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| Maness |
Of his exit, a reader I trust tells me: "It is a slap to Gracia Martore and Craig Dubow because Michael was the future of innovation for newspaper 'transformation' and many of his presentations were used to placate the board."
Martore, of course, is the company's chief operating officer -- GCI's No. 2 executive -- and a major champion of Maness' work at The Bold Italic entertainment site, plus other projects. I'm told Maness' annual budget was $5 million or more. (Question: What happens to the Bold Italic now?)
In announcing his departure today (see statement, below), it's worth noting Martore didn't spare praise for his tenure. That suggests the breakup is amicable -- or, Martore doesn't want to offend someone who's now a big wheel in digital journalism.
To his critics today here on Gannett Blog, Anonymous@2:51 p.m. wrote about Maness' new position: "Do have a clue how BIG this job is? Do you have any concept what the true digital world thinks of Manness? This guy is major player in the new media universe. You can spew all the venom you wish but MM is a playa!!!"
Corporate is replacing Maness with another insider, Laura Ramos. She was director of innovation development for the Center for Design and Innovation, the company research and development lab formed in 2006. Its output has been, well, not exactly grabbing headlines. Perhaps that will change under Ramos' leadership.
Earlier: Among new digitals, Maness may unlock secret. Plus: Maness protégé Mary Specht fires back.
Text of statement
Gannett announced today that Laura Ramos, director of innovation development for Gannett’s Center for Design and Innovation, has been named vice president of innovation and design, reporting to Gracia Martore, president and chief operating officer at Gannett. She succeeds Michael Maness, who is joining the Knight Foundation as vice president of journalism and media innovation. “
Laura has played an important role in leading innovation successfully across the company, identifying future trends and relating innovation to customers’ needs. Her efforts have contributed much to the consumers and business customers we serve. I am happy to welcome her to this new position,” said Martore.
“At the same time we will miss Michael’s insight and willingness to experiment with new approaches and new thinking. While championing innovation, Michael also put consumers front and center as he sought new ways to enhance products and grow audience and sales. In his new role, Michael will be able to have an impact on the industry as a whole, furthering his passion for extending innovation in journalism across new media.”
Ramos joined the company in 2002 as senior business analyst for USATODAY.com and later served as the director of advertising administration for USATODAY.com, where she designed, developed and implemented a sales operations and analytics infrastructure. She was promoted to director of innovation development for Gannett’s Center for Design and Innovation in 2008. Ramos is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she received a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Economics. She is pursuing an MBA in Design Strategy from the California College of the Arts.
Maness was named vice president of Innovation and Design for Gannett’s Center for Design and Innovation in 2007. He had been vice president of strategic planning for Gannett’s U.S, Community Publishing since 2006 and began his career with Gannett as market development coordinator at the Springfield (MO) News-Leader in 1997. He served as online and new media manager at Springfield before becoming director of online services at The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.
Jim your opening graph is pure sleeze. This is your version of journalism. Who is your copy editor Charlie Sheen. Shame on you
ReplyDeleteGood riddance to another drone we can do without. He's all yours, Knight... how he treated people badly here is how he'll treat yours. Your gain is no loss of ours.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but innovative people innovate. They don't sit with flip boards and sycophants all day.
ReplyDeleteNothing has been derived from any of these 'Innovation" efforts. Someone name one thing.
Seriously.
That is so very funny, 830. Wouldn't BI, LH, MTC, CD, RBH, DFP, FNA count at all as innovative endeavors? Can't help it if you are full of venon and can't give anyone credit for anything, but at least try and sprinkle some little teensy bit of truth in your posts. Justsayin'
ReplyDeleteThis will show one of two things, both of which will be valuable for those in a position to actually do something to help this company get back on track: Either Michael Manness was prohibited from doing anything by Jack Williams and his pack of tongue-wagging, a**-kissing, know-nothing-but-talk-like-they-do wind bags (which would prove that JW and those like him need to go) or that Michael Manness was one of the leaders in the Jack.com pack. Either way, it doesn't matter who goes or who takes his/her place, as long as Jack Williams has any influence on Gannett products, we're DOOMED!
ReplyDeleteAs 8:30 pointed out:
ReplyDeleteNothing has been derived from any of these 'Innovation" efforts. Someone name one thing.
The reason is not because he wasn't given great ideas, it's because he did nothing with them. The guy was too busy doing who-knows-what to acutally do anything. God knows, he WAS given lots of innovative ideas by lots of dedicated Gannetters who loved their company and were trying to do something to help it. All Manness did was sit on them. I guess that's one way to pad your cushy job, eh Mikey boy?
Wow - everyone is actually this clueless on the site. Even Jim likes this dude - funny how the only positive thing from this post from Jimmy :
ReplyDeletehttp://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2011/03/gannett-repainting-the-deck-chairs-on-the-titanic.html
was about something that Manness did. And it finalist for a Webby - A WEBBY.
Simply google - that's a search engine btw - Maness, Gannett and the bold italic to get how much positive press there is. Oh, and wired and bizweek and Nieman Fellows video... and on and on. Also, search him on twitter to see how the digital world is reacting.
Oops, forgot it's all about the Luddites here. Twitter is a site that allows instantaneous short posts in real time. The address is twitter.com .
My bad.
10:30, have you been here before? You act surprised.
ReplyDeleteIf you come here frequently, you'll learn that Jim is pretty clueless most of the time. In fact, I'm starting to think the few things of quality under his name were actually undertaken and written by someone else who then allows Jim to take the credit or blame.
The opening paragraph to this segment is a prime example of Jim's true colors. He wants to insult people.
I knew Maness when he was at a Gannett community newspaper. He was clueless. The only thing more puzzling than how he got elevated to corporate is why Knight hired him away.
ReplyDeleteI've said more than a few times that I like The Bold Italic. I'm not sure how it's supposed to support itself, but that may eventually happen.
ReplyDeleteManess stuff didn't have to support itself. Just like Content One doesn't have to support itself. There are still pets within this company. But sometimes the pets bite back.
ReplyDeleteI still believe My Boss was closely tied to Maness. And I saw that close up. If My Boss goes silent, it will speak volumes.
Also, Maness had his own he was protecting. It will be interesting to see what happens to those folks now.
8:49 PM Would love to give credit where credit is due. Maness graduated Northwestern which produces some of the most progressive and brightest in the country. BI is for Bold Italic, but what are LH, MTC, CD, RBH, DFP, and FNA? Some just want to better understand the innovative initiatives under Maness the past 3 - 4 years, The Bold Italic is very impressive and shows promise. We heard more about Maness projects when he was in Wilmington and Westchester, but besides the BI not much these days. Maness was put in charge of the DIG which was a great company concept. But it seems we heard more about the DIG prior to Maness taking it on. He was responsible for identifying innovative ideas submitted by Gannett staffers. But besides a thank you mug, little else was heard. Maybe one idea was actually implemented? Some were awarded cash also. Were the ideas duds or just not practical in terms of ROI? It would have been good to see a list of the winners each quarter or so. But DIG fizzled out it seems.
ReplyDeleteMichael Maness is a lot of things. "Clueless" is not among them. Anyone suggesting so has never met the man.
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge job. Wow. Great credit to him for snagging the plum job in the industry.
ReplyDeleteMichael Maness is a visionary. He's also hard-working, honest and grounded in integrity. Those of us who had the privilege to work with him know that.
ReplyDeleteUse all the adjectives you want, but what did he DO? At the end of the day, that's the expectation us worker bees have to meet. We can't get by on "character". What innovations, strategies, content platforms, etc. does Gannett use today because Maness identified and promoted it? Sure, Bold Italic is attractive, has plenty of resources to make it happen and seems to be quality--but it's not much different in concept from some of the other indie, hyperlocal urban startups around the country. Pegasus News in Dallas comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteMichael Maness is not a digital innovator. In the newspaper world he may seem like a titan, but to the real digital "playas" (Google, Facebook, Groupon - the ones that actually make money) that's like saying you're tallest of the pygmies. Maness had a sweet gig - he didn't really have to produce results and was the newspaper division's designated digital counter-weight to block any real innovation that Saridakis, Webber, et al wanted to pursue. If he was such a stud, why wasn't he named CDO? Why didn't he parlay his massive success at GCI into a plum position with huge equity upside at a for-profit Media firm that's actually investing big in digital (BGov, Politico, etc.)? Perhaps he's thrown his resume everywhere for a year (like Jack Williams has done) and the Knight Foundation is the only place that would have him.
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ReplyDeleteMaybe someone BOLD enough from DETROIT will explain to everyone on THIS blog how immature Laura Ramos was when Detroit was working with IDEO and Michael & Laura to redesign the paper and the delivery.
ReplyDeleteThere are about a few thousand people who remember her announcing on her facebook about how stupid Detroit people are and how lame the GMC is for dealing with Detroit.
Laura can't deny this. Right Hunke?
I know here in broadcast his work with us has generated nearly 25 million in additional sales and that our Atlanta station was trained by him in innovation and their morning show moved from fourth (where they'd been at forever) to second. We see the impact of his work all the time. Change just takes time.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with Michael Maness is that he was great about making pretensions about innovation and using all the right buzzwords but that he was unable to come up with any ideas that were doable. You would roll him out so that people would think you were cutting edge while all the time there was nothing there.
ReplyDeleteGood or bad he's gone. That's it. That's all.
ReplyDeleteSo what is his legacy? Leaving the Bold Italic in the wild is a pretty telling tale.
I think we may see traces of his decisions in certain products down the line. But, in terms of culture and innovation not so much.
As for being a true digital player. He was not, is not, nor will he ever be a true player. He's much too risk adverse and ego driven to get out on his own path to success.
I find this use of "crowdsourcing" to uncover more about Maness in facts and perceptions is somewhat ironic.
ReplyDeleteThe innovations this innovation chief produced have resulted in such an unprecedented flood of new readers and advertisements that we cannot handle them all and are turning people away. The industry is all watching what we are doing because it represents such a breakthrough in creating a new business model. That's my assessment of his leadership.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe innovations this innovation chief produced have resulted in such an unprecedented flood of new readers and advertisements that we cannot handle them all and are turning people away.
3/10/2011 2:36 PM
Really - well, than we are saved once again. So, despite advertisement revenue drop in the 4th quarter of 2010 - he single-handed rescued the Titanic. Turning readers and advertisers away - wow, that's the new business model and the industry is watching??????? I'll bet they are.
Must be a lot of Kool-Aid given out at the Crystal Palace today.
The Knight Foundation, while great, can be full of itself and has made missteps. Sinking money into the Newseum. Giving out tens of millions in innovation grants with little to show. There is no single fix for the collapse of the news business. And there is an increasing amount of cheaply manufactured junk passing for news that is replacing real journalism. Foundations and greedy companies like Gannett will not turn the tide. So maybe it does not matter whose paychecks this guy cashes. All we know is that he's making big bucks for pontificating.
ReplyDelete3:47 I have assumed that 2:36 was being facetious. After all, as recently as Bob Dickey's Jan. 4 first-quarter furlough memo, Gannett's newspaper revenue continued to fall.
ReplyDeleteDickey wrote: "Our top line revenues, however, while improving, remain short of where they were a year ago."
Indeed, in the fourth quarter, Gannett's overall revenue was mostly unchanged from a year ago, and fell short of Wall Street's forecasts.
None of this suggests Corporate is "turning people away."
I have no idea who this guy is, why we should care or have a clue of any impact this guy has had. And I've been in the building for nearly 10 years. I didn't have a clue about who this guy was until I saw his picture here.
ReplyDeleteHe is “amazing”
ReplyDelete8:43 - You have to admit that working on the GCI side of Crystal Palace is a very cold, sterile, cut-throat, unfriendly environment - the atmosphere of a morgue. The higher the floor, the worse it gets.
ReplyDeleteThere actually are good people in the Crystal Palace, like me. We work hard, we've watched our numbers sliced while the workload trippled. We worry about paying our mortgages, buying food and gas and saving for our kids educations. We too want good leadership and to be treated as valued employees. We are you, you are us. Please stop painting us all with the same false broad brush.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allamericanspeakers.com/celebritytalentbios/Michael-Maness
ReplyDeleteI have known and worked with Michael on and off for almost his entire career with Gannett. His loyalty to the company was strong working for Gannett for 15 years. Michael consistently delivered unique perspective and insight. Working on a project with Michael was always a tremendous learning experience for me. He is that point person to be able to crystalize ideas out of a mess of random thoughts the group provides. He is that person who has a method to the madness to produce a working/evolving business model when most could not get the group there.
ReplyDeleteI am sure those who have taken the time to criticize Michael on this blog have never had his role. As my father taught me, it is easy to criticize but very hard to create ideas from scratch.
We as a company should be cheering this group on. Hoping that Gannett wants to fund more projects like Michael started. Game changing ideas just don't happen. They take a structure, talented people with unique backgrounds/perspective to execute them and funding (lots of it). You have to build, evolve, fail, have some wins and hopefully out of those many-many attempts you are lucky enough to find major wins and a game changer.
I give credit to Michael for building the structure and culture within his team to go after this huge challenge in front of them.
11:34 - I didn't see "generated new revenue" or "produced significant profit margin" in your effusive praise. Those results define major wins and game changers. I worked with Maness and our roles often overlapped and conflicted. What I learned was that he was put in a position to look like the Newspaper division is forward thinking, and protect the legacy cronies from actually pursuing digital success at a large scale.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned was that he was put in a position to look like the Newspaper division is forward thinking, and protect the legacy cronies from actually pursuing digital success at a large scale.
ReplyDelete3/11/2011 11:23 AM
And therein lies the fly in the ointment. Innovation is only good if it is put to good use. I don't think that the man had no ideas, but what did he produce other than the Bold Italic? And if his ideas were so great, why wasn't he partnered with Saridakis during his tenure? It seems odd to me that we have this guy in a seperate category (Innovation), when could have been partnered with Digital. Wouldn't that have broadened the playing field?
11:23 again - Why did Wiliams, Donaghy, Lundquist, Maness, et al turn to other dying newspaper companies to form a "best in class" online display network in Quadrant One, and ignore, refute, even outright disavow guidance from USAToday.com and Saridakis? Because they're print vets who think it doesn't require genuine money-making digital expertise to be successful online. Their first priority is "don't gut the newspaper mothership", vs. grow digital revenue organically.
ReplyDelete11:34, thanks for stopping by, Sue Clark-Johnson!
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ReplyDeleteMM was personally responsible for pissing away millions. His "innovative" ideas never generated revenue and the bold italic initiative has spent nearly $3 million dollars to get off the ground versus a whopping $47 thousand in revenue. Fairly certain a 4th grader could have put that $3million in a pass book savings account and have earned the company more.
ReplyDeleteI think all good people should be fired. Then we could have the hangers on running the company and I am sure they would do so much better. Yes. Please let the good ones leave soon.
ReplyDelete