Imagine you've assembled a group of 500 Gannett workers who are representative of the entire 35,000-employee workforce. Many of them work at daily and weekly newspapers in the U.S., Guam and the
U.K. Still more work at the 23 television stations. Some are at
CareerBuilder,
PointRoll, and
Captivate. Then there's Gannett Digital,
Clipper and the
Gannett Healthcare Group magazines. Don't forget
Army Times Publishing,
Gannett Offset, and the Centers of Excellence, plus the Regional Toning Centers, the Gannett Production Centers, and many other worksites I don't have room to list. Finally, there's Corporate itself; being representative of the global workforce, these 500 include about 10 folks from the Crystal Palace's Gannett Tower.
By occupation, the group would include assistant circulation managers; TV master control technicians; payroll clerks; magazine photo editors; press operators; advertising design artists; software engineers; security guards; advertising sales people; TV camera operators; receptionists; newspaper reporters and editors; truck drivers, and many, many other positions.
Now, give each of them paper and pencil, and ask them to write down the name of Gannett's CEO.
Question: How many would answer correctly?
Do you think a majority would know the correct answer? A third? 20%? Just the 10 who work at Corporate?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteGo visit a site and ask if the employees visit their own websites or read their own papers. At my old site, the advertising staff would facebook "like" the competition, and bring in the Valpak coupons they weren't going to use to share.
ReplyDeleteWho cares who the CEO is, if staff is too stupid to realize that using the competition cuts your own personal bottom line?
So you go from a Pulitzer quality piece on the Freedon Forum to this snarky silly string. Really Jim, is that what pays the bills these days?
ReplyDeleteI was with Gannett for 14 years before moving on a few months ago. This blog was the source for any CEO knowledge that I might have acquired. Certainly never met any! Editors weren't worthy of their attention ...
ReplyDeleteI bet the winning response would be "Callous Douchebag."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of clipper, there is never any info here on them. How is that group doing financially? Did they suffer layoffs and furlough like everyone else?
ReplyDeleteI would estimate about a third. I hope anyone who works in a newsgathering capacity would know the answer. Asa former Gannettoid who escaped into another line of work, I always knew who was making those horrible decisions at the top of the org chart.
ReplyDelete7:25 I fear you've misunderstood. This isn't meant to be snarky at all. I'm trying to illustrate a point on whether specific information about two newspaper publishers was widely known in the company.
ReplyDeleteMy view is this: Gannett is a huge employer, with hundreds of worksites on multiple continents. Many if us here on this blog are unusually well-informed about internal operations. We talk about Craig and Gracia, Dickey and Lougee as though it's a given that, of course, EVERYONE, knows these people.
But I don't think that's the case at all. I believe there's still essential, basic information about Gannett unknown to many folks here, and across the company and beyond. That's why I publish this blog.
I vote for 8:39's answer, because to the average worker with no pension, a plummeting 401K, no merit pay and plenty of "new responsibilities" it doesn't matter what the CEO's named, they're pretty much the same to us. Ho, ho, ho!
ReplyDeleteIf they wrote down "Mr. Grinch", would that count for half a point?
ReplyDeleteOr if they answered with the name of a dictator, would that be worth a quarter point?
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, he has made himself into a meaningless, insignificant CEO completely incapable of leading us in the future. That probably means he's a lot better known around the company than he should be considering his impact on our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see the CEO on "Undercover Boss." Lol.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you turned this scenario around, just exactly how many of these types of workers would be recognized by name and face by Dubow and Martore? Probably hardly any. This is especially true in their own freaking Crystal Palace hallways. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteTo the poster who chides you for segueing from the Freedom Forum story (really well done) to this "snarly" item---missed the point of a blog. To inform, state opinion (clearly labeled) and spark debate.
I would like to see that assembled multitude each suggest 5 ways the company could either build audience or increase revenue.
I'll bet ya there would be at least 100 ideas that have never been considered. Never considered because the rank and file have only token input.
It all goes back to this:
Are Gannett employees treated as assets or liabilities?
I suspect a lot of people would recognize the name, since we just got our annual holiday greeting. It was signed "Craig and Gracia", which sounded like an old married couple. Whether they could come up with the name on a pop quiz is another question.
ReplyDeleteIn my little corner of Gannett, I would guess it's about 50%.
11:31 that's more of an indication that 50% of our workforce has no clue for whom they work for or who runs their company. That's kind of sad.
ReplyDeleteat 11:31 pm
ReplyDeleteand how many would think gracia is a typo of garcia, as i did for a while. LOL
AZ pressman
It's true, that to which an earlier post alluded: lots of employees at every level, accustomed to the patronizing smoke and mirrors, don't even read the company notices, who's who, let alone the product they produce! For what? Positions have been consolidated past the point of having time unless one is sitting in a comfy, spacious office. When I first joined that staff, I was proud to be in the company of people who cared about publishing! I soon learned that to most it's not a profession; it's just "a job," including the mindset of the present constitution of the board.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete