Tuesday, May 17, 2011

USAT | A big shake-up disclosed at USA Weekend; VP Frank takes reins as mag merges with Your Life

In another power grab, USA Today's consumer media vice president, Heather Frank, is taking control of editorial content at the nation's second-biggest newspaper magazine supplement -- further tightening her grip on a risky digital bet by Gannett's most visible brand.

Frank
The newspaper disclosed today that Frank will oversee a new editorial team comprising the merged staffs of USA Weekend and the daily's six-month-old Your Life online vertical.

The struggling paper also said it had appointed a new general manager for Your Life, and confirmed that it hired a Washington Post editor for the site, which focuses on subjects meant to to draw female consumers, including health, food and beauty.

The moves come amid other shifts in resources at USAT, which at one point accounted for as much as 10% of GCI's overall revenue -- illustrating the high stakes in the paper's turnaround under Publisher Dave Hunke. Two weeks ago, Corporate disclosed that USAT would absorb much of the remnants of the old Gannett News Service, now operating as the ContentOne news distributor.

Frank was among a clutch of newly created vice presidents that Hunke named last fall in a reorganization of the paper to reverse sagging advertising revenue and circulation. Your Life is one of five planned verticals that form a centerpiece of Hunke's risky bid to get the paper back on track, so has drawn considerable attention across GCI and the newspaper industry. The paper prints 1.8 million copies, but trails The Wall Street Journal in overall circulation, including digital subscriptions.

Today's statement said USA Weekend's president and publisher, Charles Gabrielson, would continue to manage sales, marketing, research and affiliate relations. The magazine prints 22.6 million copies weekly, distributed by its more than 840 affiliate newspapers. Conde Nast's Parade is the top title in the Sunday supplement market, with 32.2 million copies in more than 510 papers.

The statement was unclear on whether Gabrielson would report to Frank, saying only that "the new management team" will report to her. That would at least include the merged editorial staffs.

Combining 'core strengths'
Frank said: "The combination of the highly tenured content teams represents an opportunity to bring together the core editorial strengths of USA Weekend magazine -- engaging, celebrity-driven coverage of social issues, entertainment, health, food -- with the core strengths of USA Today's Your Life -- outstanding health, medical and fitness coverage and a vibrant online platform."

Frank's editorial takeover today is likely to deepen the angst among some Gannett Bloggers, who have expressed concern about the authority she is gaining at the newspaper.

Like the other verticals, Your Life has its own general manager, a position similar to a deputy publisher for the paper. The new GM is Christine Allegro. Like Frank, she is an AOL veteran, and got hired last year "to drive new content strategies across multiple content niches,'' today's statement says.

The statement was equally unclear on whether Allegro and the new editor from the Post, Nancy Kerr, were hired into new positions, or as replacements for existing managers. I reported Kerr's hiring last week. Denise Brodey was Your Life's GM at its launch; as I post this, her photo is still illustrating the site's introduction to readers.

Today's shakeup suggests Hunke may be unhappy with Your Life's progress since it was launched in November -- a concern, given the attention he's focused on the vertical sites as sources of new revenue and readers. Corporate has disclosed little about Your Life's traffic since a lone report in GCI's annual report to federal securities regulators.

About Frank's bio
Word for word, from a USAT statement, announcing her promotion to vice president of vertical development last September; her title has since been changed to VP of consumer media:

Frank joined USA Today in 2010 as general manager of USAT’s Your Life health and lifestyle vertical. Previously, she led the content programming and operations teams for RevolutionHealth.com. Prior to that, she was the editor-in-chief for Meredith Corporation’s women’s lifestyle sites.

From 1997 to 2003, she was an executive at America Online, where she led editorial teams in developing programming in response to popular culture and current events. Prior to joining AOL, Frank was the general manager for new media at WHERE magazines. Frank is a graduate of Newcomb College.

173 comments:

  1. Why would USAT put out a press release on this matter? Why would anyone in the world care about the internal reporting structure beyond the Crystal Towers? Seems very strange.

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  2. 3:26 You are right! First of all no one in the Crystal Towers know who they report to and second the chain of command will change again, I believe this time with Frank's running the show!

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  3. USAT is emphasizing this because Frank is being lined up to be Hillkirk's successor. She's been blessed by the powers that be, and if rumor has it correctly the change is coming real soon.

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  4. This woman has not proven she can run anything yet. She has no people skills, no feel for what the newspaper is all about, and no ability to attract advertisers or readers. So Hunks gives her even more power? Unbelievable. Hillkirk is a genius compared to this one.

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  5. 3:26 Sometimes companies issue statements like this simply to flatter an individual. In this case, it would make Frank feel important.

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  6. Horrible strategy executed horribly.

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  7. Heather Frank's Management team would accomplish this much if she/replaces hillkirk; inspire widespread disgust and mutiny. Maybe that is what hunke wants. He doesn't really give a shit about anyone below veep level.

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  8. Ms. Allegro, please do something (like work) instead of planting false rumors about Heather rrunning Usa Today. You and Matt and Denise don't have enough to do all day.

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  9. "Another Power Grab" what kind of journalism is that? This is what the blog has come to? What's next Star Magazine?

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  10. Hillkirk has already retired and he's long since surrendered control of USA Today, so I am not surprised to learn they are promoting Frank. Hillkirk is a weak sister in this operation.

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  11. What did Brodey do wrong? Looks to me like she was screwed over in this major shakeup, yet you are right about her picture still leading Your Life section. So who reports to whom, and who gets the credit and the big bucks?

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  12. They are fighting so much about who is in charge they aren't paying attention to the content. Look at this headline on the melanoma story. It doesn't make sense "Melanoma Survivors Against Indoor:
    http://yourlife.usatoday.com/index

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  13. Jim, anyone: Any word on the remaining core USAW staff? The eight or so that survived the December 2009 massacre?

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  14. Frank: one of the worst hires in the history of usa today. In fact, maybe THE worst.

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  15. Brody hasn't been thrown under the bus. Just moved and given another title. Like all the rest of the vertical hires. What, exactly, have any of them accomplished here to date?

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  16. 7:32 Someone thinks she's great, or else there wouldn't have been this public announcement. This whole affair mystifies me. What does it mean for the current management table, who reports to whom, who is top dog and who is the underdog? Why are they apparently shaking up the management of Your Life just seven months after announcing the previous changes. Did someone get an attaboy press release in lieu of a payraise? I am pretty sure they will tell us tomorrow it means nothing. But then why make such a public fuss over it in the first place. Or maybe it is a sign of a major shakeup. Who knows? I certainly don't and I didn't see doors slamming or hear heated words. Nor did I see anyone handing out lemon bars.

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  17. A sign of how things are going off the rails at USA Today. If we can't get our public message straight, you know how bad things are. Mind you, this is a communications company. We are paid to get things clear and straight.

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  18. I think we are all missing the point here. With all of this effort being put into Your Life, and all this editorial attention, where are the revenues? How much cash is Gannett getting from this effort. I get ads on this blog, so why don't see that many ads on the Your Life pages?

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  19. Seriously? All this todo about a freakin' Life page? It boggles my mind. And it makes me sad. I thought I was a journalist and worked for a journalism firm.

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  20. I hope it is not true that Frank is being groomed for Hillkirk's job. Hillkirk is a class act and a seasoned journalist. Frank is sweet and would make a great schoolteacher but...Editor-in-Chief? Surely not.

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  21. There is absurdity happening at USA Today. Heather and her friends have high intentions but no actual experience. Nothing about the verticals is working and once a grown-up takes a look, she will be gone pretty quickly.

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  22. Never before in the history of journalism have I seen anything as original as the verticals. They are truly innovative and being closely watched by other newspapers who are looking for new magic to boost revenues. Everyone here dumping on Heather should be ashamed. When did USA Today write a press release about what you are doing?

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  23. The New York Times' DealBook site -- devoted to Wall Street mergers and acquisitions and other financial news -- is often cited as an excellent example of a vertical.

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  24. She crazy. Real crazy.

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  25. 2:19 brings up a good point; non actual newspaper experience. Keep her away from any more power until she and her team accomplish what they are so well compensated were hired for. So far, the verticals are a massive failure, content wise and in bringing in revenue. Only at gannets would this merit promotions. Hunke needs to answer for this. Soon. Instead, staffers on the paper feel they'll be paying the price for Heather's incompetence. And that's the bottom line here.

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  26. Touché, 6:07. I'd love to see a press release from USA Today on how a handful of people manage to get the goddamned paper out every single night and the website updated while a bunch of other people sit on their hands, hide in their offices or have long since gone home.

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  27. Hell 8:05, that could be any site. Or at least mine.

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  28. 6:07 - I have no beef with Heather, I don't know the woman, but verticals are the most original thing in the history of journalism? Maybe you are trying to be funny and I just don't get it, but really? What innovations have they delivered yet? As a regular reader of USAT print and USAT.com and I can't see anything very different from a content standpoint. Meanwhile, USAT print advertising is anemic. Some days, I can count the paying ads in USAT print on one hand. I think most of us who aren't in the inner circle would like to know what the vertical strategy has accomplished - more revenue? more readers? more mobile apps? I'm not trying to be snarky. I would really like someone to explain what innovations are coming/have come from the vertical strategy.

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  29. Does it all really matter. This sitcom won't be on the air much longer anyway.

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  30. The verticals are adding content cost-free or at much lower cost. More content, more clicks, so more ad revenue. What's not to understand?

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  31. "A ragged house long bereft of Lordship."

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  32. To paraphrase Denise Brodey, the verticals are aimed at readers who want to be a sane dieter, a savvy shopper, a short-order family cook, an energetic co-worker and a supportive partner 24/7...Why shouldn't readers want to know more about that?

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  33. 9:49 Yes, and tell me why traditional journalism has not provided this sort of basic information.

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  34. @9:53: Traditional journalism has long provided this information, ad nauseum, and you know it.

    @9:41: What's not to understand? How about the hard numbers. What are they? And who is going to read all that crap? It's not enticing, it's not interesting, it's not well edited. The one thing it is is a jumble that has been indifferently posted to the site.

    What's not to understand? Try how this merger of two disparate entities is going to work. The people in charge either don't have a focused idea or lack the ability to communicate that.

    Meanwhile, the longtime executive editor/VP of USA Weekend has been made a "team leader." A longtime, well-respected editor in what used to be Health and Behavior (remember pods, anyone?) has been thrown a lifeline by her friend Susan Weiss and towed over to News.

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  35. 941: basically the verticals aren't attracting the readers or the advertisers that wet envisioned. The blame rests squarely with heather and her untalented hires.

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  36. Was Brodey given enough time to make it work? Your Life launched only six months ago.

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  37. She and several hires had several months to get the verticals up to speed pre launch. I don't mean to be cruel, but some sat around at they desks doing nothing all day. They don't pull in ads, network with current/print staff or even bother learning publishing systems. Truly bizzare.

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  38. Has it occurred to anyone that Hunke might be a little insane? You know, insane as in every war movie where the insane commander sends the troops to accomplish the clearly insane and the tragically undoable, all for his own glorification?

    At one USAT staff meeting, he announced right off there would be no more furloughs because it was driving good people from the company. Then he announced at the same meeting that "we will be a smaller company by the end of the summer." Which had the immediate effect of a blizzard of resumes going out and an exodus of staffers, no doubt the ones he wanted to keep by deep-sixing furloughs.

    Was that stupid, or was that insane?

    Then, after we did become a smaller company, he spoke a few sad words about the large number of people who had been laid off. Then he gleefully announced that he had created a completely useless position for his secretary and promoted her to "Director of Employee Engagement."

    Was that stupid, or was that insane?

    At the most recent meeting, when Hunke was told that morale was in the toilet in the USAT newsrooms, he said it wasn't his problem.

    Really? If it's not his problem, then why did he create a position called "Director of Employee Engagement" in the first place?
    Why? Because it's a phantom position for his own glorification. If it were a real position, don't you think he would have said, "It's not my problem, but please talk to my Director of Employee Engagement?"

    Again, I ask: Stupid, or insane?

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  39. I don't want to be too harsh on these people running the verticals because they all have enthusiasm. It's just that the enthusiasm is misplaced. It took us a decade to build USA Today up to a profit-making newspaper, and recall how many felt the McPaper would fail. The difference is that USA Today had an idea and a theme that these verticals don't have. I don't know zip about marketing, but I do know you have to have a coherent message and these verticals are detracting from that right now.

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  40. As 9:49 points out, the remit for the verticals are much too broad. You could put everything into these definitions. They should be narrowed down into areas not being currently covered.

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  41. @9:41 - the problem is, that this strategy is not original and is certainly not the most original idea ever in journalism. Many other media companies before USAT have adopted this business model - Huffington Post, Drudge Report, even Demand Media - but they were early movers in the space and implemented their strategy in a unique way. USAT is neither an early mover nor has it innovated the strategy (low-cost content and more clicks) in any way, so USAT is unlikely to attract big ticket advertisers who like to be around the latest "new" thing.

    What I still don't get is how the vertical strategy is doing anything to support USAT's other platforms - print and mobile. The low-cost content + more clicks is just a USAT.com strategy. How does this strategy play out elsewhere? Is the strategy simply an effort to reduce the cost of content across all platforms? Will that be enough to sustain the business?

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  42. @11:46 BOTH!!

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  43. What I'd like to know is how Hunke justified bonuses to Heather and her management team. What did they accomplish besides looking busy, demanding private private offices and running up high expense reports? Can the director of employee engagement answer that?

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  44. I still want to understand exactly who reads USA Today. Really.

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  45. I don't see any evidence the verticals are working. So do we continue slogging on with this plan, because it is too early to say if they are effective. Do we try something new, or isn't there anything new to try? When the layoffs come, as we all hear they are, who gets the pink slips: the part of USA Today that is making money, or the part of USA Today that might possibly make money tomorrow?

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  46. Yeah, me too, 1:59. Really! It's so far off my radar as a Web site it never occurs to me to look at it. I've already seen it all elsewhere, in a more orderly and readable fashion. Sorry, verticals.

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  47. USAT/corporate managers love playing this game of musical chairs and throwing around new titles -- like that's going to solve what is wrong at the core of this operation. All this "see what sticks" mentality has done is prove that our lack of confidence in upper management is more than warranted, as we've watched failure after failure unfold in the last three years. It's a joke inside the building and inside the industry as a whole. Where we use to be envied we are now being laughed at.

    Why do all these new (and recycled) people fail? Simple. Because they aren't qualified to fix anything. Some might look good on paper or do super PowerPoint presentations, but there is something fundamentally missing in these people. They lack the intangibles and gut instincts that make for great leaders. They don't have ink or pixels in their veins. They pretend to be passionate, but they are so misdirected that they don't know how to channel that passion into productivity and enterprise.

    The people appointing them also come up short, which should be no surprise. Ducks like hanging out with ducks...

    There needs to be a top-to-bottom, objective, outside investigation of what has gone wrong here in the last 3-5 years -- particularly in the newsroom. That should include frank conversations with present and, perhaps more importantly, past employees who have served the company for at least several years (for proper perspective). I say "more importantly" because those who have fled or been pushed out probably will be more honest in their appraisals. Sure, you risk some sour grapes, but without those perspectives the full truth will never be revealed, and therefore USAT will never right its course.

    Some awful stuff has gone down here. Stuff behind the scenes that really tore at the core and all but destroyed operations and quality control on every level. It got personal. It was heartbreaking. Big and small mistakes seriously damaged morale. Why and how that happened needs to be fully discovered. Anyone who backed that those destructive actions need to be held accountable once and for all.

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  48. Wont happen. More important to slap each other on the back once you've joined "the club." Its like that preppy frat house from Animal house.

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  49. Heather Frank should be on double secret probation.

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  50. The gossip at USAT has become truly sulphuric, particularly about Heather Frank. I think that's why they put out that really weird press release this week aimed only at reassuring Frank. But in the process, they pissed off Chuck G. who was forced to go along with something he knows won't work. It's absolutely nuts, and it is affecting the product. I had a manager today dismiss a former USAT reporter who recently left as being worthless, inept and in the bag of her Capitol Hill sources even though she was their darling when she was here.

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  51. I'm glad to see people here are giving proper kudos to Chuck G, as opposed to the normal manager bashing. He's a quality person with strong leadership skills and is capable of energizing his people. Of course, given that, it means he can only go so far with this company.

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  52. Brodey is indeed still listed on the web site as the GM for YourHealth, a role she hasn't been doing for months. She wasn't a good fit with the newsroom staff from the start, which was made worse by her New York location and attitude. As another commentor notes, she has moved on to another role as the women's initiative advocate across all of the verticals run by Frank. She continues to be paid at the level of a GM, of course, which is ironic given how little she has produced. She is a health and women's magazine editor and a good one, but completely out of her depth as a GM, in other more business oriented roles or in the digital space. Go back to your editorial magazine world, Ms. Brodey.

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  53. Those who can do, those who can't blog inaccuracies, beg for dollar bills and make money off our frustrations and fears.

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  54. What does it tell you when the vaunted team entrusted with saving Usat is so roundly criticized for its incompetence and despised for its management style? Where are the results promised a year ago?

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  56. The scales fall from my eyes, and I now see what this verticles thing is all about. It is to give these AOL people titles, positions and well-equipped offices and allow them to spend their days fighting over who gets promoted to a brand new title and position I have never heard before. I also can't recall someone getting promoted six months after being here as with Frank, or quietly moved aside as Brodey. The winner of this game is who accumulates the most titles. Meantime, what's all this activity, turmoil and associated gossip doing for our bottom line?

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  57. Just think of the time and effort that went into making this promotion. Promotions used to come to people based on merit, but this one came based on meetings. There were meetings with Chuck G., meetings with Hunke. Hillkirk must have been consulted, perhaps with a cc sent to Gracia (who I bet is still puzzling over this one). Then the press release writer is brought in and whatever is written on Heather's promotion is circulated in the same group (maybe Gracia doesn't get a copy of this one). When everyone signs off on the language, the copy machines run and it is published for the waiting whole world to see. Wow. And these are people who are supposed to deal with news.

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  58. Swift and repeated promotions avoid accountability. "Sorry, I couldn't get around to that problem because I'm still trying to figure out my new job. I'll get at ASAP, I promise. Whoops, I just got promoted to another job. Let someone else deal with that problem you wanted resolve because I have to learn my new job." ETC, ETC...

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  59. Yep. Can't possibily give you that report on why revenues aren't pouring in from the new verticals Hunks has been screaming for because I just got promoted and have to move offices and give orders to the new staff. I have some great breakthrough ideas about it, though, so let's lunch.

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  60. I can give you a sense of the pitiful web traffic Your Life generates. The Your Life section front gets about 120,000 page views a day. By comparison, Life's home front averages close to 2 million page views a day, and USAT.com averages nearly 10 million page views a day. Travel, the other "vertical" that's up and running, performs much, much better than Your Life.

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  61. I'm surprised nobody here has mentioned the birthday party Heather Frank threw for "one of her people," as she called him. Several months ago, the Life staff was summoned to celebrate a birthday for one of Heather's people -- some guy from marketing who none of us knew. Cake was served and "Happy Birthday" was sang for a complete stranger, all done at the command of Frank, who was, and still is, a complete stranger to most of the rank-and-filers in Life. It was one of the most surreal scenes I've ever encountered in my career. Very much like something out of "Office Space."

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  62. Your Life writes such miserable stories -- cancers, melanomas, weight loss, binge drinking, etc. Too much bad news, not enough good news.

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  63. 11:45 Very interesting.

    Your Life was launched toward the end of the first week of November, and it generated 2.5 million page views in its first month, according to a 10-K regulatory filing Corporate made in February.

    That's an average of 119,000 page views a day during a period when it was being promoted heavily on USAT's home page.

    Unfortunately, I can't do an apples-to-apples comparison with 11:45's figure because it is only for page views on Your Life's home page: 120,000 daily. The site surely generates more views when counting "inside" pages.

    It would be interesting to know what the site's business model says about minimum page views. How many are needed just to break even? How many to hit the profit target set for six months, a year, etc.?

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  64. Yesterday the Your Life story was melanomas. Today it is getting a better tan on your body. There is no consistency.

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  65. 1:41 That's it. They have been running a series of stories on the dangers of being in the sun and melanomas while we have been selling to sun-tanning salons. Once they heard that, they switched to how to get a good tan. These verticals are supposed to coordinate editorial with advertising, not create conflicts and fights between them.

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  66. There is a unique "Smoke Screen" element to this that may actually pay off. Imagine this pitch- We now have on-line people in charge of print media elements". Not Gannett on-line people, people from a verifyable online company now working for Gannett.

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  67. Heather's managers are holding meetings with the newly combined staff today and tomorrow. They are trying to make nice after all of the bashing they've been taking in the blog. But they are incredibly insincere. The high and mighty attitude is barely concealed. Heather, how about sticking around past 5pm for a few days? You might have all your aol buds do the same.

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  68. I didn't see any lemon bars at the Heather meetings.

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  69. In January, we were told we were all making the "vertical leap" Many of us wondered since what that was although there seems agreement it clearly has Maoist origins. So for us old-timers, are we now about to leap, leaping, or have we leapt. Or do we just sit around for another five months waiting for the great leap to get underway.

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  70. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  71. The concept of a vertical leap always reminded me of a sex show I went to years ago when I was in college.

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  73. This is not as far off-topic as it might seem. Take a look at this story about Google running illegal ads, and then take a look at the ads that run alongside of the verticals. I frankly don't know how much control we have over a lot of this advertisements, but I have seen what some might find questionable pill-pushing firms advertising on Your Life. My question is are the verticals letting ads in USA TOday that normal policies would keep out?
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/is-google-profiting-from-illegal-ads/2011/05/18/AFXsQD7G_story.html?hpid=z3

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  74. God help us all if this woman gets any more titles. Powen !s unbridled as this, backed up by hollow promises and incompetence, will ultimately cost many scalps. Even Dave Hunke's.

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  75. What's next? Rudd Davis replacing John Hillkirk?

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  76. No, Rudd will replace Hunke.

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  77. For the record,the tanning story in Your Life was about getting a fake tan, out of a bottle, and not from a tanning booth or the sun.

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  78. The Internet is a harsh place, but rarely have I seen anyone so savaged as Heather Frank and what she represents.

    Much of it is completely unfair. She was asked to do a job and she is trying to do it.

    But it is how she is doing it that has everyone so upset. Mean Girls comes to USA TODAY.

    The ousting of a popular and talented editor for no reason that anyone can determine except that she is not part of the AOLian "club" was tone deaf. Is this high school?

    The secrecy and lowered voices adds to the paranoia.

    Now one of the biggest moves in USA TODAY/WEEKEND history is off to an awful start when the path should have been upbeat. She has shown no leadership when leadership was needed.

    Everyone dreams about being in power and filling it with friends. But that seems to be what she is doing. A seven-month effort already filled with some dead wood?

    Good luck to Heather as this truly ugly discussion happily moves into the Blog's back pages. But she needs to change, actually talk to people instead of "listening'' and make a team instead of a bunker.

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  79. She needs to discover how to make lemon bars and then throw a lemon bar party.

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  80. The Internet is a harsh place, but rarely have I seen anyone so savaged as Heather Frank and what she represents.

    Much of it is completely unfair. She was asked to do a job and she is trying to do it.

    But it is how she is doing it that has everyone so upset. Mean Girls comes to USA TODAY.

    The ousting of a popular and talented editor for no reason that anyone can determine except that she is not part of the AOLian "club" was tone deaf. Is this high school?

    The secrecy and lowered voices adds to the paranoia.

    Now one of the biggest moves in USA TODAY/WEEKEND history is off to an awful start when the path should have been upbeat. She has shown no leadership when leadership was needed.

    Everyone dreams about being in power and filling it with friends. But that seems to be what she is doing. A seven-month effort already filled with some dead wood?

    Good luck to Heather as this truly ugly discussion happily moves into the Blog's back pages. But she needs to change, actually talk to people instead of "listening'' and make a team instead of a bunker.
    5/20/2011 11:50 AM

    You seem to be talking out both sides of your mouth. You praise her and then condemn her in the same posting. I don't even know this person but reading your post makes no sense.

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  81. I'm with Heather, and I see a very bright future ahead for the USA Today/Weekend merger. I see all these markets out there that have gone largely unexploited by us that could become an advertising goldmine if only we could generate interest. That means copy and lots of it.
    Look at home repair, for example. If you go to Home Depot, you see stores filled with men on weekends looking at tools, hammers, nails and wood. So why not a section that appeals to them with wood workshops, how to fix broken lights, keeping your furnace in good condition.
    Or how about Michaels. Martha Stewart recently did a show on origami, so why wouldn't we have a story.
    And home furnishing. How much do young people spend buying furniture and look at how those high-scale furniture stores are avoiding advertising. Renaissance Hardware, for example, is very popular among young home buyers. So how about stories on how to chose trendy furniture and how to lay it out in your new home.
    I can think of hundreds of other ideas, and I only wish Heather well on her new venture. Forget the nay-sayers. There's oodles of money to be made getting more ads for USA Today/Weekend publications

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  82. Heather: USA Weekend is your "Field of Dreams" Just build it, and they will come.

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  83. Why not a gardening section? Everyone in my neighborhood grows tomatoes, so there has to be an advertising market there for Miracle Gro and the proliferation of local nurseries. With proper marketing, local nurseries could become like Ace Hardware, or the WalMart gardening centers and become national chains.

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  84. There are oodles of things wrong with 1:05's post, but because she made me laugh with "Renaissance Hardware," I'll give her a pass.

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  85. 11:50 is absolutely correct, and I shall chastise myself by going to bed without a glass of milk tonight.

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  86. I like the origami idea: turn your USA Today Weekend into a work of art you can display on your kitchen counter, and make your neighbors jealous. Here's how:....

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  87. Heather frank has been given a pass for the past year. Plus carte blanche to hire unqualified cronies. She has ostracized reporters, thrown editors under the bus and flummoxed hillkirk and Weiss/with her power grabs and questionable ethics. Not much positive here, unless you are one of her hires. She is more interested in getting her own way than making things right. On her watch, the verticals wont succeed. Maybe cleaning house at weekend magazine will keep her occupied and out of real journalists' hair.

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  88. There are scores of talented, proven digital managers who have a track record of success. How did we wind up with someone like this? Heather is so far out of her element, she couldn't be found on a periodic table.

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  89. In Hunkers rush to hire as many vice presidents and cps in waiting, Heather was able to enter the vaunted Inner Circle. You should have heard him fumble his way at the meeting announcing the verticals/weekend magazine merger. Heather, of course, was beaming.

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  90. If you had a no accountable job and all your buds on staff, you'd be beaming, too.

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  91. With great power comes great responsiblity. Will someone at Usa Today take heed and do the right things for a change? Move out the poseurs, frauds, unqualified and lazy. On the verticals, dotcom and print side. Get some people who actually know what they doing. Embrace them. Trust them and get out of their way.

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  92. Who is in charge of taking heed? And how are they going to figure out who does what? Those of us who have been at USA Today for years no longer know for sure who does what, let alone know the names or the jobs of all these new people who keep popping up.

    Flattening the structure of the newsroom was a huge misstep. It might get Hunke that yearly bonus he's salivating for (until it all falls apart and no one has a job), but instead of making the newsrooms nimble, it made them virtually unsteerable.

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  93. Heather knows that USA Today was once just a gleam in Neuharth's eye, and yet became the nation's largest circulation paper. So why can;t the verticals work the same way. Just say it's going to work, and it is going to work. I just don't undertand all the negative waves. Look at everything she has accomplished so far.

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  94. You aren't serious, 8:48, right? Neuharth had leadership skills and a vision. He could rally the troops. Heather, on the other hand, had a hard time rallying the Life section around a large sheet cake.

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  95. Look at all Heather has done? Like besides building a staff of six figure salaried management teams that do nothing, can you list any successes? A vertical barely drawing readers and advertisers with languid content/doesn't count. Promises and rah rah press releases don't, either.

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  96. Heather has a vision. Its just the wrong one.

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  97. Well, if she had support the verticals might work. She's obviously got Hunke's backing, and she's got a title and an office, but she doesn't have the support she needs to bring this to fruition. Hillkirk doesn't have much support in the OC and there's an awful lot of opposition to him. He doesn't come out of his office. So why do things work for Hillkirk and not for Heather? If they gave her the right title, I think she could make it work.

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  98. How much do you think frank actually is paid. And did Hunke actually pay her a bonus like all the veeps got last year?

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  99. Shouldn't someone with Heather's power and authority have a bank of secretaries and more classy furniture? USA Today doesn't have many people of that rank, so I think she needs to have the visible surroundings that come with power like this.

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  100. Things work for hillkirk and the rest of senior managers? Interesting but naive/point of view. He is barely involved in day to day ops. Lots of pondering and emails, but this guy is extremely detached. Other senior editors like to meddle but bring little to the table besides frustrating the lower ranking editors who actually get the work done. The paper gets out each day beCause it has to, and it has a built in structure to do so. But often, there is no cohesive plan between editorial staffs, between print and online, and the content/production management structure has made many operational matters ambitious and ineffective. Still too many chiefs, but no one seems in charge. I guess compared to the vertical mess, this is a finely tuned operation.

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  101. I left work Friday thinking I have never seen morale lower among mid level editors, who have always had the toughest job in the newsroom. Hunke was told of low staff morale months ago. You know what he told us?improving morale was our problem, not his. He doesn't get that the transformation isn't working. He doesn't seem interested in fixing the problem. He isn't interested in how his rank and filers are doing after years of cutbacks, furloughs and pay freezes. But the worst thing is he just pays lip service to the sagging quality of the product.

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  102. 10:05; the plan was to clear out the newsrooms and consolidate editors and reporters, THEN get the big new offices and classy furniture for Heather and her peeps. Since she is still adding tons of managers, most of that is on hold until printside layoffs get done to pay for all her big big plans. A few more promotions, though, and shell be getting prime space in the other tower.

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  103. If this woman gets any more power and people at the expense of print staffers without measurable success in terms of readers and advertisers, we are all doomed. I just hope this new hire from the wash post knows what she is doing. None of heather's other hires seem to, nor do they care.

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  104. I wake up each week hoping that someone in the heirarchy realizes that what they are doing is not working. But instead of correcting their mistakes and reversing course, they only dig the hole they have made deeper and deeper. I once also hoped Maryam would force some changes through, but it has been strangely quiet on that front.

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  105. Many of us hope that the wrongs/will be righted. But when you read press releases like the one they just put out on the latest changes, its very discouraging. And just what the heck is "consumer media"? What are "highly tenured content teams"? Who writes this kind of crap, and for whom? Dubow's memos actually make more sense.

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  106. Maryam has bigger fish to deal with right now. Heather is the least of her worries. That should fall to Hunke to deal with. The verticals are his responsibility. He created this mess and its time for him to get the broom out and clean it up. Collecting big paychecks and planning for retirement while waiting for the boot from Gracia is not effective leadership, Dave.

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  107. The body English I'm reading from corporate shows the verticals aren't working. The reorganization isn't working. We are being flooded with new people who don't have the foggiest idea of how a newspaper works and are just throwing crap on the wall. What's worse is that we are screwing around with proven workhorses like Chuck G., which can't mean anything at all good. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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  108. The lunatic behind all this isn't Hunke or Heather, it is financial wannabe wizard Susan Motiff, who thinks people are annoyances as she plays Barbie with what was once a functioning newsroom.

    To blame reporters and editors for "covering the wrong things'' instead of holding advertising's feet to the fire is the big problem here.

    Does Motiff work for Hunke or does Hunke work for her? It is hard to tell. Man up, Dave! Please.

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  109. Motiff has vast experience in the business world. The financial wizard of the army times. As much knowledge about journalism as Rudd Davis. These are our future, people. They'll be able to order the know nothings running on line with impunity. I just hope they can part their wisdom throughout the organization.

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  110. Have to wonder who signed off on the key hires, promotions and transformation. Hunke, ultimately? Hillkirk? Gracia? After all the deck shuffling, this is what it is? No amount of tweaking is going to solve this mess. Neither are more promotions of those who need to be shoved aside. If hillkirk isn't willing or unable to solve the problems in the newsroom, who does that authority fall to? There are issues of newsroom structure and redefining of roles that need serious attention. Now.

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  111. She has a masters degree in strategery.

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  112. What a disaster. Seriously.

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  113. If they clean out the print side reporters and editors to pay for the verticals, and Heather's court, how the heck will the printed newspaper get produced? You cannot put that Your Life pablum into print and expect anyone to pick up the paper more than once.

    If the plan is to turn USA Today onoline into a content farm of low-value, low-cost copy,as appears to be the case, what do these geniuses plan to do with the printed paper that actually pays the bills and covers the payroll?

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  114. 6:38 It is worse than a disaster. It is utter lunacy. We are sacrificing covering real news for news engineered, massaged and produced to someone's idea of what people want to read. It's not news any more and the history of dead papers shows it doesn't work.

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  115. You did it to yourselves, 10:52. You kept swallowing the crap about what newspapers needed to be -- dumber, yet somehow more attractive to readers.

    You should have resisted a long time ago. You didn't. The blame is on you.

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  116. Ken Paulson saw the writing on the wall and got out. Hillkirk, ever the opportunist and always in the right place at the right time sailed into the slot and will do whatever it takes to hold on. Unfortunately, he wont challenge the sordid fools trying to manage above him, and he wont fix the the systemic problems below. Status quo is good for no one. Not editorial staffers. Not readers. He has to get his act together or he needs to go.

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  117. @1:05/1:31: I like the way you think. It's almost magical. In fact, it IS magical.

    Since you are bubbling up with so many ideas (none of which are original, by the way), answer me this: Where are we going to get the resources to write and illustrate all of this? If you're counting on plugging in more free content, then you need to wake up to the obvious: There are already a million other places on the Web to find that information. We are way behind in this game. Hiring more wheel-spinning, overpaid VPs and GMs isn't going to change that.

    And free content means editing-free content, so Restoration Hardware morphs into Renaissance Hardware and no one notices. Except the readers, who abandon the site immediately to go find a more reliable source of information.

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  118. 7:58 Hey I work for USA Today. I only have to come up with the bright ideas. There always seem to be someone around to write the story or carry it out. Haven't you sat in on an editorial meeting? Seems to work. There's a paper that appears the next day, isn't there? Heather is only copying what she sees going on in the operating center, plus lunch at 12:30 and home by 4 p.m. to avoid the traffic.

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  119. 10:52 You are right, of course. When they brought in the idea of the operating center, I didn't make a fuss because I thought it was meaningless. Little did I realize that it meant discarding the old newsroom concept and bringing in marketing and sales people with no background in editorial and none of the ethical standards. There's a lesson there for everyone who thought those old bright lines were foolish. The first paper I worked for had a declared iron-clad rule that no marketing or sales people could put a foot on our floor (we had the entire 3rd floor, they had the 4th). When the publisher (family member who owned the paper) wanted something printed in the editorial section of the paper, the whole editorial department rose up and threatened to quit. It was a wonderful paper.

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  120. 9:22 Read the history of Watergate. Kay Graham, editor of the Post, had no idea what was going on in the newsroom and no control. Things eventually got so hot that Ben Bradlee, the executive editor, finally took a rock-solid story to Graham to ask her if they should publish, since it was her reputation and money at stake. This meddling by publishers in our editorial deparatments is killing us. They pick the most tepid and non-confrontational editors to run the papers (Hillkirk), and it's not enough control and they want to meddle. The issue is the collapse of advertising and a lousy and outdated business model.

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  121. No, Heather does work her time. I see her almost every day, so I know she's doing something. What it is she is doing, I really don't know. I don't know what Hillkirk is doing day after day, either. But I know it is very, very important.

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  122. "They pick the most tepid and non-confrontational editors to run the papers ..."

    Bingo. When we learned at USAT who had gotten the top positions, we knew it wasn't coincidence, and we had a bad, bad feeling it wasn't because the people who had installed them were clueless.

    They simply picked the editors least likely to put up a fight. And that was the sole criterion.

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  123. Hillkirk isn't a lousy editor because he wont confront the bean counters and marketing geniuses. He is a lousy editor because he let's problems in the newsrooms fester, because he doesng get rid of dead weight and non performers, because he is disloyal and because he is too indecisive to actual take charge. An empty suit whose "big thoughts" are misguided and disconnected from the realities of running a newspaper. Trim upper management, john, make a hard decision or two on a daily basis. Get to know what some of your truly qualified people think and put them in some positions where they can run a smoother operation that actually competes with the competition and provides readers with relevant content. Do that and advertising will come back. Engage in something besides healthworks for a change. Find some passion for the product. Act like a true leader.

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  124. 12:32 They sell lemon bars at the Corner Bakery in Tysons Corner if she doesn't have time to make them. I go there all the time, and I don't have an expense account I could use.

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  125. Heather: Your Life, today:
    Pssst ...The human brain is wired for gossip
    By Larry Keller HealthDay
    Gossip can be malicious and mean, but it also may serve a protective purpose, forcing the brain to focus on people who might be threatening, a new study suggests.

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  126. Heather should only be threatened by her own incompetence and that of her ex aol pals on staff. They don't have a good product. They can't sell ads. They are damaging whatever rep usa today has left. Is this hunkes big plan?

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  127. Can't wait for the new week to begin. More Heathering to make waves among those of us who are otherwise defenseless against her power mongering. Can anyone stand up to this woman? Can anyone tell her that plan a and plan b haven't worked, and neither will plan c?

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  128. I left USAT last fall and have never been happier that I did. I feel bad for the good coworkers left behind.

    Congratulations, Hunke. You really stepped in it this time.

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  129. @12:57, Yes, it is his plan, so long as he can walk away from the disaster he created with a nice 7-figure bank account balance. Not as big as Craigie's, but what can you do.

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  130. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  131. I can't recall seeing a blowoff like this on this blog, which according to the crowdsourcing laws of this new technology must signify something is seriously wrong at USA TODAY. Since this blog can include outsiders who have no intimate knowledge of the paper like me, it says something I'm sure.

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  132. @9:05: You are correct.

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  133. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  134. Not being an insider, I don't understand the origin of the "lemon bar" comments.
    Did Franks major in Home Ec or something?

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  135. No big thing, and I don't think anything to do with Heather. It's just a memory from happier days when a staffer used to make lemon bars at home and distribute them throughout newsroom. One of those quirky but memorable USA Today things.

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  136. I remember those lemon bar parties. Memorable.

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  137. Heather has turned/lemonade into lemons. He attitude toward staff and her incompetence developing a management/team to launch long overdue/verticals should get her another promotion from Hunke.

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  138. Really. Vice President for Being in Over Your Head.

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  139. Judging by the flow of comments and the animosity directed at Ms. Frank, there's an obvious cancer here that could be fatal if left untreated. Question is, are wholesale changes in vertical leadership needed? Does simply changing over reporting staff for young cheaper hipsters make a difference? Will one hire from the wash post really change anything? I see endless meetings, but no tangible change.

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  140. We are not the only ones having problems with big mergers. Look at what is happening at Newsweek under the dynamic Tina Brown. Sounds familiar:
    http://www.adweek.com/news/press/newsroom-roil-tinas-beast-burden-131862

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  141. "Judging from the flow of comments...", there's still obviously too many people at USAT with too little to do.

    I'd be more specific but my lunch break is up and I know you folks like little short things to read.

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  142. There's always opposition to powerful, dynamic women. A male wouldn't be treated this way.

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  143. I believe most of the comments came during off hours, at night and over the weekend, genius. As far as a powerful, dynamic woman, I don't know what to tell you. Heather may have a power title, but she weirds it in strange/ways. Dynamic? Not from what anyone on staff has seen. Demanding of office space for her pals when the staff has been/cut and gone without raises/for years? Hiring her out of work, unqualified pals? Yea, I guess that's dynamic. But why even imply that the complaints about her are because of her gender? How ill advised and foolish of you.

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  144. I have to agree with the last post. All of us who work for heather are women. She is a mean, dismissive and rude to us all. If you aren't part of the aol mafia, you are useless.

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  145. Why is it the men (hunke, hillkirk) don't have the troubles you are having with her? They seem to be satisified.

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  146. 1:52,
    "A male wouldn't be treated this way."

    Are you kidding? Do you see the beating Hunke takes on this blog? He deserves it as much as Frank.

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  147. Hunke gets beaten up more than a pinata. Hillkirk is consistently trashed. So to say Heather is hated because she is a woman is disingenuous, to say the least. There are major problems with her leadership and mangerial style that affect the entire operation. Gender neutral.

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  148. The only people with too little to do are heather's management team. Just what is it they do?

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  149. 3:37,
    Agree....poor leadership and a directionless strategy knows no gender.

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  150. I don't want to get involved in your fights because I am not part of this operation, and I normally only read the A section. But it was my understanding these new verticals were set up to run independent of the traditional newspaper sections. So we have Life, from the traditional USA Today, and Your Life, which is the vertical. But in reading these comments, I get the distinct impression that permanent USA Today staff are working on Your Life. Perhaps a silly question, but doesn't this represent double bookkeeping, since Your Life can maintain whatever revenue it gets from the verticals is all profit and cost-free, but USA Today is actually picking up a huge tab for this?

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  151. Im not a bean counter, but there are plenty in charge setting the tone for editorial content. If they were really doing their job, they look at the costs of heathers hires as well as the salaries of redundant senior editors on the print side. Why do we need all this overhead?

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  152. This is all so painful, but fixable. Just start over.

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  153. Some of us got to meet the new vertical boss today. Maybe things will get better despite Heather.

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  154. I don't think it's fixible. The culture that has been imported is so corrosive it has already eaten through and destroyed generations of reporting and editing ethics.

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  155. We were not strong enough to fight this. I trace the problem back several years to repeated efforts by the business side to control news. At the time, managers said they were taking care of it, but they didn't. Those efforts were the camel's nose under the tent. Now we have the whole damn camel plus the camel's entourage, and I honestly don't know how we get it out. I can see clearly it's going to crowd us out. They have taken over the whole structure, and we might as well admit we are now nothing better than a shopper. Within months, having USA Today on your resume will be a disqualifier getting any respectible reporting or editing job.

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  156. She is a woman. So any criticism over her failures will be entirely unjustified and unwarranted.

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  157. How do you trust anything we write now? Is a story appearing because Heather thinks it is popular and will drive advertisements, or is it because some professional editor looked at it objectively and found it a valid news story? There is no way of saying. Everything we once did that looked objective now becomes subjective, and we have lost the reader's trust. They are such fools and ignorant, known-nothing idiots to have done this.

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  158. No, once you have sold yourself you are a whore. There is nothing you can do to get your reputation back.

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  159. This is a problem that impacts the/credibility of the entire paper, not just life. Of course, we wrap a jeep ad around the entire paper, so I guess it no longer matters. Ethics and image be damned.

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  160. We are fucked. Thanks Hunke. Thanks/heather. Thanks hillkirk. The three h club.

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  161. The general public has always believed we had an political agenda, and that we are all secret Democrats pushing policies of progressive change. We all know that's untrue, but now we can point out that the only agenda we have is selling, and the proof of that is that the vice president in charge of our section is a trained, veteran marketing specialist. Yes, unbelievable.

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  162. It is not what is going on now that concerns me, but what will happen when the furore settles and Heather gets active. It will come, eventually, trust me. That's when her marketing training will kick in, and there will be demands for stories aimed at that key big spending 18-35 demographic. We see a little of this now with the melanoma stories, but the pressure will mount for stories on health issues of this group, as opposed to Medicaid and Medicare stories, or drug studies for chronic ailments of the elderly. These stories are damned hard to find because this age group is largely healthy, but that's the audience advertisers want to meet, and we now need to respond to that need. Or the pressure will mount on Heather, and she will find some other reporters who can find these stories. There's probably a good investigative piece on all the hooking up at Gold's Gym that has gone largely uncovered.

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  163. I've always been interested in the pub crawling scene. Of course it's local, but isn't there a national story there? All that alcohol has a health downside, etc.

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  164. Reporters will soon be asked to get sponsors for their own stories. And run the stories past them for prior approval. Heather wont see anything wrong with that, and not just because she is a dynamic, powerful woman.

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  165. How about shoes? Don't women like shoes? Your Life...Steppin' Out.

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  166. How about death? Everyone is going to die. I see fabulous opportunities for sponsorship and advertising from coffin makers, florists, clergymen and funeral homes. Your Death. A whole new vertical to hire for!

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  167. Yes, I certainly see the evidence of her dynamic power every day.

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  168. Your death wont attract the high caliber GM and Editor Heather will want to hire from the scrapheap of former AOL employees, perhaps that vertical could be called After Your Life. Which might be even a better tag in the post Hunke Era.

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  169. @11:59 a.m., I like your "Your Death" idea! Although it would make a better horizontal, don't you think?

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  170. A bad hire who makes her own bad hires, ignores ethics, runs roughshod over talented print people and is tone deaf in terms of her wants and needs in the broader environment of layoffs and cost cutting at the newspaper. Doesn't seem to care, either. Can't wait to see what kind of crap she pulls next. I feel sorrow for those of you still under her thumb.

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  171. Im still trying to come to grips with her promotions and growing empire. Based on what again?

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  172. Look. Fact is, she is here. Hunke's biggest problem among the problem children he gave power to. There are too many (unqualified) vice presidents around to count. Not sure exactly why. But a major failing has been bad hires, and no one holding any of them accountable.

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  173. This must be a blog record for # of comments on a troubling gannett executive not named Craig. Congratulations, Heather. Your the bestest! Let's hope there's a goodbye party for you real soon.

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