"The very bold and revolutionary transformation of the USA Today begun late this spring."
-- Publisher Dave Hunke, in a memo today to staff, announcing an Oct. 19 meeting where he'll update employees on USAT's reorganization. Hunke told the Associated Press in this story that the reorg was "pretty radical," when he first disclosed details in late August.
The superlatives keep on coming!
ReplyDeleteGotta love the depravity of Hunke's corporate babble: "We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday so we can lay your ass off. We did an extensive amount of work and research over the past six months to determine your uselessness to the corporation. We will be proceeding with this new strategy and business model without you."
ReplyDelete"transformation" is the superlative de jour at Gannett. If you want the board to approve anything, you have to say it's a "transformation"
ReplyDeleteUSAT hasn't done anything radical since it's launch. Oh wait, moving into the Crystal Palace was pretty radical, as were the layoffs that followed. Seriously, USAT heads love to talk about radical changes and new initiatives, but that usually means nothing more than trading titles and coming up with new seating charts or catch phrases. Radical change can't occur until the newspaper is gone. The newspaper can't be gone because it pays most of the bills - something USAT managers continue to be in denial about. So this meeting next week, like the many other meetings over the years, is just another b.s. session to fool corporate into thinking we're reinventing the wheel. Another meeting where no one asks a meaningful question, let alone calls these morons out.
ReplyDeleteNo one is buying into any more of that marketing crap-speak the USA Toady "spokesman" Ed Cassidy keeps churning out for David L. Hunke and all the rest of the unqualified "executives" he's handing titles out to like Susan Motiff, Heather Frank, Ruddman Davis, and all the rest. Robin Pence must be very proud that she's now got a good shill with Cassidy mouthing all her USA Today hype she doesn't know how to say.
ReplyDelete9:43.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it. Hunke needs to be prepared to actually answer some hard questions about how all this was handled. why the process took so long. why so many non-performing senior managers have kept their jobs. why the basic mechanics of the plan are still not in place, and why a "communications" company seems more like a gang that can't figure out an effective way to take out the trash. There is an incredib le amount of anger and frustration right now over uncertainty. Merely uttering more catch phrases and vague planning strategies isn't going to cut it.
Does anyone remember how he transformed Detroit?
ReplyDeleteHow's that working out?
why do we need four managing editors if all the sections no longer are sessions. why two to three dmes in each department? why did these people stay employed if their positions were eliminated. why aren't any of them being forced to apply for new jobs. Shouldn't everyone have a change to apply for the jobs they were assigned to? Its almost as if there's a caste system is in place. Senior managers: don't worry, we'll find a place for you. Everyone else: Go F--- yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to all that rah rah about putting USAT in those airport shops with the trinkets? How did that work out? anyone know?
ReplyDelete9:44 If you are curious about working at one of the shops, you can apply for up to two positions by 4 pm. Friday. You'll be interviewed by a souless HR manager reading from script and the three stooges, I mean, editors.
ReplyDeleteThree Stooges? There are at least a dozen.
ReplyDelete$100 if you say something positive about corporate, Jim.
ReplyDeleteWho gets the $100?
ReplyDeleteHey 8:24, what positive is there to say? You and your managerial stooges just enable Dubow et al while they've been given 'house money' to drive this company into the ground -- financially, that is, as well as editorially.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, 8:24, what on earth is even conceivably positive to say? The products are terrible and an eyesore for ad sales to attempt to position, not to mention an absolute reach as an attempt to sell to the general public. The Big Thinkers can only come up with different ways to eliminate jobs under yet another announcement of a new, exciting "transformation" that sounds so much like, well, all the other transformations that have come before. The loss of jobs has been nothing but a morale drain for those who remain. (Yes, I realize that this doesn't have a direct A=B link to profitability. But, honestly, how do you expect the remaining employees to put in a good effort and remain loyal to a company that clearly has so little regard for its employees?)
8:24, you clearly want someone -- anyone -- here to say just "something positive" about corporate. But isn't the wealth of opinions expressed here about the complete and total lack of corporate regard of the quality of product -- as well as the people who sought to make these products -- good enough? Is there honestly a GCI employee left who still believes that they're doing valuable work for a valuable product, for a company that's worth the effort? If you want to put the dynamic in sports terms, Dubow, Hunke and the other top guns at GCI have "lost the locker room." They can come up with all the reorganization schemes they want (and we're sure that, as soon as they announce this 'transformational' reorg, they'll be working on the next one). But they've clearly lost the people they need to execute it.
That said, 8:24, tell us all what we need to know about all the great, positive aspects of working for GCI. Really. We're all ears.