-- Sandra Micek, June 20, on being named USA Today's senior vice president for marketing.
"USA Today is an iconic brand. . . . I’m looking forward to being part of this dynamic team committed to providing consumers with the best news and information anytime, anywhere."
-- Laura Del Greco, yesterday, on her appointment to the newly created position of vice president of client solutions.
Sweet 16!
Del Greco is at least the 16th senior executive appointed or promoted by Publisher Dave Hunke since he announced a major turnaround effort a year ago. (The previous 15.)
Earlier: With quote-a-matic, it's deja vu -- all over again.
USAT Watch is an occasional progress report on a high-profile reorganization launched in August 2010 to boost advertising and readership at Gannett's struggling marquee daily.
Show me the money. Gannett holds USAT revenue numbers very tightly. If they had something to show, you better believe they would be parading them in front of Wall Street.
ReplyDeleteMust be all bad news on the revenue front. Hunke better have some revenue to show for all this turn around spending, eventually.
Michek, in order to grow the brand, you need to grow readers.
ReplyDeleteAt NBC, you had programmers who drove viewers....not the marketing people. Creating shows people wanted to watch.
At USAT, the focus should be back on the product.
Banikarim, Michek, don't be strangers to the newsroom. That's the product.
In 2010, Jones was struggling to bring in $200 million in ad revenue. This year, the budget was even worse, and odds are he still won't make it. What has this cast of titled thousands bought us?
ReplyDeleteTime for another vice president, girls and boys.
ReplyDeleteI think Dave will need a vice president to keep track of all his vice presidents. Or is that the job of the senior vice president and general manager?
ReplyDeleteAll I can do is shake my head......
ReplyDeleteGath
To all those critical of our new marketing folks, one thing is certain: thanks to their efforts, USA TODAY has become an iconic brand.
ReplyDeleteAnd we just brought back a former director to be a senior director of sales for the verticals. We are slowly becoming the federal government.
ReplyDelete11:00 am tell everyone who it is!!!
ReplyDeleteiconic and ironic aren't interchangeable.
ReplyDelete12:13 - it's Jim Gath
ReplyDeleteMarketing more than anything is what made USAT an iconic brand. Not taking any credit away from the newsroom or anyone else, but it was marketing that force fed the public this news brand for years until the content caught up with the hype.
ReplyDeleteI would also give more credit to the newsroom, but from what I have seen in the last couple of years, the journalistic integrity of the brand has been so degraded (web and print) that it has become part of the problem. No one is buying that this is the same quality newspaper as it was just a few short years ago. You can pick up a copy or check USAT.com and just feel the lack of bodies and experience in the news operation. Old news. Poorly written headlines. Graphics that don't make sense or insult one's intelligence. Wasn't this the graphics newspaper?
I have seen comments on here about how USAT managers pushed out experienced writers, editors and others in favor of cutting costs and bringing in cheap tech talent. Well, there was a price to pay for that, as USAT is no longer an iconic brand in my humble opinion.
Good luck marketing this product now. I believe USAT is going to go back to its roots, where it lost tons of money every year. Until they get the journalism/content right, the slide will continue. By then, it could be too late.
Been strange watching USAT implode, mostly due to new and clueless managers coming in and selling a bunch of snake oil to the board and CEOs, while creating just terrible karma with the disrespect they have shown to those who put so much into this once iconic brand
Hey 3:17 -
ReplyDeleteI would. I would do it. For a boatload of money & absolutely no strings or handcuffs. No goofball boss. And, goddammit, I'd deliver 10 mil in the first 12 months. Take it to the bank.
Oh - & G A N N E T T would have to pay all of my 34 horses' expenses.
Deal?
Gath
Let us give David L. Hunke some credit for getting rid of at least one of his many Vice Presidents when he dumped Ed Cassidy.
ReplyDeleteGath - like the good old days!
ReplyDelete5:51 - it's content, content, content. Perfectly said....we have lost our way.
ReplyDelete12:10 - the problem is he let a good man go only to immediately replace him with another VP. And since then another VP and Senior Director have been hired.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of losers, heather frank's management team is attempting to take credit for the Travel Vertical, which is in the running for an online news national award. Her people contribute nothing. Of course, they are more interested in the new offices being built for them and their own company paid trips than doing any actual work. They are all fucking frauds.
ReplyDeleteHere's the deal....
ReplyDeleteIf you work at USAT or anywhere else, you're given a number to hit. A monetary number. If you hit it, you live. If you don't, you die.
All the marketing people & all that are totally inconsequential to selling what you're supposed to sell.
What is wrong with that deal?
Sell - live & win big. Don't sell - die & disappear.
Simple.
Anybody got a problem with that????
Gath
Hey Gath, If you're such a business genius, why are you having an internet/FB hissy fit this week saying you can't support your 30+ horses on 3 dusty AZ acres and accepting money from little old ladies living on the edge of poverty? Shouldn't you be applying your "genius" to running a solvent rescue? Oh, BTW - you physically left USAT long ago... isn't it time to move on mentally?
ReplyDelete