Tuesday, January 24, 2012

USAT | A paper's masthead held hostage: Day 4

In an extremely well-publicized reorganization, Heather Frank, USA Today's high-profile vice president for consumer media, was abruptly reassigned to editor in chief of the Sunday newspaper supplement USA Weekend.

The move on Friday was disclosed in a memo that landed here on Gannett Blog. Soon, blogger Jim Romenesko tweeted the news to his 44,000-plus followers, followed by USAT itself finally issuing a press release yesterday.

But online and in print, it's the same old story.

From the paper's current executive bios page . . .


. . . and from today's print edition of the masthead:

22 comments:

  1. Could they be so short staffed that they can't get around to something this basic? Speaks volumes.

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  2. None of us are surprised. We tend to focus on the periodic free lunch and meaningless presentation these days.

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    1. Boy you are a bundle of joy

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. I wonder about the politics here. With all the VPs and SVPs, why do only some appear on the masthead?

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    1. Sincerely, who cares and why?

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  5. Details are the difference. If a paper can't stay on top of something like this -- an item presumably of special interest to the top brass -- it will be hard to compete well with the big boys.

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    1. Please, you "journalists" take yourselves and life way to seriously. You don't care what the reader actually wants and you hang on to archaic ideals that your mire innovative, more successful digital cousins abandoned years ago. A reader NEVER looks at one of these "ego" boxes. Only you out of touch dinosaurs care.

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  6. Jim, you have to realize this company doesn't pay attention to the details. It's all about half as sing its way in the world pretending to be some kind of a player. But the focus isn't on providing even B level content to the masses.

    This is a company where inbreeding and cliques were allowed to dominate when newspapers were cash cows in spite of themselves. The arrogance continue well into the Internet age, when nonone had the foresight to roll with the changes.

    Instead, the lackey system remained entrenched, logrolling managers up and across the food chain until people like Dubow Peter Principaled their way to the top. The board was useless in raising concerns, and noepw the model is badly broken.

    Does anyone think Gracia really cares? She has a five year window, then retirement and cushy directorships at companies diversifying their boards.

    Maryam? We've already seen that hitting the ground running, in her world, means a year of consultant studies and no understanding of the news business.

    Hunke? Please. Not a caretaker, innovator or leader. We can only expect more useles hires, memos and uninspiring pep talks.


    All the vice presidents? They don't evennlookmgood on pap

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  7. You'd be surprised what we have to put up with the jockeying of these dinosaurs to get on the masthead. Biggest surprise to us still remains Motiff and "Senior" marketing Micek.

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  8. HAs anyone thoughtnof bringing Tom Curley back to run the newspaper? He knows business, newsrooms and knows then difference between product building and bullshit marketing plans. He also knows USA today.

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  9. 5:32 Of the 25 (!) names in that ego box, only 10 are journalists -- people who work in the newsroom.

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  10. I doubt Curley would return for anything less than Gannett CEO -- and even that likely wouldn't suit him.

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  11. Is it possible to get posts that use English?

    Four words rammed together with extra letters, and then other letters dropped from the end? Seriously? This is the best one can do?

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  12. 9:22, I think people are so angry, they can't type fast enough. The constant overhang of doom in the newsrooms offset by the mindless corporate dribblespeak makes typos morekommomplacze

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  13. Stupid little touchpad smart phones and fat fingers! Sometimes I just give up trying to edit copy and give it the ol' Good Enough For Gannett try.

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  14. She's remaining in the masthead as a reminder that you, too can have your morale sapped and all your hard work for this company marginalized by an inappropriately bad hire.

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  15. 8:32,
    Right, that's why you all would kill each other to see your names on the masthead. Meaningless...I doubt it. Pretty soon the thing is going to be cutting into Forum space it's getting so large.

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  16. Let's see how much cash Curly carries out as he retires from AP. He does not need the frustration of working for Gannett again.

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  17. It's now Day 5: I just checked today's print edition, and Frank is still listed in the masthead.

    I wonder if Hunke or Ellwood ever read the paper closely?

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  18. Funny because Kurtz and Dionise don't work for USA TODAY any longer, they work for Gannett Digital Development.

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  19. Maybe it's part of the exit package: a life time listing on the masthead.

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