Publisher Howard Griffin sent the following memo yesterday to employees at Delaware's Wilmington News Journal:
Good Afternoon Everyone,
I am pleased to announce that members of our Gannett senior executive leadership team will be visiting us at the News Journal Media Group on Wednesday morning, October 5, 2011. We will be welcoming Gracia Martore, president and chief operating officer; Bob Dickey, president, U.S. Community Publishing; David Payne, chief digital officer; Debra Goetz, vice president of marketing, and Katie Connell, communications manager, to our building bright and early on Wednesday morning.
Again, I am asking all employees to make certain the area surrounding your individual work space is cleaned up and organized. The executives will be taking a tour of the building so we want our facility to look its best!
All employees are invited to attend a Town Hall meeting, hosted by Gracia Martore, at 10:30 a.m. in the Bill Frank Conference Room. Please plan to join us in welcoming our Gannett executives to the News Journal Media Group.
Thank You!
Howard
Good Afternoon Everyone,
I am pleased to announce that members of our Gannett senior executive leadership team will be visiting us at the News Journal Media Group on Wednesday morning, October 5, 2011. We will be welcoming Gracia Martore, president and chief operating officer; Bob Dickey, president, U.S. Community Publishing; David Payne, chief digital officer; Debra Goetz, vice president of marketing, and Katie Connell, communications manager, to our building bright and early on Wednesday morning.
All employees are invited to attend a Town Hall meeting, hosted by Gracia Martore, at 10:30 a.m. in the Bill Frank Conference Room. Please plan to join us in welcoming our Gannett executives to the News Journal Media Group.
Thank You!
Howard
Does everyone keep their work areas tidy in the Gannett Tower? Does Martore go on these tours and think: Gee, they're so clean out here in the field, as opposed to those slobs back in McLean?
ReplyDeleteOr, more likely, are the members of these Corporate delegations so busy texting on their Blackberries that they don't even look up long enough to notice where they are?
Prepare to be underwhelmed Wilmington. Gracia will rave about how awesome Gannett is (GAG). Then she will read a script about a few employees at your site that have done a great job.
ReplyDeleteReally, what is the point of these visits? Even the suck-ups at each location should be wiser now.
ReplyDeleteMr. Clean, the perfect logo to go with this, lol!
ReplyDeleteI know who the dog is, but which of the others would be the pony?
It is a very sad paper. Two day old news is the normal. I'll bet they pick up a paper.
ReplyDeleteThese "visits" are such a waste of time and money. It always cracks me up that the local papers are spruced up only for the circus. At my paper, the place is always filthy, crappy looking with walls needing paint and carpets and floors beyond disgusting. Yet, when these useless clowns from.corporate show up all of a sudden fresh paint, clean floors, carpets shampoo, and yes, we have to waste time making our little cells look like they are nicely neat. All of this is another disgusting display which tells employees we are disposable garbage. A clear message is sent to the real workers by this behavior. Think if Garcia just showed up and saw the conditions we suffer that she would care? Of course we all know the answer.
ReplyDeleteThere is something more to these visits then meets the eye. They are checking out each property to see what will be done with it. I am telling you — these visits are not just a waste of time as they appear.
ReplyDeleteThere is something bigger in the works here. But since we have very few resources and no one giving out information, we will just have to wait and see what happens. We have already seen the elimination of numerous VP positions throughout the company and I believe publishers positions will be next at many other papers. This is not fact, just a media person seeing the writing on the wall.
Stoney LaDouche
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't Kate Marymont go on these visits? Or isn't journalism part of the corporate culture anymore?
ReplyDeleteSo, 10:43PM, do you think they're trying to sell the Florida papers, since that's the junket they just completed? Would make sense - Florida's growth has come to a screeching halt, with the drops in property values:
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-12-24/news/0912240147_1_house-arrest-population-growth-census-bureau
Folks these trips are exactly what they appear to be, corporate visits. These aren't new. Al Neuharth started these visits in the 1980s. Next, we aren't selling any blocks of newspapers. Print still brings in 80% of our revenues. Will we sell any sites in the red? Sure if someone wants them, but who would at the price we'd ask. We were painting walls and fixing carpet when Big Al showed up. Yes it stinks that that's what it takes to get things fixed but in the scheme of things dint we have bigger issues to worry about? Focus on the work Paynr and Beusse are producing. They will both impact print sites. They win, we win. Focus your energies.
ReplyDelete10:09, Nice job trying to calm the masses. You cannot be trusted. Gannett has sealed its fate. You will be losing many more valuable employees in the very near future.
ReplyDeleteAl Neuharth's visits to the sites were part of his routine. Onsites were an ongoing process. Back then, the people at corporate cared about their product and wanted to make sure that every paper put out their best work. Those days are gone.
ReplyDeleteThese people from the CP haven't shown their faces until about 3 months ago. They do not care about the product. These visits are not routine for this crowd. Florida buildings will be sold. Mark my words.
My office in McLean used to be a disaster, as did most of my department's. That's what happens when you are doing the work of two or three people. I don't think anyone from the upper echelon ever hit my floor, though. So maybe they do think everyone's offices should be as spotless as their own?
ReplyDelete10:58 you are wrong. They started the site visits last year and the Division leaders and Group Presidents never stopped.
ReplyDelete10:51 call it what you want. It diesnt mean it's not the truth. Why is it that when faced with a true fact your response us yes but.......? Of course people are going to leave when the economy gets better. When will that be by the way?
ReplyDeleteYou are not missing much with Marymount not going on these visits. She's done nothing in her new job and brings very little to the table. As some have said, she might have been a good newswoman in the past, but that is no longer the case in my experience with her.
ReplyDelete11:17 - I am leaving before the economy gets better. There are jobs out there, you just have to be diligent in your search. Look at how many jobs Gannett has posted since the layoffs. There are other companies hiring, too.
ReplyDeleteStop using the economy as an excuse not to find a job. Are you a writer? Hundreds of companies need talented writers to market their products. Be creative and think outside the box.
Florida buildings sold?
ReplyDeleteShoulda done that 5-6 years ago.
Property values are waaaay down for Ft. Myers, Melbourne (shuttle program eliminated, thank BHO!); and Tallahassee too, with all the losses in G-jobbers.
From the photo I've seen of the building, I think the Tallahassee property would make an excellent choice for a funeral home.
The smell of death could be used as a selling point!
10:43 PM, I disagree. They weren't in the building long enough to look around. 2-3 hours max. 30-45 minutes for town hall meeting, the rest with senior management.
ReplyDeleteAs for corporate doing on-site regularly, not at my site. I've seen/heard more from corporate in the last year than I did in the last 20.
1:20 so? Stop with the conspiracy theories. No proof, no evidence, just paranoid tripe. They are going to 20 to 30% of the sites. They went to Salem, they are going to Wilmington. Enough already.
ReplyDeleteWhen Neuharth blew into town back in the day, he always -- always -- was accompanied by John Quinn, the corporate vice president for news.
ReplyDeleteAl harassed the front-office types, and sometimes and editor, but John devoted his attention to the newsroom. He was the best ever.
Nowadays, when Gracia and her syncophants sally forth from the Crystal Palace, I doubt they could find a newsroom -- er, information center -- at a site. And Kate Marymont stays at home, hidden in her hole.
Things ain't what they used to be.
Why not visit all sites? No conspiracy theories, just an observation that the timing of these visits and the fact that they haven't been done in six years is a little peculiar.
ReplyDeleteI think they are deciding what facility they will use for printing. This goes along with what has just happened consolidating circulation and production. They will decide what facility is most centrally located for the work they need to have done.
ReplyDelete3:34, Interesting theory, but I would think Austin Ryan would be involved in that decision seeing how he's in charge of the new operation and all. No offense, but what do Moratore and Dickey know about printing, or newspapers for that matter?
ReplyDelete2:12 if you and your stuck in the past when the Internet didn't exist pals would read your last sentence our company might be able to move forward. But as long as you are stuck in believing people under 50 want to read yesterday's news today, we truly are doomed.
ReplyDeleteLet's see 3:58 Dickey spent the first 25 years of his career working at and running a newspaper print site. What an ignorant comment
ReplyDelete2:18 sometimes a site visit is just a site visit.
ReplyDeleteHere's a question someone could ask ask Gracia while she's in Wilmington. Does the publisher still live in Pa.? If he does, how sad that a man who leads Delaware's biggest media company doesn't even bother to live in the state.
ReplyDelete4:06 - I am shocked. I really am. And so very unimpressed. He should be ashamed.
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ReplyDelete4:04 PM, yesterday's news? You call the crap we post on the internet news? TV news is even worst.
ReplyDelete9:06pm, Oh come on, PA is what, 15 min from Wilmington? That's petty.
ReplyDeleteStoney LaDouche doesn't live 15 minutes from Wilmington.
ReplyDeleteStoney LaDouche lives more than an hour from the newspaper in Bucks County, PA. What a commitment to Delaware. I guess Stoney cleaned up the office when he got rid of JB, Junior and Jill. Sounds like he didn't like people with "J" names.
ReplyDelete