CEO Gracia Martore distributed the following memo today:
Dear Colleagues,
This week the management team and I presented at the 2011 UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York. This provided us with the opportunity to tell others what we have been talking about internally -- that we have the assets, talent and strategies we believe will guide Gannett’s success in 2012 and beyond.
We stressed that Gannett’s growth and success is a direct product of the foundational elements that make us unique -- our powerful local and national brands, connection with our audiences and our scale. By revitalizing our local news organizations, building out our portfolio into high potential adjacent businesses, and continuing to make smart investments for growth, we are taking what we do well and putting it to work to strengthen our company.
It was a privilege for me to represent the work being done across the organization. I could not be prouder of the work we are doing at Gannett both in terms of our day-to-day impact on the communities we serve and the forward-thinking steps we are taking to develop our business. Your journalistic integrity, creative ideas and execution are positioning Gannett as a pacesetter in our industry – and people are starting to take notice.
I would like to thank you all once again for your innumerable contributions. Your efforts, ideas and tireless dedication make Gannett the company we are today.
Best Regards,
Gracia Martore
President & Chief Executive Officer
Dear Colleagues,
This week the management team and I presented at the 2011 UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York. This provided us with the opportunity to tell others what we have been talking about internally -- that we have the assets, talent and strategies we believe will guide Gannett’s success in 2012 and beyond.
We stressed that Gannett’s growth and success is a direct product of the foundational elements that make us unique -- our powerful local and national brands, connection with our audiences and our scale. By revitalizing our local news organizations, building out our portfolio into high potential adjacent businesses, and continuing to make smart investments for growth, we are taking what we do well and putting it to work to strengthen our company.
It was a privilege for me to represent the work being done across the organization. I could not be prouder of the work we are doing at Gannett both in terms of our day-to-day impact on the communities we serve and the forward-thinking steps we are taking to develop our business. Your journalistic integrity, creative ideas and execution are positioning Gannett as a pacesetter in our industry – and people are starting to take notice.
I would like to thank you all once again for your innumerable contributions. Your efforts, ideas and tireless dedication make Gannett the company we are today.
Best Regards,
Gracia Martore
President & Chief Executive Officer
In our newsroom, everyone held their breath as "a message from Gracia" hit the inbox until one editor announced with relief, "It doesn't say anything!"
ReplyDeleteJust a lot of corporate mumbo jumbo doublespeak. How is moving printing to Orlando of the Florida Today "revitalizing our local news organizations" when you're moving printing 60-80 miles away to a RIVAL paper no less? Too bad us worker bees throughout Gannett can't put a stop to this corporate stupidity.
ReplyDeleteSure it does 12:18. It says: blah, blah, blah, blah.
ReplyDeleteYour journalistic integrity, creative ideas and EXECUTION are positioning Gannett as a pacesetter in our industry – and people are starting to take notice.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I think we can take execution to mean one of two things.
Is she referring to "passion topics" as revitalizing local news? Or what? Now they're moving to paywalls -- but what have they got to sell online now that they have stripmined local resources? Badly written and hastily edited (if at all) breaking news items and photo galleries of babes at local nightclubs. Sorry, nobody's going to buy that.
ReplyDeleteLook at the pretty butterfly!!
ReplyDeleteThat is what I think they are doing with these stupid emails. Someone grow a pair of balls and step up to run this company with integrity. What we do is good and needed in our communities and the bean counters are killing us.
Revitalizing local news is moving the deadline for a paper to 7:30 at night so one can print a competing newspaper with a later deadline? Yep. That's revitalization of local news for sure.
ReplyDeleteAs John Janedis, an analyst that covers Gannett, told me after the Gannett presentation, this company is "lost and directionless"!
ReplyDeleteI thought she was going to announce her latest in a series of fake austerity moves like the refusal of the parking spot for her new company-issued porsche.
ReplyDelete"Your journalistic integrity, creative ideas and execution are positioning Gannett as a pacesetter in our industry – and people are starting to take notice."
Yeah, ever since you got the job, right GM?
People are starting to take notice??? Martore must think we're pretty stupid. Don't know how that woman can sleep nights.
ReplyDeleteWould someone please remind all the e-mail writers (Martore, Banikarim, Ellwood) that it's only necessary to write us when they actually have something to say.
ReplyDeleteI thought she was going to announce that the little person in the back office in the newsroom is our new GM. No one had met her until that point.
ReplyDeleteThis memo displays the typical wording and behavior of a manipulator, even an abuser. Not once is there an acknowledgement of the "bad": ie, sacrifices of people's careers, of the sleazy annual furloughs implemented to reduce payroll, or is there even one area of improvement needed by GCI's leadership. Really? Not a single word of personal responsibility?
ReplyDeleteThe memo gives the remaining fearful employees (BTW, we ain't your "colleagues," Gracia... and we were not your "co-workers," either, Craig) reason for hope by using nice words and attempting to build some sort of trust -- which assures that some staff will be completely devastated with the next huge wallop from the top.
True leadership knows how to communicate with the troops when the battles are hard. True leadership speaks the plain truth and faces facts, and suffers the same anguish as everyone else. True leadership does not flaunt corporate jets, snooty top-floor corporate digs, nor do they allow themselves or their "real" colleagues (at the $500K plus level) to be grossly over-compensated. (Truly, where would Martore work for even one-tenth the pay outside of Gannett?)
I would be more impressed if I opened the e-mail and it read:
ReplyDeleteDear Colleagues,
Oh what the hell, you all think I'm a freakin' disaster, so why bother.
Regards,
Gracia
Right on, 1:54 and 1:39.
ReplyDeleteI doubt if little Gracia Martore wrote that or even read it. More then likely is was PR.
ReplyDelete12:57, Fondy?
ReplyDelete3:19 wins the prize.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what does "revitalizing our local news organizations" mean? These corporate people have lost their frickin minds. The only thing that has happened at our shop is cut, cut, cut. Maybe revitalize means cut? Slim down? Gut? WTF? It is a miracle every night when we get the paper out. We are long past the point of worrying about typos and hed busts . We KNOW that shit's gonna happen. Can't stop it w/ skeleton crews working the copy desk. We're just trying to not be the next Greenville, with a random F-bomb floating on a page.
ReplyDeleteAnd we're going how many people to revitalize our lifeless newsrooms?
ReplyDeleteGod in Heaven.... how could anyone presently working at any of the Gannett papers - after ready this tripe and garbage - remain on the job?
ReplyDeleteHow much throwing up happened in the restrooms across this awful company?
What a pack of lies! It is rather funny, though.
Excellent comedy. Martore's cutbacks, layoffs and furloughs have done nothing to enhance local news coverage, in fact, it has reduced Gannett to the level of running press releases verbatim. Way to start my weekend off with a huge laugh.
ReplyDeleteGracia, I have faith in you as a leader. So lead from your gut and stop allowing PR agencies to direct your words and tell you how an executive should communicate. You are the CEO. You earned that title through hard work and smarts. So get in touch with the employees and tell the PR agency no thank you to anymore of their tactics.
ReplyDeleteThousands of employees and their families are counting on you. The world is watching. You are making some brave decisions. Don't negate those decisions with emails like this. I commend you for trying to be in touch with employees...now actually do it.
This is a company of journalists who can see through BS a million miles away. We are trained to call BS when we see it. No need for PR speak.
Laying off thousands of newsroom employees has not made local news better. It's far worse. Gannett is no longer serving local communities like we once did. Where is all this garbage coming from?
ReplyDeleteisn't this the same CEO who signs off on putting reporters out of work? How does that equate to revitalizing local news?
Obviously, she did not write this memo. How could she say this with a clear conscience? Or a straight face.
Dear Colleagues,
ReplyDeleteHot damn I farted and it smells bad. Don't know what else to tell everyone, since I don't even know what I do for a living!
Hugs,
GM
Doing more with less. Working smarter. Or as an editor (now fired) once told me - 'Fill your basket with low hanging fruit.'
ReplyDeleteWas that our annual year end/holiday letter?
ReplyDeleteDear Gracia,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stealing my paycheck. Hope you buy something nice with it, like a new hood ornament I was only going to use it to buy food for my kids.
Love,
Any newsroom in Gannett
All expect spin but this is over the top.
ReplyDeleteLocal news organizations have hardly been revitalized, that is unless one considers shrinking staffs, coverage and newshole energizing. It’s not and even customers know it.
Recent dismantling of MomsLikeMe and Metromix, failures of COE’s, etc., serve as solid examples how Gannett “building out” its portfolio and its other investments have hardly resulted in success. Too often, Gannett’s “scale” has harmed and/or moved it farther back.
And all the pride in Gannett’s journalistic integrity means little to employees who continue to question the integrity of Gannett leaders. Information like this does little in helping to restore it as while analysts may buy it, too many employees know better.
Who cares whether Martore or the PR department drafted this letter? If anything, it's the "actions" of Dubow/Martore that matter. And their actions speak volume: furloughs, pay freezes, layoffs, frozen pensions, excessive CEO pay and bonuses, consolidations, gambling 70+ million in Gannett stock buybacks, etc...the list goes on and on and on.
ReplyDeleteHow could any self respecting employee have any faith in this company or it's so called leaders. I have nothing but contempt for Martore, the Board and management team. I can't wait to get laid off and milk this company for the maximum unemployment
"Your efforts, ideas and tireless dedication make Gannett the company we are today." Oh, no you don't! It's not my efforts or ideas which drove this company into the ground. You get to take credit for THAT one yourself!
ReplyDeleteKinda like Dominos' pizza strategy...."Our pizza (local news) really sucked but now we're gonna revitalize it!"
ReplyDeleteThe basics of solid local news hasn't changed in forever. It's a pretty simple formula.....how did they get away from it in the first place?
Answer: Someone from Corporate wants to be smarter than the room and make it a complex equation to keep worker bees jumping & guessing.
Dear Gracia:
ReplyDeleteThanks for destroying our careers, some of which were three or four decades long. You and Craig did a wonderful job of making us wonder why we worked thousands of hours off the clock, creating award-winning content, only to be told we weren't needed anymore. Our kids are starving, and our homes (located in the communities from which you've gotten so good at extracting money) are in foreclosure.
If this brings a tear to you eye, we're sure you can find a spare $1000 bill to wipe it away.
Have a lovely holiday season.
Signed,
The 20,000
I care who wrote the letter because we need a leader who can lead. Do you think Steve Jobs needed a PR team to tell him what Apple's vision was or how to communicate to the employees?
ReplyDeleteThere is no way in hell she buys this "revitalizing local news" garbage. Layoffs, furloughs, consolidation, does not equate to better news. If she thinks it does, she is delusional.
I considered changing the headline on this post to be more specific: We are "revitalizing our local news ORGANIZATIONS."
ReplyDeleteAfter all, it's conceivable Gannett could revitalize its newspapers and TV stations without revitalizing the news itself.
Interestingly, Martore refers to them as "news" organizations when, in fact, Gannett now formally describes itself as a "media and marketing solutions company with a diverse portfolio of broadcast, digital, mobile and publishing companies." (Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it!)
In the end, don't forget how Martore (or her publicist) closes her memo:
"Your efforts, ideas and tireless dedication make Gannett the company we are today."
In other words: It's all your fault.
Dear Gracia, please find a photographer who can take a better picture of you for the Gannett blog. As you know, we love seeing your happy face.
ReplyDelete9:09, I let this go the first time. But now that you have decided to post it again in the hope it will somehow be funny the second time around, it's time to comment.
ReplyDeleteJim has looked like the panhandler he is in all of his photos for years. Chew on that, classy poster.
7:55, there's a great bio about Jobs out on the bookshelves now. I think it will enlighten you on many things.
ReplyDeletePlease go buy it and read it from cover to cover before you post any more ignorance.
Not trying to be funny, 9:44, but you've gotta admit that, with her money, Martore could afford a new mug shot.
ReplyDeletebull.shit.
ReplyDelete9:44 and 9:45 are same poster. Go collect your $5 for posting pro-management anti-employee stuff here. Or maybe you are the PR person who wrote the Martore memo. Struck a cord with you, huh?
ReplyDeleteI've read Job's Bio. He was no saint (hardly) but he was a leader and a visionary. You are playing out of your league on this blog. Your attack on Jim gave you away.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWas this supposed to be her holiday thanks to the little people speech? Did she actually hire someone to write this crap? Did anyone both to think about the timing so soon after setting another round of furloughs?
ReplyDeleteAnother tone deaf move to alienate employees.
10:44, clearly you didn't read the book. I pointed this out earlier, but Jim chose to delete it. So the examples I cited are gone and won't return.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, it's $7.50 per post, but we can only do 10 a day. That's the way it's designed. Second, why does a newpaper have to have an in house press. That's overhead better suited for news hole.
ReplyDeleteDo you intelligent, professional people REALLY believe that corporate pays people $5 per post to post in this blog? I mean i understand Being angry but really, can we stop with that silly post?
ReplyDeleteWho let intelligent professional people in here?
ReplyDelete2:52 I removed a comment that directed the following at another poster: "You would be out of your league trying to read Dick and Jane."
ReplyDeleteWas that it? If so, I took it down because that's the kind of post that simply leads to boring name-calling.
Here's some local news- Nobody believes you!
ReplyDeleteSo Jim: you consider the 6:05 fart comment a more worthy contribution?
ReplyDeleteBest regards?
ReplyDeleteJim, that one was a follow-up to 10:44's mud-throwing.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it seems like you flip a coin when you make these decisions. Probably time to get a new coin. Maybe you should beg for it.
Gracia, first you air your efforts at the Make A Difference Day on Gannett stations and now you issue this email following furlough and layoff announcements?
ReplyDeleteCompletely out of touch.
If you are so grateful for my efforts Gracia, why have I not gotten a raise for the last three years yet have sterling reviews? Why do you make employees Gannett choose from colleges for the Gannett training program work 40 hours plus and not pay them for overtime even though they are hourly employees?(yes, one of my co-workers is one of these employees and I do have documentation.) Do you know what this person told me? That Gannett is evil. That is what you are doing to recent college graduates you recruit. What is it you have done for your employees to even make them want to stay with company. Even my part-time job gave me a bonus this year and you cannot even give a cost of living raise? And thanks for the furlough. That makes me and the rest of your employees feel appreciated. How can you sleep at night when you receive insane bonuses and you make college grads you recruited work unpaid overtime. You should be ashamed of yourself.
ReplyDeleteTo 6:06: If you know hourly employees are working more than 40 hrs/week, then call the U.S. Dept. of Labor to report this violation of federal law. Once you get a rep on the phone, anything you can tell him/her about the pay conditions at your site will be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember if the rep required my name when I did it once, but I gave him my name, and he didn't give it to the company or violate my anonymity in any way.
Remember: Labor Dept. doesn't care about no-raises or asshole managers or the increased cost of health insurance. The dept. cares only about OT being paid if it is worked during a single pay period.
In the olden days, Gannett managers worried about violating this law. They kept reporters from working OT (even if the reporters wanted to) if time-and-a-half couldn't be paid. And comp time wasn't legal in the olden days; I don't know if it is now.
Dept. of Labor investigations have been a newsroom-management nightmare for decades. Journalists traditionally have wanted to work until the story was finished, no matter how many hours it took. Because of the law, managers were required to send reporters home.
If, because of the reduced size of newsrooms (or ad services or the pressroom or wherever), employees are required to WORK OT without being PAID OT, then someone ought to call the law.
Good luck, and please keep the rest of us informed.
6:06 PM, in all probability Gannett president and CEO Martore hasn't felt, doesn't feel and won't feel any shame. It's not her job.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, of eerie relevance to most of Gannett's directorship is a book from 14 years ago by the clinical psychologist Alan Down, Ph.D., "Beyond the Looking Glass," wherein he posited the idea of corporate narcissists.
Arrogant, thick-skinned and oblivious, they are utterly incapable of much else other than the widespread, mindless destruction of fruitful careers and, eventually, their own once-creative companies.
In any case, shame for most narcissistic types (corporate or otherwise) is some abstract and entirely alien reality.
How depressing is that.
Amazing that she would send out a goofy email like this. Massive disconnect with reality.
ReplyDelete"I would like to thank you all once again for your innumerable contributions. "
ReplyDeleteReally? Every single employee is just buying time until they are laid off. Absolutely no job security, more work, less pay. This is how we are "appreciated"?
The 20,000 people laid off included many who gave their lives to this company. Don't insult us with meaningless words.
Did Gracia even read this PR mumbo before it was released with her name on it?
This company needs to throw out the token hires. There are still too many people who were hired for meritless reasons. Get rid of them now.
ReplyDeleteRecall the president who was amazed to see the register scanner technology at the grocery? At a certain level, the rich, the powerful don't live in our world.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I'm not crazy about our world either and if I can make my opportunities pan out, someday I'll stop eating elbow noodles and parkay and calling it fettuccine de oleo. I'm 58 so I still have time.
But asking any C-suite head to sincerely care about me? That would be like me caring about the chinese kid who made my shoes. Yes, I'm aware somebody's life sucks so I can afford footwear. CEO's, CMO's, CFO's, COO's... are aware that their decisions have impacts too - it's just those impacts (our lives) don't matter much to them.
I'm no hippie Occupier - but to get worked up over a throwaway email like this only hurts your mental health. For the C-suite, your anger has less effect than a butterfly fart.
3:14 makes a great point? But what about all the other incompetents and unqualified people they have hired who are white? Just as bad.
ReplyDeleteNot hired specifically because they were white, though.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAnother misstep by Banikarim and her PR agency. Good grief Gracia, wake up. They are making you look like a fool who is out of touch with the workers.
ReplyDeleteDo you think she gives a damn? No way.
ReplyDelete