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| Hunke |
Today, in what I believe is the struggling paper's first public statement since that meeting, USAT announced . . . this.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
USAT | A 'revolutionary transformation' rolls out
Today, in what I believe is the struggling paper's first public statement since that meeting, USAT announced . . . this.
19 comments:
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am totally discouraged by Hunke's transformational speech. I didn't expect him to say much of anything - he's never good at the details. But this meeting, perhaps the most attended of any at USAT in recent memory, left even the most clueless, loyal Gannettoid with a bad taste in their mouth. It turns out that 100 people got raises this year - undoubtedly, most of the newly appointed vice presidents. 100 out of 1300 staffers. Hunke could not rule out more layoffs, furloughs or wage freezes next year. He turned the meeting over to vice presidents who were long on undecipherable buzzwords and no details on the actual transformation. With the exception of the new head of advertising, who was coherent and impressive. How will editorial write for different platforms? Will the stories and content be presented differently? Will reporters and editors be reworking one story for multiple platforms? How will the stories be presented in the paper? Incredibly depressing. Anyone with even the slightest ability to detect b.s. was upset. We did get one message, the new environment won't be for everyone. That's ok for senior managers whose jobs were protected while low level staff jobs were eliminated. Oh, they did appoint a new senior veep for brand marketing and created a new job for Hunke's secretary. She's now the director of employee engagement. Whatever that means. Congratulations to everyone for a wonderful presentation. You wasted an hour of everyone's time without saying anything meaningful. No, I am not a bitter employee.I am trying to figure out exactly what I and fellow staffers are going to be tasked with under this plan. No one seems able to articulate that. Is it because they don't know?
ReplyDeleteAs for the USA Today Club announcement: OMG,Becky! I can now get a discount on frozen yogurt at the airport! I'm soooooooooooo buying USA Today!
ReplyDeleteFor those of us who left USAT, either voluntarily or not, the past year has been fascinating in the way TV feeds of a train wreck or airline crash are fascinating. Hunke and his merry band have "transformed" the place into a chaotic pit. Based on what has happened already, you can bet that if there is a bad choice to be made, Hunke, Hillkirk and Weiss will make it. What a sad legacy for Dave Mazzarella, who transformed USAT from a laughingstock to a credible product. Hunke et al are the most accomplished reverse engineers I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteI can get better discounts with my AARP card.
ReplyDeleteI am not the kind of person who romanticizes the good old days. USAT had problems even in the best of times. But those issues were nothing compared with what has transpired in the last three years. From a lack of clarity to outright lies, from no sense of loyalty from above to the absolute trashing of ethical, in-depth journalism, it has really been quite incredible no matter how you cut it.
ReplyDeletePeople who gave their heart and souls to this place are gone. Hell, some endangered their lives to work for USAT. Many of them were given their walking papers without so much as a thank you. Layoffs have not really been layoffs. They've been executions. Those who remain have received no assurances that they won't be treated the same way, making for a dreary work environment and a diminished product. No sales or marketing gimmicks are going to change what has occurred here in the last three years.
Hunke and most of the top editors and VPs should all be fired. Battling the recession is one thing. Doing it with these kind of leaders at the helm is another. Before USAT can move forward with new business models and initiatives, basic trust and respect has to be restored to this organization. Ruthlessly cutting ties with a successful past has not been good policy, nor will it improve business in the future.
Every organization, even sports teams and governments, has to remember who and what got it to the top if they want to remain there. While the times and technology change, basic human values should not be discarded. Lessons from history must be remembered. USAT has lost its way. It's too easy to blame layoffs and a lack of detailed reorganization plans on the economy and the ever-shifting landscape.
The real culprits of this moral collapse are the ones who led yesterday's meeting, as well as a few leaders who jumped ship when the seas got a little rough a year or two ago. Yet, it's the staffers who keep paying the price for the mistakes made by those with six-figure salaries.
Corporate folks, wake up! Restore some sense of decency and honesty at USAT. Listen to what people like Al Neuharth and the current rank and file are saying. We're not just being bitter old men or "the grass was greener" malcontents. We truly care about the brand, our colleagues and the future of this business. Get rid of the buzzwords and start repairing relationships. Get rid of the bonuses for those already swimming in money and give us our raises. Reach out to both current and past employees and try to mend some fences. Look at some smaller companies that have endured the recession by maintaining their workforces and longtime values. This isn't rocket science. It just requires something y'all seem to be lacking - humanity.
It's bizarre the boilerplate on of this release claims USA Today is "the nation's number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of more than 1.8 million daily" and ignores that the Wall Street Journal circulation overtook USA Today last year and now has a circulation of over 2 million.
ReplyDeleteIs there some kind of escape clause that permits them to claim this, or is it just incompetence or even head-in-the-sand-edness? From the release:
USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY's mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Today, through its newspaper, website and mobile platforms, USA TODAY connects readers and engages the national conversation. USA TODAY, the nation's number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of more than 1.8 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website launched in 1995, reach a combined 5.9 million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with more than six million downloads on mobile devices. The USA TODAY brand also includes USA TODAY Education and USA TODAY Sports Weekly. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!gci/quotes/nls/gci (GCI 12.34, +0.21, +1.73%) .
2:58 p.m.: I think USAT is correct. The key distinction "the nation's No. 1 in print."
ReplyDeleteThe WSJ's U.S. edition in print is about 1.7 million. The paper says on its website:
The Global Wall Street Journal and The Wall Street Journal Online have nearly 2 million print subscribers every day and the largest paid subscriber based website, with more than 1 million paid subscribers online. That's millions of the world's most influential business and opinion leaders turning to the coverage they trust most. Reach them all by combining print and online.
The Global Wall Street Journal*
Print circulation: 1,859,758
The Wall Street Journal U.S.
Print circulation: 1,698,990
WSJ.com Paid Subscribers : 1,063,000
For additional information, please refer to The Wall Street Journal's ABC Publisher's Statement for the six months ending March 31, 2008.
* Includes The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Europe.
All of this, however, is about to become largely meaningless when the new ABC figures come out, using new methods of measuring circulation, readership, etc.
I've read that the new standards pushed by publishers will make it hard to compare one paper to another, or to make comparisons with past numbers.
Revolutionary transformation? You've got to be kidding me. I guess using terminology like that allows Hunke and others to feel more vital. But the rest of us know the truth. So many smoke screens. So much b.s.
ReplyDelete2:47 made some good points that got down to the the root issues. All the clutter and confusion about the digital revolution is just a distraction from the loss of core values and the abandonment of human beings.
The USAT layoffs hurt on a practical and emotional level and could have been lessened or even avoided in many cases. Maybe the cosmos would have shined brighter on USAT and Gannett if the media giant would have handled things better.
I agree that the new crew --- and some of the old bosses with new titles -- has forgotten the past in a push to appear contemporary. You know what they say about those who forget the past. Look what happened to Apple. They had to bring back Steve Jobs to actually recover and move forward. Kind of a back to the future move. Doubtful that GCI/USAT would ever swallow its pride and admit to their mistakes the way Apple did. No, Gannett will just keep cutting to the bone.
Leaders can lead in any era. Good leaders are also fairly rare. USAT has had some over the years, on every level really, but chose to cut ties in some very unsavory ways. Said those managers weren't agreeable or forward thinking. That never set well with me. You don't lose the ability to evolve or innovate over night. My guess is that the newbies and kiss-asses were successful in portraying the old guard as obstructionists. It's been downhill ever since. Removing those managers opened the floodgates on other job losses. Do you think Bob Dubill, a good editor and better human being, would have allowed the kind of senseless carnage we've seen in the last two years?
There are companies out there that have bitten the bullet and protected their workers. Because of that, those companies will enjoy loyalty of their employees and be better situated than competitors who abandoned all principles during the recession. USAT, on other hand, screwed its employees in many ways that was overkill and will pay an economic price for that for many years to come.
Let's remember that Gannett isn't a very kind company. It's competitive practices have been legally challenged as it steamrolled its way to the top over the years. I recall a book on the subject. Think it was titled "Chain Gang" or something like that. Came out many years ago. Told you all you need to know about how GCI operates. If it's still in print, and you are inclined to think that all this blog complaining is coming from paranoid malcontents, I would suggest reading the book.
There is something very rotten at the core of this company and it took the recession to fully reveal it.
You know, in reading over all these blogs for the past few days, particularly the USAT ones, it's become clear what a crying shame USAT has become.
ReplyDeleteLike 2:47 said, it's not as if there are a bunch of us who are bitter because we may have left under certain circumstances (in my case, being shot in the back of the head was a potential fate I accepted going in when I took the last job I had there).
It's just that building that newspaper from the ground up to 2MM circulation a day & profitability was a monumental success story.
One that was shared by everybody in the newsroom, advertising, circulation, administration - everybody. It was a team effort. It was like a family.
Neuharth & the Curleys & the others back then knew how to handle people & get the very best out of everybody. And we were allowed to make mistakes. We just had to try real, real hard. And never accept failure.
And it freakin' worked.
I've been away from it for a long, long time. I still read it when I can steal it. (There's no money in a running a horse sanctuary.) I still keep my USAT 'Founders' certificate on the wall.
A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine (who happened to be the best editor the Sports section ever had) told me that he almost can't believe it, but - in his lifetime - he just might see USAT go all the way from conception to the grave.
How in the living hell did all this happen?
Ah, it's just so sad........
Gath
We are a communications company, right? We employ people who are supposed to be able to communicate, right? Then why the hell has this transformation been botched so poorly? Hunke's presentation was a horrid performance...not worthy of his position or this brand.
ReplyDeleteWhy are Hunke's new cronies the only people at this company excited about this transformation? Could it be because they know they'd still be unemployed if it wasn't for Hunke's foolish plan.
Hey it was good to see Hunke at the presentation yesterday. It shows once again that the apparition still shows up once a quarter.
ReplyDeleteTake a good look at Hunke. Doesn't he just look like the kind of kid you used to beat the hell out of in high school?
ReplyDeleteLame. Does anyone expect anything else from these people?
ReplyDeleteI just went to ebay and bought a copy of "Chain Gang." Looking forward to reading it.
ReplyDelete2:47 and 4:24 and so many others are so greatly expressing what its like to be at USAT these days. I wish I could write like that and express the sorrow, outrage, and the silent disarray we all have come to bear. The voice of courage, reason and experience has given way to sleazy money, false promises and outright lies. It really is hard to work for a company with weak leadership, and without a cause other than to find more Johns to trick.
ReplyDeleteBelow is an amazon.com review of "Chain Gang." Notice the word "nasty" when it refers to Gannett. While this book is a bit dated, it might wake up some people who still somehow believe in this company or blame all of the current problems on the bad economy. USAT is no longer immune to GCI's ruthless ways. The mentality of this company, whether in dealing with outside competition or internal issues, has always been heavy handed to say the least. They've done a lot to mask their mean-spirited tactics, but if you read this book you will understand that Gannett is rooted in some pretty awful business dealings and a mentality that has spread like a virus during these hard times. This, in part, explains why managers are the way they are and why some of the lowest human beings are promoted to the highest levels. Regardless of what your particular manager might tell you, things like layoffs mean nothing to the people who run this company. This is as cold and bottom-line-driven company that exists in the media/journalism world. Journalism means little or nothing at most Gannett properties. Corporate pretends to be concerned about diversity and various working conditions, but make no mistake about it, Gannett and now USAT are the factory farms of journalism. The history of this company is bloody. People need to know that history in order to understand what is going on now. After some quiet years in better times, Gannett is revealing once again how ugly it is by turning on its own employees like it once battled the competition. Read the book if you have any doubts about how Gannett is an enemy of journalistic ethics and fair business practices. Read the book and you will understand how rabid and petty these people can become and why many of them, or their proteges, still exist in this company. Here's the brief review:
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest under-told stories of the past 20 years is the engulfing of independent newspapers by large media chains. The Chain Gang is the account of two battles waged by Richard McCord with his independent newspapers against the Gannett Company. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, a small weekly he started had to fight for survival against Gannett and its nasty tactics. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, he again waged war against Gannett. His experiences make for a fascinating narrative and provide a real-life account of the struggle for an independent voice in the face of a corporate steamroller.
>>After some quiet years in better times, Gannett is revealing once again how ugly it is by turning on its own employees like it once battled the competition. <<
ReplyDeleteI know one Gossip Thug who came from Gannett to USAT Brand Marketing that tried to pit employees against each other for sport. Kinda backfired.
What exactly is ad agency ceo Jeff Wilkes going to be doing at USA Today?
ReplyDeleteLet's face it. Can Wilkes do any less than Lavington? If he does nothing else but check Facebook all day he will have accomplished more.
ReplyDelete