The following memo was distributed to employees at The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday; I obtained a copy today from a Gannett Blogger.
CONFIDENTIAL:
CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION -- NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION
The new structure focuses on the following key tactical areas:
- Business to business marketing.
- Marketing The Indianapolis Star and Indystar.com.
- Market/Audience analysis and research to support Information Center content and product strategies.
- Local mid/large advertiser marketing strategies.
- Data to support advertising sales efforts.
Additionally, we need to dramatically up our game in the area of customer knowledge and research to drive our own strategies and those of our clients.
The current marketing team was made aware of these changes earlier today and they are eligible to apply for the positions created in the new structure. Additionally, we will do an external search for several positions. Unfortunately, the position of Market Development Director was eliminated in the restructure and John Kridelbaugh, who held that position, was let go. We thank John for his efforts.
The new organizational chart is attached. Over the next month, we will go through the process of filling each of the positions in the new structure. We’ll communicate when this transition is complete. Please let me know if you have any questions.
In Summary:
ReplyDeleteblah blah blah, marketing buzz words, blah blah, internet buzz words, blah blah blah. Grow blah blah, increase, blah blah.
Oh, and the guy who's job it was to do all this stuff is no longer needed, since we're going to crowd-source his duties to you now.
Here's what puzzles me: Items 1 through 5 sound like newspaper Marketing 101. If this isn't what the Star's marketing department was already doing then, well, what the heck WAS it doing?
ReplyDeleteThat was the biggest bunch of buzzword bullshit I have ever seen, all to fire 1 guy. Why not just announce: our marketing efforts led by John are sucking, therefore the suckee has been fired. We will soon hire another sucker to replace the suckee and see if we can't suck away what little life is left in this suck-ass company.
ReplyDeleteIs this legitimate?
ReplyDeleteNot a shocker....Crotchfelt doesn't like men unless they are big suck ups!
ReplyDeleteWell, Jim, now you've gone and leaked the double-secret marketing plan, and competition will steal the brilliant idea of trying to boost circulation and sell more ads. Way to go.
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ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the new Star publisher letting the newsroom stagnant much longer.
ReplyDeleteMarketers need something compelling to market. For the past couple years, the Star has been anything but compelling. It's been slow, sloppy and undistinguished.
My guess is that Ms. Crotchfeld wants to bring in a real editor. That'd be a journalist who knows how to align the news report to the topics readers care about most. Today's Star continues to practice the failed practices of the past. Long,unfocused stories spread over many pages. An editorial page that still tries to run the town rather than serving as forum for opinions from the community. Poorly written headlines, lack of perspective and so on.
As a regularly disappointed Star reader, I hope the new boss fixes the newsroom next. Until she does, don't expect any ad or circulation growth.
5:13, thanks for summing up the buzzword monster into what it really means. I read the memo and couldn't help but cringe.
ReplyDeleteJohn was a good guy. My prayers go out to him if this is true.
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ReplyDeleteThere are a few people in the marketing dept. at my site in Florida.
ReplyDeleteJohn was a good guy, a family guy, who loved his family and this company, and they threw him to the curb side. Dear GOD, Johnm you have to be kidding me,John, the john boy of Gannett! This guy was so loyal, and I have to tell you he was a great guy. Anyone who would throw him under the bus is a total asshole! John was one in a million, you don't find people like John in Gannett. Guess that's why they got rid of him. Makes me sick to my stomach. Heartless bastards!
ReplyDeleteI'm not certain it's a good idea to have this memo leaked to the blog. But then you have to ask yourself, what's so confidential about its content that it might harm the business if made public? I didn't see much of anything like that. It was a little less stilted than some similar memos we've seen but much like all the others, you're left to scratch your head trying to figure out what it really means.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found glaring was the absence of a statement to focus on improved print audience. Anybody else catch that? Looks like an acknowledgement that Gannett is abandoning efforts to publish quality print content.
That's all folks, it's online, mobile and wiz-bang marketing magic. Journalism, fuggettabouttit!!
Hey 11:22, critical reading is your friend.
ReplyDelete"As you know, we have defined our key company objectives as: grow Sunday print readership"
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ReplyDeleteThe reader who supplied this memo tells me there are eight positions listed on the referenced organizational chart, with 11 people working in the marketing department, indicating that three workers could lose their jobs. All employees were notified about a rehire process.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't Phoenix have a Marketing Director?
ReplyDelete2:37am, you're right, I did forget that item about growing Sunday print but I hope that doesn't mean we're giving up on doing the same Mon thru Saturday. And if Indy is going to grow Sunday print readership they'd better get about the business of hiring a strong news editor and some of that editorial talent Gannett has fired or run-off in the last four years. Look at the recent FCC report warning that local media has abandoned reporting on municipalities and governments. And we've replaced that reporting with pablum, T&A, and mindless dither anyone can read in seconds on a smart phone. Bring compellng material to print and readers will follow, bringing with them advertisers.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Indy, many of us want to see you succeed. Focus on delivering quality journalism and that just might happen.
Crotchfelt took all the credit for Sunday circulation growth in Phoenix. It's not hard to grow it when Dickey is literally throwing money at growing it. It sounds like he is going to give her another allowance for Sunday circulation growth.
ReplyDeleteI am saddened to read this about John. He truly is one of the good ones...loyal to the core. I wish him the best.
ReplyDeleteHe had to have speculated that something was coming. First, within weeks of her arrival in Indy, Crotchfelt defrocked him of the VP title under the veil of "restructure."
As previously noted...how many marketing directors are left in the company anymore? VERY few. It is one of the disciplines that has been totally blown apart over the last several years. And yet, Gannett claims to be a marketing company??? All lip service...and a totally clueless corporate team building "strategy?". WTF???
John IS a good guy. We are talking here like he is dead. He is just gone from Gannett, which I trust will be the beginning of a better life for him.
ReplyDeleteJohn didn't mess anything up, and he didn't fail at sucking up. There just isn't enough sucking up to be done in the world when it comes to Crotchfelt (heck, ask Peter Ricker. And many others.) John was just a dead man walking the minute they gave her Indy to spread out the egos... Crotchfelt. Ziddich and Mizner.
John will be OK. But you can hear the ugliness between the lines in that announcement.
What a crock! Of course the marketing department was already doing items 1 - 5. For years! All good marketing deparmtents do. To say otherwise is an undeserved dig at John. Gannett hires the first CMO, launches their first branding campaign and claims to be so marketing savvy. Yet the most innovative, dedicated and brilliant marketing directors have been given the boot -- all to save the almighty dollar. Marketing is an investment that supports the success of the entire organization. Who will lead the marketing efforts in INDY now? Crotchfelt? Does marketing not need a leader? Why are there fewer and fewer Marketing Directors left in Gannett? Would you get rid of the directors from IT? Production? Finance? 9:07 PM and 11:48 AM have it right!
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ReplyDeleteGreat post 8:07. Couldn't of said it better myself.
ReplyDeleteWe all know that this initiative will spread to the limited marketing departments that are left. Just a matter of time. Corporate must have their head in the sand if they don't see that the marketing departments that already bring in revenue have been doing what their so-called restructuring program is supposed to do and have been doing this for years and thinking outside the box. I agree with the post that says that if no one has your back, we are all just a number on a spreadsheet. See this coming to a Gannett site near you. This is not the last Marketing department to be restructured. Mark my words on this one.
6/11/2011 8:07 PM
Are any other papers doing marketing jobs for other papers. I know phoenix has been getting marketing jobs from other papers for awhile?
ReplyDeleteHow's Patrick doing with Crotchfelt in Indy?
ReplyDeleteCrotchfelt is looking for someone to spit out the numbers she wants to see. If John had integrity and showed her something that wasn't her reality - then he did not have long. Crotchfelt fancies herself a marketing person - so she would say for SURE that Indy still has a Marketing person there.
ReplyDeleteSure she does, the queen of marketing who has lived in Indiana for a few months has her pulse on the community. If it worked in Phoenix and Reno, by golly it will work in Indy.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I know you are reading this. I know you and you know me I also was a ring winning Gannett Marketing Executive for many many years. I too was let go a while back. You and I also know that their is nothing new about their "new marketing focus" it's been the marketing focus since you joined the company. You and I also know it's not lack of focus that is and has been the issue. The issue is this companies inability to put it's money where it's mouth is. They didn't invest when they had the cash, we both know they ain't doin it now.
ReplyDeleteNow let me share something you don't know yet but will soon find out and that is that life after Gannett is a beautiful place.
You'll be fine my friend.
Well, this is a move to replace old marketing with "marketing services" and this is needed across all Gannett properties -- and digital component in this is huge, so no dinosaurs need apply. Sorry to hear a loyal guy was let go, that is unfortunate. But the reference to Sunday circ and digital means one thing--focus on advertiser and not consumer. Newspapers never served their audience, except as an afterthought when profits were bountiful. Think about it, it's the one business that as advertising falls, the consumer value provided by the company declines. Today's pure play media focus entirely on consumer experience without care of profits and that is the downfall of newspapers. So Sunday and digital is all that's left. Too bad they're not replacing print dollars for digital dollars on one to one basis. That's the end of it.
ReplyDeleteReally folks? I don't know the gentleman, don't know the lady, don't know Indy.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do know is publishers are being replaced by general managers, vice presidents of advertising replaced by directors, directors by managers.
If the head honcho's title was changed, the previous head was booted to save money. You avoid a lot of potential litigation if you can somebody because the position was eliminated. Get rid of old expensive people, dump their duties on the people under them or create "new" positions with nearly identical job descriptions but at a bottom-line-friendly pay scale.
The publishers realize that at a certain point, the value of three writers is greater than one creative director, if their salaries balance out. If that means they have to dump some of their inner circle to keep the property viable, they will.
6:46: Sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me because good publishers are involved in every aspect of their community. Gannett starts laying off their involved publishers, they'll be pissing off a lot of community members. It won't help subscriptions and advertising dollars. Doubt they have thought about this.
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