USA Today's deputy publisher, Susie Ellwood, told employees in a memo today that Money section personal finance manager Mindy Fetterman is now in charge of the paper's struggling web verticals.
Fetterman replaces Heather Frank, who has overseen the verticals since at least August 2010, when Publisher Dave Hunke revamped the paper's operations.
Frank, in turn, was named editor in chief of USA Weekend, the Sunday newspaper supplement, according to a separate memo from Hunke that discloses big management changes there, too.
Ellwood's move today follows her decision in early November to more closely align the verticals with existing newsroom management. That began what now looks like an unwinding of a merger of the USA Weekend and Your Life vertical staffs announced in May 2011 -- a merger much debated by Gannett Bloggers here -- that had further consolidated Frank's authority.
Text of Ellwood's memo
Dear Colleagues:
I have some news to share today regarding a promotion. Mindy Fetterman, formerly general manager of personal finance and news for USA Today, has been promoted to vice president/content strategy for USA Today. She will be responsible for general management of all content verticals. The general managers will report to Mindy and continue to drive content direction for their respective areas. She will also oversee Ben Nussbaum, editor of special projects, and his team that produces special publications such as our glossy magazines. Mindy will report directly to me.
Mindy is a long-time USA Today employee who has held many roles over the years. She has been a reporter and editor in both Money and News and most recently held the role of general manager of personal finance and news. She is uniquely qualified to work with editorial, marketing and sales to develop content that grows audience and revenue across all of our platforms.
I hope you’ll join me in congratulating Mindy on this promotion.
Susie Ellwood
Text of Hunke memo
Dear Colleagues:
I'd like to share some news on organizational changes within USA Weekend today.
Chuck Gabrielson, president and publisher of USA Weekend, will be retiring effective 4/30/12. Chuck has been with Gannett for more than 35 years. We appreciate his many years of service and wish him well in the future.
Going forward, I will serve as publisher of USA Weekend in addition to my other responsibilities. USA Weekend is a key publication in our portfolio serving a very valuable audience to our newspaper partners and to our advertisers. As publisher, I plan to put a renewed focus on USA Weekend and will be looking for ways to take it to its full potential for our audience as well as our advertisers.
We are also announcing the following changes today:
Michael O'Brien, formerly vice president of advertising for USA Weekend, has been promoted to executive vice president/general manager for USA Weekend with responsibility for advertising sales and newspaper relations.
Heather Frank, previously vice president of consumer media for USA Today, has been appointed editor-in-chief of USA Weekend. Michael and Heather will report directly to me.
The USA Weekend marketing staff will be incorporated into the USA Today marketing team reporting to Sandra Micek, senior vice president of marketing for USA Today.
We are confident that these changes will position us well for the future success of USA Weekend.
Dave Hunke
 |
| Fetterman |
Frank, in turn, was named editor in chief of USA Weekend, the Sunday newspaper supplement, according to a separate memo from Hunke that discloses big management changes there, too.
Ellwood's move today follows her decision in early November to more closely align the verticals with existing newsroom management. That began what now looks like an unwinding of a merger of the USA Weekend and Your Life vertical staffs announced in May 2011 -- a merger much debated by Gannett Bloggers here -- that had further consolidated Frank's authority.
Text of Ellwood's memo
Dear Colleagues:
I have some news to share today regarding a promotion. Mindy Fetterman, formerly general manager of personal finance and news for USA Today, has been promoted to vice president/content strategy for USA Today. She will be responsible for general management of all content verticals. The general managers will report to Mindy and continue to drive content direction for their respective areas. She will also oversee Ben Nussbaum, editor of special projects, and his team that produces special publications such as our glossy magazines. Mindy will report directly to me.
Mindy is a long-time USA Today employee who has held many roles over the years. She has been a reporter and editor in both Money and News and most recently held the role of general manager of personal finance and news. She is uniquely qualified to work with editorial, marketing and sales to develop content that grows audience and revenue across all of our platforms.
I hope you’ll join me in congratulating Mindy on this promotion.
Susie Ellwood
Text of Hunke memo
Dear Colleagues:
I'd like to share some news on organizational changes within USA Weekend today.
Chuck Gabrielson, president and publisher of USA Weekend, will be retiring effective 4/30/12. Chuck has been with Gannett for more than 35 years. We appreciate his many years of service and wish him well in the future.
Going forward, I will serve as publisher of USA Weekend in addition to my other responsibilities. USA Weekend is a key publication in our portfolio serving a very valuable audience to our newspaper partners and to our advertisers. As publisher, I plan to put a renewed focus on USA Weekend and will be looking for ways to take it to its full potential for our audience as well as our advertisers.
We are also announcing the following changes today:
Michael O'Brien, formerly vice president of advertising for USA Weekend, has been promoted to executive vice president/general manager for USA Weekend with responsibility for advertising sales and newspaper relations.
 |
| Frank |
The USA Weekend marketing staff will be incorporated into the USA Today marketing team reporting to Sandra Micek, senior vice president of marketing for USA Today.
We are confident that these changes will position us well for the future success of USA Weekend.
Dave Hunke
This is fantastic news, on a lot of levels. Hopefully Heather Frank will be gone in a few months. That's a major demotion for her -- from vice-president of consumer media to editor-in-chief of a dying Sunday insert.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the word Machiavellian comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteWas Machiavelli the guy who said "what goes around comes around"? Then yes, damn Machiavellian.
ReplyDeleteAmazing it took this long. amazing heather still has a job. her team of high priced ex AOLers now must go, too. the damage this crew has done to usa today's brand is incalcuable. fire them all!
ReplyDeleteFrog-march the AOL mafia out of the building. Today.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing that the top office at USA Weekend had its own shower.
ReplyDeleteNice to see Hunks give a 35 year employee like Gabrielson half a paragraph. Quite a tribute. This company has lost its soul.
ReplyDeleteWatching the madness of USAT and its various spinoffs is quite entertaining in a sad and pathetic way. The mistakes, poor management decisions, constant stream of recycled kiss-ass editors, title swapping, snazzy slogans/jargon and scared-to-death mid-managers without an honest bone in their bodies is quite amazing.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I can now watch what goes on in that ridiculous building from afar. Was no picnic when I had a front-row seat.
One does have to wonder how a once fairly successful brand can have so many idiots under one roof. I guess they keep hiring and promoting each other. No other way for them to survive and thrive if anyone in charge was really on the ball there.
Hell, the only USAT product that I thought ran fairly well for awhile was the old Baseball Weekly. Everything else has been a clunky failure for reasons of pure incompetency, including the newpaper/website.
Blame Hunke for the stupidity and madness. no one is accountable. ever.
ReplyDeleteHunke is allowed because Gracia allows it. unfortunately, the bill on all his vice presidential appointments is coming due. editorial will be paying the price for this folly.
ReplyDeleteHeather gets to keep her fat paychecks after nearly two years of gross incompetence and failure. that figures. she and her team deserve to be shown the door. nothing more.
ReplyDeleteSo many questions, like:
ReplyDelete1. What other candidates were considered as Frank's replacement over the verticals?
2. Could Ellwood please spell out Fetterman's unique qualifications?
3. Is the USA Weekend editor's post a consolation prize, or is Frank also uniquely qualified?
4. Doesn't Hunke have more important things to do than taking on direct supervision of USA Weekend's new editor?
5. Is the USA Weekend staff merger into the Life section now being unwound?
1.No one.
ReplyDelete2. Fetterman actually sold some ads.
3. Consolation prize: yes. Is Heather qualified? No.
4. No.
5. Yes.
Wow. What struck me as amusing is that the big title club continues to grow. Another common symptom of a failing company.
ReplyDeleteWe just hired an SVP to report to another SVP. Which makes me wonder - do we need a new SVP title, like:
ReplyDeleteSSVP - Super Senior Vice President
VSVP - Very Senior Vice President
SSVP - Senior Senior Vice President
EMSVP - Even More Senior Vice President
IMSTYSVP - I'm More Senior Than You Senior Vice President
So much is actually changing. This is going to be quite a year
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder why Heather Frank gets to keep a job with this organization. Her editorial choices are nil. Her management team is an isolated mess. This crew never integrated with the rest of editorial and did virtually nothing to help the broad paper or website. They drove off good people and readers. They never delivered on any promises. Bottom line; wrong leadership for an ill conceived platform targeting the wrong market.
ReplyDeleteYet they get even cushier jobs and will do even LESS work. I don't get it. How can anyone screw up this badly and still be employed?
Weekend will be the perfect place for Ms.Frank to shine. Many of us are in your corner, girl. Don't worry about all the naysayers. They are just jealous of a powerful, confidant woman!
ReplyDeleteSo the USA Weekend/ Your Life merger is undone, and the rolling up of "verticals" into existing sections is undone as well? I'm sure these verticals are really going to take off now, hahahahahahaha.
ReplyDeleteThe vice president reporting structure has become so complex that they need to name a Senior Executive Vice President of Vice President Title Allocation.
ReplyDeleteThe verticals concept was lame from the start. Now that theyve spent millions on salaries, wasted travel and redoing offices, they cannot admit failure.
ReplyDelete7:09 p.m.: Peter Principle.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't understand what the verticals are. Guess I haven't been paying attention.
ReplyDeleteFirst, let's celebrate that these reporters -- who have felt more downtrodden than vertical of late -- are once again working for an editor, rather than a bunch of marketing lackeys. Imagine what it's been like, for almost two years, to have advertising people trying to tell you what to write, when to write, to please advertisers, having to fight them tooth and nail just to preserve some semblance of journalistic quality, some shred of self-respect.
ReplyDeleteThat said, Heather and her clan have destroyed the old Health and Behavior team, which was once the most functional, most collegial part of the whole newsroom. She dismantled the team, unceremoniously dispatched a topnotch editor, and drove away three first-rate medical writers in as many months. They'll never be replaced, leaving the team a ragged shadow of its old self. They'll get rid of the old YourLife page in print because they no longer have the reporters to staff it. Recent attempts to fill the page with "filler" from other sources has only been embarrassing. While this latest restructuring is certainly welcome, the damage has been done, and won't be undone. In some ways, Heather has won. She has destroyed a great section, and gotten not a penny in revenue to show for it.
I'm sorry for any USA WEEKEND staffers who still have to report to Heather and the large contingent of ex-AOL people she brought with her (at least five of her BFFs currently on the payroll). Will they make use of those spiffy new offices?
Can you imagine what it must be like to be a "marketing lackey" and have to supervise a group of naturally negative, uncooperative, inflexible, stuck in the '70s mindset journalists?
Delete11:40, I hope someone will have the foresight to move Heather and her band of morale busters to surroundings far away from the few real journalists left in the building.
ReplyDeleteThe top editor title at USA Weekend used to be Executive Editor. Previously, it was VP/Exec Ed. Now it's Editor-in-Chief? Hmph.
ReplyDeleteI wonder: When Hunke is forced to retire, will his contributions to the company also merit a mere paragraph?
Not if you list his biggest accomplishment: assembling a massive list of management do nothings.
ReplyDeleteDave doesn't do goodbyes very well.
ReplyDeleteHe had me at hello, though.
I really don't care how they say goodbye to Hunke. Just get him the hell out of here. His reign has been a complete disaster and a punch in the stomach to a brand many of us still care about.
ReplyDeleteBut then SE will be in charge. Do you think that's better?
DeleteI love the closing line: "we are confident these changes will position us well for the future success of USA Weekend."
ReplyDeleteWhat Hunks wants to add was:
"And if it doesn't, we'll just make more changes."
No marketing type, lackey or otherwise, should EVER be supervising journalists. You don't get it, do you? You think your marketing background qualifies you to report and write stories? To decode on what news? Geez, you people amaze me. Sell some freaking ads and develop a cohesive marketing plan for this company. Do YOUR job instead of telling us how to do ours.
ReplyDeleteSusie Ellwood has demonstrated she is much more attuned to USAF than Hunke. She moved hiikirk aside. She took away heather Frank's powers. She is bringing sexy back to this organization. Hunks has a couple more quarters to build up the management team to full throttle, then he is outta here.
ReplyDeleteI don't trust her or any other publisher who doesn't make any effort to get to know his reporters and editors. When was the last time you saw Hunke or Ellwood in any of the sections?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOverheard Heather making plans for yet another vacation in Cancun. She has been more time on her hands now doing Even less work than she was doing before. At the same inflated salary, natch.
ReplyDeleteI wish in the surreal world of Gannett, I, too, could fail miserably and keep my job. Gannett, where livin large is within reach, if you have the right connnections.