nothing" and learned the tricks of the trade as we got ahead in our jobs. Instead of griping about Digital's future, shouldn't you also be devoted to the company's success by giving a helping hand, which in turn is beneficial to Digital? The arrogance and "the team of one" got to stop. We're all in this boat together and should act like responsible employees - not prima donnas!
"They didn't realize how popular he became across the company" 5/4 8:10 AM
ReplyDeleteSaradakis? Popular? He couldn't have been more irrelevant to the company and the digital future.
The best thing that could happen with Digital would be to shut it down and move the resources into the other divisions that create content.