Friday, October 07, 2011

New document confirms $37M for Dubow exit

Gannett just made it official this afternoon in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about the disability package given to just-resigned Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow.

I first wrote about the chances Dubow, 56, would get $37.1 million in retirement and disability benefits on Sept. 16, the day after GCI disclosed he was taking a second medical leave of absence for chronic back and hip problems.

Posted from my iPhone; more, later.

45 comments:

  1. Worth noting again and again: Under Dubow, 20,000 jobs evaporated, leaving thousands of employees with few options for affordable disability and medical coverage for themselves and their families.

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  2. Disgusting!!!

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  3. As I recall, the entire first round of furloughs saved 30 million. so there you go.

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  4. That's just rich. I just got another medical bill, a huge portion that insurance (again) didn't cover. Nice. Thanks. When i was on disability, I got flowers from Gannett. And about $20G worth of uncovered medical expenses.

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  5. http://www.theonion.com/articles/layoffs-are-necessary-if-we-want-to-keep-the-light,26250/

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  7. Good riddance.

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  8. Wanted: Photos of Craig playing golf while collecting disability. Post them here.

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  9. Now everybody should take a good look at their jobs. Management has no interest is anything but getting through the next few years and collecting a pile of cash. Anybody at Gannett or any other newspaper should be very actively looking for new jobs outside the newspaper industry. How bad is the industry? Send a resume to any professional resume writer and watch how quickly they eliminate newspaper industry references. If your skill set isn't transferable to other non-related industries you're sunk. For this reason, everybody should be looking for new jobs immediately as there's a learning curve to the job hunt and you shouldn't wait until you're out of a job to learn.

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

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  11. 11:27 is correct about not using the word "newspaper" on a resume. Stress the actual skills in journalism, sales finance, hr and product management. Good luck to us one and all.

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  12. I had a post removed in which I wished misery on Dubow. I can't say I'm surprised, because being callous to others is bad, I guess, and Jim - unlike Dubow - seems to give a damn about not being harsh to others. Too bad CEOs can't be removed like so many blog posts for being even more callous to the thousands of employees whose worlds they upended to up their compensation. My wish remains, even if my post doesn't.

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  13. 7:22 - may the same misery you wished on another human being be bestowed upon you. You're heartless and gutless. We don't need or want people like you in our company.

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  14. 10:22 -- Give 7:22 a break. While I don't tend to wish misery on other human beings, it's easy to see how you get to this place. Craig Dubow has willingly bestowed misery on countless others. Granted he was "just doing his job," but it's not a job that he had to do. He chose to "just do that job" so that he could amass wealth while others that reported to him suffered. In other words, he was OK with making other people's lives miserable so that he could make his unmeasurably better. The only thing is, not even money can insulate you from health issues. Unlike 7:22, Dubow actively took part in causing misery. 7:22 is merely hoping that Dubow gets his share. Personally, I think the world would be a better place if everyone could live in harmony and happiness, but that doesn't seem possible. This blog -- as a microcosm -- is proof of that. And those who make others suffer for their own personal gain assure that we will continue as we always have. There are too many people in this country who feel entitled to millions ... even while others around them are starving to death.

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  15. 12:07, 10:22 here. To paraphrase 7:22's original post, he/she wished Craig Dubow "to die a slow and painful death". Jim, please correct if I'm mistaken. My original response at 11:43 last night was also deleted, in which I asked now 7:22 to look in the mirror for all their wasted opportunities, meaning where in life did they settle and quit striving for more. To hold someone else accountable rather than oneself for life is foolish. Do layoffs and furloughs hurt? Absolutely. Did CD, GM or others make decisions to the personal level? Absolutely not. Gannett is hardly the first, or last, publicly traded company to make such hard decisions. My response last night was limited to 7:22 having disrepect for mankind in general. Now you've introduced the ugly reality of business. And ask yourself, had you been successful and worked your way to the top, would you not have made objective short term decisions for the longer term survival? It sucks. But no reason to wish a slow and painful death on anyone.

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  16. Jim has opened the door for those types of comments, though, and countless others that were allowed to stand. He has even made a couple himself.

    Using the logic here, Jim should suffer -- soon and hard. Let's hope that happens.

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  17. 1:01 - Everyone understands that layoffs are necessary as are furloughs (sometimes) during these difficult economic times. What infuriates the masses is the outrageous 80 percent raise that Craig Debow and company awarded themselves while thousands of employees lost their jobs, did not receive a raise, or had to lose between one and three weeks of pay in a given year. Explain why we shouldn't be angry about that. I don't think that's normal corporate behavior. Note how Steve Jobs handled himself when he brought Apple from rags to riches. Dubow and Company can't even come close to claiming a victory with the way they've conducted themselves versus the state of Gannett.

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  18. Anger is one thing. Citing specific missteps yet another. Wishing suffering and a slow and painful death upon someone is way out of bounds. As for normal corporate behavior, Apple is not representative as a whole. Enron, Tyco, MCI, AOL, the list goes on.

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  19. Geezus. This is criminal. Even the most loyal happy Gannett employee should be disgusted by this. GREAT CEOs who have created magnificent value do not get these types of bucks. Gulp.

    I can only hope this is being paid for by some sort of insurance policy on Craig's health and NOT cash from the corporate coffers.

    The board is responsible for this outrageous pay out.

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  20. 7:15 - At what point do we put our foot down and say, "This is so wrong?" Just because we have Enron, Tyco, MCI, etc., doing the same thing does not make it right. This company would be a whole lot better off if the employees didn't feel so robbed.

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  21. Just to be sure I looked up criminal and crime in the dictionary, something you should do before lobbing that allegation around. Key words - "legally prohibited". Tell me what was legally prohibited? No books were cooked. Even Jim recognizes that revenue reporting conforms to GAAP principles. Like it or not, it is not a "right" of anyone to be gainfully employed. And a company does not have an obligation to retain any workers for whatever reason or at whatever cost. Your feeling of being robbed is just that - a feeling. Stick to facts, there has been no crime committed.

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  22. 8:57 clearly you are senior management who has been overpaid on the backs of the workers. Thanks for stopping by and defending such insane practices by the management and board.

    You disgust me.

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  23. 3:16, I defy you to find a single word in 8:57's post that is factually incorrect.

    Go to it. Prove me wrong.

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  24. 3:16 - 8:57 here. I am not in management, just an objective and thoughtful human being that happens to be employed by Gannett. And I am not from the news side which so many here are.

    5:01 - good to see there are other rational people here that can mete out facts from emotional spewage. Thanks for reading and understanding my post.

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  25. FYI tyco and enron people ended up in prison you might want to cite other examples

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  26. 7:26 - can you follow a thread? Of course they did because they broke the law - aka criminals. The point was made to the baseless claims that Gannett management were criminals. Should we put it in more elementary terms?

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  27. Back in July Gannett sent out a survey to its employees in Broadcast, (don't know if it went to newspaper) asking the "would you rather" question on employee benefits. You watch, when open enrollment comes around in November the company will jack with your benefits and you will get less. How else do they pay for that 37.1M payout to the most worthless leader a compant has ever seen? Didn't he hand-pick the B.O.D.? If he was able to do that, then of course he can get away with anything he wants.

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  28. 8:26 That employee benefits survey went to everyone, I believe.

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  29. 8:26 is yet another example of "Gannett Blog doesn't understand how benefits work."

    I'll guarantee the benefits will be lower. Why? Because the price of health insurance has increased well more than the rate of inflation for a number of years now. So people will be paying more -- that's a guarantee.

    There are other reasons, too, but explaining them would be a waste of time. People here will still not understand, so they'll keep running around and crying about how evil Gannett is making the sky fall.

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  30. 12:38 Huh?

    You say 8:26's post is yet another example of readers here not understanding how benefits work.

    The reader wrote: "You watch, when open enrollment comes around in November the company will jack with your benefits and you will get less."

    Your reply: "I'll guarantee the benefits will be lower."

    Sounds like you two agree, and that 8:26 knows exactly what's going on.

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  31. Sorry, folks, but we the little people see 37 million good reasons for Dubow to suffer. If that makes me a bad person, so be it; at least I know I'm still a step above the Dubows of the world.

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  32. Learn to read, Jim. Did I say the company (meaning Gannett) would be the one causing the premium increase? No.

    The premiums will be higher, but that's not Gannett's doing. It happens on a national level, unfortunately.

    Were you really a business reporter? You seem clueless about a lot of these things. You should direct the "Huh?" toward yourself the next time you say something like this.

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  33. 2:23 Certainly, rising costs across the health care industry influence Gannett's employee medical costs -- as at all companies.

    But unlike many employers, Gannett is self-insured. It pays all employee medical costs that aren't covered by the premiums employees pay.

    The company, and the company alone, ultimately decides the amount of those premiums. That, indeed, is "Gannett's doing."

    What employees don't pay, shareholders cover. (And shareholders cover the bulk of those costs, too.)

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  34. Brilliant, Jim. So, in other words, if the company decides not to eat those increased costs, then it's to blame for the premium increase.

    Gotcha. That's pretty much the answer I expected. In your mind, the company should go broke or soak the stockholders.

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  35. 3:14 I never said anything about what the company should/shouldn't do.

    You wrote: "So, in other words, if the company decides not to eat those increased costs, then it's to blame for the premium increase."

    Answer: Yes -- although I would say "responsible," rather than the emotionally charged "blame."

    It's simple math: Either the employee pays, or the stockholder pays. And the company makes thatcall when it raises premiums.

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  36. BTW: When I say shareholders cover most medical costs, I'm pointing out to employees unhappy with rising premiums that they could be paying much more.

    GCI hugely subsidizes employee medical care -- including, I suspect, Dubow's very expensive back surgeries and rehab.

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  37. Thanks Jim, I'm not just talking about higher premiums on insurance, also talking about vacation time, sick leave, 401k, and the now non-existent pension plan. The higher premiums on insurance is a GIVEN year after year, and always has been. Furloughs and paycuts and salary reductions to the working class poor which is about 70% of Gannett employees, whilest Craig Dubow gets his 37 million payout for what? Leading a company into the ground? It's assinine, unethical and immoral but it's corporate America.

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  38. This might be enough to get the class action lawyers interested.

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  39. Thanks for specifying that, 9:59. Let's go one by one through those areas, knowing again that most people at Gannett Blog have trouble understanding benefits.

    Vacation time: Has gone down at every chain, largely because older employees were given ridiculous amounts of time -- 6-8 weeks in some cases. Now younger employees work to subsidize that.

    Sick leave: I have almost never used this, and the one time I did, the non-Gannett company didn't even understand how it worked. It's probably changed everywhere, simply because of new federal rules.

    401(k): Has gone down everywhere, I believe. Read national business news.

    Furloughs: Those are even worse at other newspaper companies.

    Probably time to invoke Jim's standard excuse -- it's happening everywhere, so it must not be a problem!

    "it's corporate America." See? Even 9:59 agrees.

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  40. 11:14 I generally agree with all the trends you described, except this: Across Gannett, I've never heard of anyone getting more than the equivalent of six weeks' vacation, including personal days and standard holidays (New Year's Day, etc.).

    Historically, the maximum number of vacation weeks was five, I believe, and that was after 20 years' service. (The GCI benefits page doesn't give details.)

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  41. It's called "capitalism." Love it or leave it. (as if you have a choice)

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  42. Vote with your feet people, vote with your feet.

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  43. As a lowly desk editor struggling to pay the bills and dodge the layoff ax so I can hang onto my paycheck, I'm truly disgusted by this payout for Dubow. Have the leaders of this company no shame? We already know they do not have vision.

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  44. Gannett is why I support Occupy Wall Street movement. Our system is broken and rigged for the wealthy.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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