Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
USAT | Widespread reports of an ad sales shake-up
Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
43 comments:
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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I know that you're a putz and a half for not making a better effort than this to get the details.
ReplyDelete6:21 You're making an incorrect assumption.
ReplyDeleteFill us in, Jim. I'd like to know who you called and when you called them.
ReplyDelete6:26 I've never named sources.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just FYI: Whenever an open comment thread gets too site-specific, I create a separate thread; it's one of the ways I keep this blog organized.
I agree w/ thread. Lee Jones & Jacobson are puppets for Bankryam & her crew.
ReplyDeleteSorry to see great veteran leaders like Erdos, Hill Wilcox take blame.
Find out more info Jim! Do we sell GCI stock bc of this?
Talk about a putz, 6:21 and 6:26 (same person I gather). This isn't Jim's fulltime job. Then you want him to open up his notebook to you so you can finger his sources. Sounds like another lame-o attempt by the CP Mafia to attempt to discredit this blog. But all it ends up doing is adding to the user community's need for the blog as an information outlet.
ReplyDelete6:21/6:26 you sound very anti Jim. That's fine but why come here for info? I'm sure the company will be very fort right in it's next propaganda release explaining exactly why moves were made.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have any sources, Jim. That's why you're fishing here for people to give you details.
ReplyDeletePuppets like your "yes crowd" who have posted here have proved time and again they know next to nothing.
7:37 and his previous posts: He comes here because he is paid to. It is true. When I was with the company, I could have named people assigned to Blog detail. You'd only be surprised at how much they were paid to do this!
ReplyDelete7:44 You could, if you like, send me the names of those people assigned to blog detail at jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]
ReplyDeleteNobody is paid to disrupt the blog. Get real.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, Jim you should restart this thread. Here us what has happened:
Lee Jones, head of USA TODAY advertising, fired all three of his vice presidents today -- Lori Erdos, Chris Wilcox and the very popular Tony Hill. All three are longtime ad executives.
In addition, as many as six others in sales, including in the L.A. office, were let go as well.
These layoffs are viewed as a recognition of the failure of advertising to bring in new business or keep many old clients, especially in print, where the numbers are falling off the cliff. These are not cost savings but an effort to try a new approach with new people.
At least one new VP has been named. That name may not be public yet.
Whether anyone but Lee, who is increasingky distraught by the lack of sales success, is pulling the strings here is unknown.. Speculation is to be expected, but while long anticipated, today's actions are nonetheless sweeping and dramatic.
These folks have been the face of USA TODAY on Madison Avenue and in many ways this is far more significant a move than who the publisher or even the CEO Is when it comes to the future of The Nation's Newspaper.
Hasn't Gannett/USA TODAY leadership learned anything? The "new people" don't have a silver bullet or a golden goose. If you think ad sales were down before, wait until you see the backlash from Madison Avenue. When they reach for the phone to call their loyal sales rep and they are not there, do you think they are going to have a lot of confidence in the future of the paper? All they have done by hiring these supposed "saviors" - whether in Marketing or Editorial or Advertising or wherever - is alienate EVERYONE. There is no continuity, no teamwork, no institutional knowledge. What a disaster!
ReplyDeleteJim, be sure to let us know when you blow the lid off that "paid to trash this blog" scandal. It'll be right up there with the other rumors you and others have thrown on here to die on the vine.
ReplyDeleteWhy is lee jones still employed if his team failed? So typical of this organization. The losers are still in charge, no where more so than at the flagship, USA today.
ReplyDeleteJesus Jim. Don't go loco on us again. It's crazy enough dealing with the dimwits running USA Today. We need you to keep yourself together.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Dave Hunke still employed? A huge failure as publisher. Why is vice president Heather Frank, another failure, still employed? Why is there so much dead weight littering the management ranks?
ReplyDeleteMaureen Consavage elevated to VP.
ReplyDelete8:36 and 8:47 Your analysis is spot on.
ReplyDeleteJones was hired with great fanfare in early 2010. He has had almost two years to turn thing around. Now what? This is the best he can do?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete10:27, you're trying to put more sand into the hourglass. The question isn't if Jim goes loco. It's when.
ReplyDeleteSo, 8:36pm and 9:09pm: How is it exactly you are certain no one is being paid to defend the corp suite and muddy the waters here on this blog. All evidence suggests there are paid agents of confusion, obfuscation, disinformation and denial. What is your position, exactly, that allows you to pass along this alleged certainty?
ReplyDeleteNo one is getting paid because it is nonsensical.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of people honestly, if sometimes moronically, angry at the tone and content of this blog, and how it too often character assassinates colleagues and good people who are trying to do the best they can, that it is not surprising some choose to go on the constant attack.
The blog disruptors are, I am certain, a natural consequence of the lack of moderation and anything goes attitude by Jim. Some of it is pissy and ugly, but I understand why it happens.
The company paying for people to be angry and retaliate is simply not needed.
And I say this as someone deeply critical of how Gannett is run and incredibly sad at how the company has lost its way.
The company paying people to disrupt the Gannet Blog??? Crazy.
ReplyDelete12:34 is right. It makes no sense at all, and is another one of those outlandish scenarios -- Jim being stalked at the stockholders meeting was another example -- of the nutcase logic that is the true disuption of rational discussions here.
Can we please, for once, stay on point?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the new advertising strategy? How will the journalistuc and advertising and investment communities react to the entire working leadership of the newspaper being fired in a November massacre?
Even if needed, was this the best way to do it?
Meant to say entire advertising leadership being fired...
ReplyDeleteSo, 12:34am, I take that to mean no, you don't know.
ReplyDeleteWe could use some shake-ups out here in USCP.
ReplyDeleteThe week before Thanksgiving, wouldn't it make just loads of sense to pull EVERY rep off the street and stick them into a "cold call" selling training session for the better part of a day? Not just from one paper, but from multiple papers in our state?
I don't see the logic of an ad director green lighting this training now instead of the slower post-turkey day period in two weeks.
His predecessor didn't exactly shake the world, but at least he didn't pull reps off the street - during our busiest sales period - to tell them how to go out on the street.
I stayed late and got my sales squared away - but black friday is going to be comp time. Free vacation day.
8:47- Your post was perfectly on point. That is the real problem with advertising today. Corporate is so desparate to turn things around they can't see the forest for the trees. So they chop down the trees to see the forest. But then there isn't a forest left to see.
ReplyDeleteMy, oh myyyyyyyyy the Shills are out in full force!
ReplyDeleteMust be something VERY BIG that's about to go down!
Oh, Jesus!
Only 1 more bag of popcorn left!
Thank goodness I checked, just in time!
Will load up at the Supermarket on the way home!
To the people that lost their jobs, keep the faith and most important - Keep Your Heads Held Up HIGH!
Rudd is 21, Consavage is 75. Lee Jones just doesn't get it. The bleeding will not stop
ReplyDeleteconsavage what?!
ReplyDeleteIn response to 7:37 - During my tenure with Gannett, I fed Jim as much info as possible. Luckily I abandoned ship my own accord.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, institutional expertise and newspaper experience does not matter to these goofs.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, selling ads into USAT is a damn tricky business. The ads are very expensive and customers expect to be treated accordingly, from the beginning of the sale to months after the ad has been run.
Sorry to say it will take Lee and the newbies at GCI at least a year to figure this out, and by then, with the double whammy of declining circ revenue, the USAT print franchise will be financially flat-lined.
Mark the date: Print ad sales at USAT will fall non-stop throughout 2012 -- elections and Olympics won't save the product, either.
Al, I bet you never expected that USAT would be shuttered by internal incompetence.
8:47 here. What gets me is that we went through the Gallup Strenghs Finder stuff and were encouraged to focus on people's strengths to maximize our effectiveness and then, what do they do? They cast people aside and hire people in their places. Think of everyone who has "retired," "resigned," or been laid off only to be replaced by someone new. Was management focusing on their strengths when they were asked to leave? Don't think so. It's one thing if you have to make cuts but to go out an rehire for basically the same position? That's just not right on any level.
ReplyDeleteMaryam has blown out the loved and admired Tony Hill and the effective Lori Erdos? Is she crazy?
ReplyDeleteThis is Lee doing the dirty deed but it's Maryam's call.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletePeople felt no pity for these execs when they were quietly laying off their own staffs in order to please the bottom line.
ReplyDeleteWhen the senior people have no idea what to do, the first thing they reach for is staff cuts. Has to be the people right? So let's get rid of Lori Erdos, who has lived USAT for years and loved by clients, and Tony Hill, who is loved by clients and staff people alike. And now we'll re-hire Wilcox to another job he can't handle. No wonder we're f*cked!
ReplyDeleteWilcox rehired? To what? And who else got whacked? Was it all management, or worker bees, too?
ReplyDeleteWilcox was given another job and was NOT fired. Not sure what the job is, but that is what people are saying.
ReplyDelete@10:24 -
ReplyDeleteThe Gallup Strengths Finder is only good AFTER you leave this place.
When are they going to start laying off in Michelle Krans' group?
ReplyDelete