Tuesday, January 04, 2011

In new sports czar, USAT expands GCI-wide reach

Today's announcement of a newly created USA Today Sports Media Group -- and a top executive in charge -- is at least as interesting for its broad mission: The newly hired Tom Beusse will be responsible for overseeing business and strategy for national sports initiatives across not only USAT, but also Gannett’s 82 other daily newspapers, 23 broadcast TV stations, plus HighSchoolSports.net and action sports subsidiary BNQT.com. (I note that HighSchoolSports' tagline already says it's a "USAT partner.")

In this move, GCI is once more knitting together its flagship daily with the rest of the company -- a change from the days when USAT was largely independent. It's the business side's equivalent to editorial's ContentOne.

Beusse will work out of GCI's New York City office and, it appears, will report to USAT Publisher Dave Hunke. (That Hunke is still announcing such hires suggests he's not leaving anytime soon, despite rumors to the contrary -- or, Beusse is in for a surprise.)

Corporate's statement says Beusse was most recently president and CEO of Westwood One, a publicly owned content syndication company focused largely on network and local radio. Prior to Westwood One, he was president of Time4 Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner. In his role, he was responsible for 18 consumer brands including GOLF Magazine, This Old House and Warren Miller Entertainment. Prior to that, he spent five years as president of magazine publishing at Rodale.

10 comments:

  1. Why the hell would he go from Westwood to GCI? And what does this mean for Ross Shauffleberger (sp?), who was named to VP/GM of USAT Sports just a couple months ago?

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  2. I wondered the same thing about Ross Schaufelberger. Anyone know the answer?

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  3. http://www.rbr.com/radio/short_and_turbulent_run_for_beusse_at_ww1.html

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  4. This is incredible.
    The same day they announce yet another round of furloughs and pay cuts they announce they are creating a position for this frickin' clown who ran Westwood One into the ground! Holy shit, how frickin' stupid are the people in charge of this company!!!! What in the hell is he going to do? Seriously, could they at least try to explain to us why we need yet another empty-headed suit making a quarter of a million (or more, probably) while we continue to cut our daily newspapers to the bone? I do have one suggestion for this guy: Get rid of HighSchoolSports.net. Blow it up. Shut it down. Do whatever you have to do, but bury it because it is THE worst excuse for a website in the history of the world wide web. When it comes to finding ways to waste millions on useless websites, Gannett leads the way and hss.net is Exhibit A!

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  5. My Boss had predicted this for a long time. In fact, My Boss also mentioned that USATODAY is also trying to buy Fantasy Sports Ventures. A company that USAT already has an investment in.

    Looks like both Peter Lundquist and Ross "I talk a lot" Schufleburger-n-fries is OUTTA of HERE!!!

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  6. Sorry, folks. Too late. The sports niche, which USAT respected and dominated, now belongs to others. There's no catching up.

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  7. Agree with 9:50's post. USAT has lost a lot of share in sports, especially lately. Between the earlier press times and newshole cuts, they just don't put out a competitive product any more.

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  9. I've also noticed the decline in sports coverage and lack of late scores they used to publish. Were the deadlines adjusted? I thought with the technology USAT uses to publish, they could have continued with late scores. Nothing pisses off a sports fan than not seeing the game score in the paper the next day.

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  10. Remember that it ain't the technology that determines the deadlines, it's the trucks that carry the papers and the time it takes to get from a print site to the farthest rack/stand/point of sale it has to reach. I remember back in the 90s, the first-edition deadline in Rosslyn, Va, was based on when the presses in the San Berdoo plant would have to start to ensure that papers were available in Vegas POS by a certain time in the a.m. So all that satellite magic and technology was throttled by the speed limit of a 280ish-mile trip up I-15.

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