CEO Craig Dubow really, really, really, really, really (!!!) likes mobile devices, none more than Apple's iPad.
Indeed, he's so excited about USA Today's apps for the iPad and other mobile gadgets that he devoted three full paragraphs to the subject in his recently published annual letter to shareholders.
That's why it's of more than passing interest to report that one of USAT's top apps developers -- William Couch -- announced today that he's leaving for a software engineering job at Twitter. Couch "played a huge, huge role in building USA Today's uber-successful apps for the Android, iPhone and iPad,'' says newspaper designer Charles Apple, who wrote about Couch's departure earlier this evening.
Couch has been at USAT since March 20082009. A 2007 graduate of the University of Michigan, he starts at Twitter's offices here in San Francisco on May 2.
Couch weighs in
[Updated at 1 p.m. ET April 6. In a new post on his Tumblr blog, Couch says: "I’m not a lead developer on the apps -- that would be the fantastic Mercury Intermedia -- I just worked with them a lot on the interface, design, and user experience of the app. However, I do develop and design web apps, and that will constitute a large part of my new job at Twitter." He also explains the circumstances under which he took photos of the Crystal Palace that have been much-discussed in the comments section, below.]
"Twitter," Couch wrote earlier, "has witnessed phenomenal growth both in its offices and on its servers. To cope with this, they’ve built a small, efficient, and skilled team to build beautiful, functional web applications that give tremendous power to the staff to visualize and work with the Twitter network. . . . I’ll be joining this team to do front-end web development, design, and visualization work."
'Greatest game changer'
Dubow, in his letter to shareholders in the glossy version of the annual report, wrote:
"With USA Today's inaugural app for the iPad, we were at the forefront of one of the greatest game changers we have seen."
He added: "[It] has been enormously successful and demonstrates the importance of having great content -- and great design -- tailored to each particular platform. USA Today's app has been one of the most popular news apps on this device with more than 1.6 million downloads since it launched last April, and advertiser support remains strong."
Related: Join my nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter.
[Photo: Apple]
Indeed, he's so excited about USA Today's apps for the iPad and other mobile gadgets that he devoted three full paragraphs to the subject in his recently published annual letter to shareholders.
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| Couch |
Couch has been at USAT since March 2008
Couch weighs in
[Updated at 1 p.m. ET April 6. In a new post on his Tumblr blog, Couch says: "I’m not a lead developer on the apps -- that would be the fantastic Mercury Intermedia -- I just worked with them a lot on the interface, design, and user experience of the app. However, I do develop and design web apps, and that will constitute a large part of my new job at Twitter." He also explains the circumstances under which he took photos of the Crystal Palace that have been much-discussed in the comments section, below.]
"Twitter," Couch wrote earlier, "has witnessed phenomenal growth both in its offices and on its servers. To cope with this, they’ve built a small, efficient, and skilled team to build beautiful, functional web applications that give tremendous power to the staff to visualize and work with the Twitter network. . . . I’ll be joining this team to do front-end web development, design, and visualization work."
'Greatest game changer'
Dubow, in his letter to shareholders in the glossy version of the annual report, wrote:
"With USA Today's inaugural app for the iPad, we were at the forefront of one of the greatest game changers we have seen."
He added: "[It] has been enormously successful and demonstrates the importance of having great content -- and great design -- tailored to each particular platform. USA Today's app has been one of the most popular news apps on this device with more than 1.6 million downloads since it launched last April, and advertiser support remains strong."
Related: Join my nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter.
[Photo: Apple]
Gannett is bleeding the talent it needs if this transformation is to be anything than words (and I am not yet convinced it is anything but words). Corporate is rejecting anything that comes up on their desk that costs money, and so anyone with a connection or a prospect for another job is going elsewhere in hopes their ideas will get a better reception. Couch is no Saridakis, who had sweeping views. But he's too knowledgeable about this new technology for us not to acknowledge the tremendous loss this is going to be for GCI.
ReplyDeleteI know corporate's position is that they don't care and that no underling is irrepleaceable. But this attitude is costing them any hopes of seeing any future growth of revenues they want.
I don't know how USAT could counter an offer from a place like Twitter.
ReplyDeleteWhat could the paper offer?
Jim: Take a look at Couch's postings of his pictures of Gannett's vast and empty headquarters building that he has been posting on Flickr. Not a soul in any of them. They are quite depressing. No wonder he was dissillusioned with GCI:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/wcouch/2267788833/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcouch/2268580366/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcouch/2267792097/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcouch/2268579188/
11:19 They could have told him he was wanted and appreciated. Perhaps they could have confided they had high hopes in his future. But that would be very un-Gannett. We're all nothing but widgets and can be replaced.
ReplyDeleteEveryone can be replaced. Period. That's the Gannett way. Check out PointRoll.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have a heart attack from not-surprise!!
ReplyDeleteUSAT is hemorrhaging talent. Everyone I work with is looking for other work. Only the veterans wanting to stick it out until retirement are hoping to still be working at USA Today next year. I have some prospects myself. Can't wait to start fresh.
USA Today makes it clear that it invests in no one's future, and so we are all passing time, waiting for a real job to materialize.
What could USA Today offer? How about turning the newspaper to young, innovative staffers and give them the free rein to make a newspaper people will read. What was once exciting and innovative has become boring, pedestrian and traditional. Do readers really want to read more about Dancing with the Stars? How about some new boomer poll stating the obvious (boomers at 65 are anxious about retirement is the latest). Or was the timing right for Katie Couric?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the link to the photos of the Crystal Palace - honestly, I had never seen the place and my invitations to Tysons must keep getting lost in the mail.
ReplyDeleteThat lobby though, holy crap - we could put all our office space and half the pressroom there. The difference is we make a profit....
Pointroll is a fucking mess. Saridakis has taken a shitload of people. Apparently more people are resigning joining him at GSI commerce. Rob Gatto is another ridiculous choice. Gatto and Dondici are all talking about buying a smaller crappy competitor like Spongecell in order to stay competitive. What a joke!
ReplyDeleteAdcontrol doesn't work and we have employees (good ones) defecting and now clients are moving to cheaper, smaller competitors. Our relationshipmwith Ford is getting worse and we just lost two other major clients.
Does anyone at Gannett see what is going in?
5:51 You've got to see the Crystal Palace to believe it. It is huge, cavernous and VERY EMPTY just like he photographed it. All that space is heated in the winter and air-conditioned in the summer at staggering costs rivaling that needed to run a small country. It's on a scale that not even Hitler's architect Albert Speer envisioned.
ReplyDelete@6:28, it's empty, but Gracia is doing her best to leverage those assets to expand shareholder value. How many floors are sealed off and rented to outside companies? I've lost count, but it's at least two.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, maybe she's in training as a Realtor?
Those pix speak volumes. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking he took those photos on a Saturday or something. But there are too many people around for that!
ReplyDeleteThese were really taken on a week-day? Wow!
To say Gannett is "bleeding" talent on the digital side is putting it mildly. Hemorrhaging is more like it. At the newspaper I work for, four years ago we had 12 developers; now it's 2. And both of them are looking for another job.
ReplyDeleteFrom the other papers I've spoken with, most are lucky if they still have one developer on payroll. Same is true at USAT and GMTI, which have lost all their top devs in the past two years. The combined effect of furloughs, pay freezes, newsroom politics, and awful workplace morale have been the most often cited reasons for leaving.
How about an employee exercise room for all of us? Bigger than the newsroom at my site.
ReplyDeleteEnough already. Those pics are legit. They're all in common areas. The people *should be* at their desks working, not perusing the hallways. There is a lot of empty space, but the building was built with a 20 year horizon - so the space had to be planned for. The real question is - why wasn't Couch working?
ReplyDeleteI track this company's problems back to the construction of that building. There was nothing wrong with the Arlington Air Rights building, or with the then-nearby Newseum either.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if USAT even mustered a counter offer to Couch. When I left, they couldn't even field one. That paper is burning people out left and right. I've talked privately with plenty of ex-coworkers and the ones below the age of 40 want out ASAFP. Nothing has changed from what I've been told--it's only gotten worse.
ReplyDeleteMercury Intermedia, not Couch, built the USA Today iPhone and iPad apps. Still, Couch played a big role in designing the UI with them. But he's not an Objective C programmer or an app developer. Gannett, in fact, doesn't have any employees who fits that job description.
ReplyDeleteGood to see journalists verifying information before posting. (That's meant to be ironic.) Here's an update from Couch that should clarify a few things:
ReplyDeletehttp://couch.tumblr.com/post/4391451056
11:25 I am not a journalist.
ReplyDeletexxxThere is a lot of empty space, but the building was built with a 20 year horizonxxxx
ReplyDeleteIt's been there 10 years now, and it is hardly half full. In fact, I would estimate that only 10 percent of the Crystal Towers is occupied.
Oh for gosh sakes. The humanity, the drama that comes out of this blog. The sky isn't falling. There are so many good developers out there and they jump jobs like frogs. They'll find someone else.
ReplyDeleteNah, outsource all development to Bangalore. 2adpro will need something to do after they Helvetica all of our advertisers into bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the pix: A lot of wasted space!
ReplyDeleteWhen is GCI coming out with an android app for USAT? It has the most market share than any smart phone.
ReplyDelete5:09 Wow. More than the iPhone?
ReplyDelete5:09 p.m.: Go check the Android Market. The USA TODAY app for Android has been out for months.
ReplyDelete5:51am, it's a very cold, sterile, eerie place - be glad you're not here! Deceiving from the outside as well; little do people realize from driving by how empty inside it is.
ReplyDelete10% my ass. Man, you folks love spreading BS. Jim cites comments as the most popular part of his blog, but it is all unsubstantiated bull shit. Perhaps this is a broad stroke, but who cares...some may be credible...but this is all BS.
ReplyDelete