But for two years now, it's been subjected to management upheaval; layoffs; staff mergers, and structural reorganization. Yesterday, USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke did it again. A brief history:
Hunke announces that long-time USA Weekend executive Marcia Bullard is retiring, and is being replaced as president by Charles Gabrielson. Hunke's quote:
"Marcia has had an extraordinary career with Gannett and she has been a driving force for the enduring success of USA Weekend. At the same time, Chuck has played an important role in USA Weekend's continued growth and his well-deserved promotion will provide a seamless transition."
May 17, 2011
USAT reveals a merger of the editorial staffs of USA Weekend and the Your Life vertical, with verticals chief Heather Frank in charge. Her quote:
"The combination of the highly tenured content teams represents an opportunity to bring together the core editorial strengths of USA Weekend Magazine -- engaging, celebrity-driven coverage of social issues, entertainment, health, food -- with the core strengths of USA Today's Your Life -- outstanding health, medical and fitness coverage and a vibrant online platform."
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| Hunke |
Gabrielson is retiring; Hunke is putting himself in charge as publisher; a new ad sales manager is appointed, and Frank has been named editor-in-chief. In a memo, Hunke says:
[Image: the June 3-5 issue with Taylor Swift on the cover]
I'm still trying to understand how this will work from the editorial side. Questions:
ReplyDeleteAre the edit staffers being separated from the Your Life vertical staff -- but staying a part of the overall Life section staff?
Or are they being separated entirely from Life and returning to independence as a entirely separate unit?
You know, it's not "circulation" as in people suscribe to it or seek it out. It gets stuck inside whatever newspaper people choose to buy, and for the most part, it's lighter than an insert and gets treated accordingly, at least at my house. To the recycling bin.
ReplyDeleteI grew up reading Parade and never forgave my newspaper for switching to USA Weekend
ReplyDeleteAll this demonstrates is that current management can take an incredible cash cow like USAW and find a way to strip it of its most saleable assets and somehow claim all of this is GREAT for the stockholders.
ReplyDeleteThe last time this "magazine" was a cash cow was two decades ago. It's been an embarrassment for a long time. This is another example of how anything USAT related Has been grossly distorted over the years.
DeleteHunke will oversee yet another sinking operation. Heather Frank Is his Captain of the Costa Concordia.
ReplyDeleteWeekend has sucked for some time. They should turn it into something cutting edge.
ReplyDeleteHunke and Heather are about as cutting edge as a butter knife.
ReplyDeleteI read the Macy's insert for more scintillating content. But if I want the low-down on Amish fireplace inserts, I know right where to go. It was good reading at one time, but now it's got all the charm of People magazine without the depth or intelligence.
ReplyDeleteAnother Hunke failure. When does it end for this man? He fails and we pay the price.
ReplyDelete12:27 and 3:21 demonstrate that they have utterly zero concept of what they're talking about. To wit:
ReplyDelete* "Cutting edge"? You mean like the print/digital sites that appeal to a narrow, Millennial audience? That would immediately limit the publication's ability to appeal to a highly broad-based audience. This isn't a targeted pub being sold on a news stand. The vast majority of newspaper partners are publishers at mainstream (even conservative), non-Gannett newspaper (5-1 or even 6-1 non-Gannett in fact). Lose them with "edgy" content and you lose revenue. USAW constantly seeks to appeal to the wealth of demographics -- including celebs/content of appeal to Millenials -- to keep appeal broad. If you think the content is lame overall, fine. But you don't keep non-Gannett newspaper partners by attempting to turn a weekly, family celeb/features/news you can use magazine into Rolling Stone.
* 3:21, you shouldn't post in the wee, small hours like that ... You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. As recently as 2008, USAW made many, many, many more times the revenue as USAT with, like, 1/20th of the staff. It was insanely profitable -- the most profitable of all GCI pubs -- literally year after year after year.
So what happened to stop all that money from being made? Let's guess. Oh, right. The brilliant USAT/USAW "merger," which is now being dismantled (somewhat) and hopefully acknowledged as a failure of massive proportions.
As for those responding here: Keep it to business talk, OK? We all know you think the publication's editorial is awful. But it's not being written for you, so that's not relevant.
11:25, eat gravel for breakfast much?
ReplyDelete11:25, chill will you? So the content isn't for everyone. We get that. But if you think it will improve under Heather Frank and her lame ex AOL team, you are sadly mistaken. This magazine was already flailing before, it's going to get a lot worse under new editorial and marketing leadership. Hunke is either clueless or he is looking for a way to cut costs and let Weekend die off. This is most certainly the way to do it.
ReplyDeleteBring Marcia Bullard back.
ReplyDeleteAs recently as 2008? That's 16 quarters ago. USA today was making a lot more money back then, too. Fact is, Weekend had a bloatd, overpaid and underworked staff before the merger with Life. Plus they were paying for outside freelancers and photogs. It was time this division shared the pain so many other Gannett properties had endured for years and get by with less resources.
ReplyDelete12:35: No, certainly not saying the new leadership will get the pub back on track. Never did. Never would voice support for anything hatched by Hunke. He is all that you and others here have described him as. So we're on the same page there, mon frere.
ReplyDelete12:43: This is a stale, stale argument. Every journalist on the planet thinks they have it so, so, so much harder than anyone else. Zzzzzz.
USAW hired high-quality shooters from NYC -- the same ones shooting for Esquire, SI, etc. -- because it had to. Because its top competitor was spending the same to get the same. Thus making the publication competitive for advertising dollars.
Stick to a business discussion here, 12:43. It's not about who worked harder. It's about what made more money. And, again, USAW made much, much, much more of it for many, many years than USAT with a small fraction of the staff. This isn't opinion. It's fact. I'm contending that the merger was a lousy business decision.
I've read this argument that USAW made "much, much more money" than USAT, and again, I have to ask if the poster is confusing profit margin (which I'm sure USAW has/had an extremely healthy one, probably much bigger than USAT) and total revenue (which my gut tells me is nowhere near as big as USAT).
ReplyDeleteSome things are absolutely true. At its best in the late 1990s, USA TODAY made only a fraction of the huge profits WEEKEND brought in.
ReplyDeleteWeekend has/had a different coat structure. Once a week, early or weekend press run. Very little of the overhead of a newsroom staff, circulation and distribution. But more ad revenue than USA today? No way.
ReplyDeleteThe Rgument is moot. Newspaper circulation is declining. Ads declining. And with Hunks in charge, this operation will soon be in a free fall.
It's always been crap. Tor nail fungus ads, Amish heater ad and a story about an ignorant celebrity telling you how to get fit or bring peace to the Middle East. USATW or Parade, no one reads them anymore. They are both products of a different century. Rest in peace. Move on
DeleteUSAW was a cash cow well beyond the 1990s into the mid-to-late 2000s because there were some very, very smart, skilled people there running advertising, newspaper relations and (yes) editorial. They all worked together on coming up with content that both publishers and ad buyers liked and was legit, good edit for a Sunday insert magazine. (Sorry if that offends you on the church/state level ... but it's not like it isn't happening all over the place now at all levels of media.) So the magazine made a fortune.
ReplyDeleteThose same smart people either got unnecessarily poached or got run off because of "the Gannett way." Chuck was the last of the inspired thinkers/leaders, and now he's out the door. (I hope by his own choice, but judging by the memo, I gather not.)
2:01, stop trying to use terms you don't understand. Revenue and profit are two very different things.
ReplyDeleteTo answer some questions, Jim, a memo went out later on Friday from Acting editor Susan Weiss that said Your Life will be "reassessed," that the editors and reporters assigned to that vertical are returning to the newsroom and that the Your Life page and website will continue only for the "short term" as a new way to present health topics is devised.
ReplyDeleteFlawed or not, a sad ending.
4:44, why don't you read 2:01's post again. She does appear to know the difference, pal.
ReplyDeleteOdd that Gabrielson would retire just a year after taking over at the mag.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your humor, 6 p.m. You are right on.
ReplyDeleteThey had no other place to drop Heather, 10:43. So someone had to take the fall for her mistakes running the Verticals. Justnhave to wonder how many more friends she get to hire now.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete11:38 put a fair amount of effort into describing the difference between revenue and profit by using an otherwise good case study involving selling chairs.
ReplyDeleteBut I've removed it because of belittling language used to make fun of another poster.
I don't like to do that, because I don't like people to waste their time here. Please stop using inflammatory language.
So how did USAW profits because of the merger? If everyone agrees it's not about the already lousy content, what happened? Advertising some how impacted by the merger? Seriously, I don't understand how this massive alleged profit center turned. Bullard and Brenda Turner didn't sell ads, did they? I thought they had a big ad team to do that.
ReplyDeletePlease explain.
As a former Parade employee, I can flatly say that USAW was a fierce competitor at one time. Of course, it had a built-in circulation base of all Gannett-owned newspapers, which were once very loyal Parade subscribers before the company bought Family Weekly and changed the title to USAW. As Gannett grew, so did USAW. However, the business model became a drain on profits and subsequently, the magazine's revenues have fizzled in the wake of the advertising recession.
ReplyDeleteParade, which is owned by the Newhouse family's Advance Publications, still dominates the category, but like anything tied to daily newspapers, profits have diminished greatly. Look at what has happened at many of the Newhouse newspapers and Conde Nast magazines in the last few years. The Newark Star-Ledger is a disaster and the Booth Newspapers in Michigan are cutting back in distribution, which is a sure sign of economic decay. Several Conde Nast titles, like Gourmet, have been shuttered.
It's a wonder that either Gannett or the Newhouses haven't proposed a merger of both magazines. Perhaps that's the next shoe to drop?