$4 million
what Gannett will save this quarter by furloughing about 9,000 workers in Gannett Publishing Services and at USA Today
$5.9 million
what Gannett will pay retired Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow this quarter as part of his disability and retirement package
Priceless, Jim, just priceless.
ReplyDeleteThis company isn't run for the readers in our communities or the employees in our newspapers or even the stockholders who pay the bills. It's run of, by and for the executives.
The Gannett board who OK'd that contract, should be ran out on a rail.
ReplyDeleteIt won't make any difference. For the most part, corporate boards are made up of financial sociopaths. Wall Street boards and management are even worse.
DeleteAn utter and complete atrocity. This company is a near-criminal disgrace and CD -- we know you read this -- you are beyond beneath contempt as a leader and human being.
ReplyDeleteFrom this morning's NY Times...
ReplyDeleteA quote from the article below which I found appropriate:
"...top earners in the United States have taken a bigger and bigger share of overall income over the last three decades, with inequality nearly as acute as it was before the Great Depression."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/business/for-economists-saez-and-piketty-the-buffett-rule-is-just-a-start.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=annie%20lowrey&st=cse#
That pretty much saps my enthusiasm for work. Once again the Company takes money from the worker bees to pay off an incompetent former CEO.
ReplyDeleteCan a corporate apologist please explain to me why or how this is ethical, moral or acceptable? That's not rhetorical. I really would like to know how this can be acceptable.
That will pay for a LOT of back massages.
ReplyDeleteThis is nothing short of a high crime. But since this is "legal" under the law and rules of corporate governance, we have to settle for it being an abomination of capitalism. Ultimately it falls to the institutional shareholders to find the backbone to oppose the atrocity of excessive compensation. Still, the little people can find other, clever ways to register their feelings.
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry. Meant to write "leader" instead of leader. Because I honestly feel that the vast majority of Boy Scout den leaders are more capable of inspiring productive action and engaging a group of workers than CD ever was. And that's not hyperbole.
ReplyDeleteMartore will prove even more tone deaf than Dubow. ethics and morals of a badger.
ReplyDeleteThat is the exact reason why I just don't give a shit anymore. I put in my 7 1/2 hours, not a minute more. My phone is shut off, and work is falling behind. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteHave to agree with 12:57. A lot of people have stopped caring. Just show up, put in their time, and go home. The company doesn't care about us or our work, why should we?
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ReplyDeleteAnd here's more good news....
ReplyDeleteGracia gets a similar package when she leaves. Pay for performance? Not here.
Why are comments being Deleted??
ReplyDelete3:06 I deleted only one comment, which appeared to be very off-topic.
ReplyDeleteOh just go ahead and tell us when we are closing...stop beating a dead horse
ReplyDeleteThey need to stop this stupid amount of pay for people like Dubow.Thirty times the amount of the lowest paid employee is more than enough for basic pay. Bonus payments paid, reflect, what is happening to the share price.
ReplyDeleteSo if your lowest paid emloyee. Ames $30,000 a year your CEO should earn $900,000? A d what fortUne 500 CEO earns that? How silly
DeleteDubow's payoff was silly to extreme.Captains of industry should only be paid a maximum of thirty times the amount of the lowest paid employee. Bonus payments can be paid that reflect the preformance of the share price.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how can a Company increase its dividend payment by 150%,then ask its staff to take unpaid leave and except pay freezes?
Because they can and you ultimately accept it by staying.
DeleteThe incompetence began with Doug McCorkindale. Paying top dollar for the British media deal, another $1 billion on stock buy backs at ridiculous prices. He begat Dubow and Martore, who have the inspirational leadership skills of George W. Bush and an eye for talent best reserved for a third rate chili cook off at the county fair.
ReplyDeleteIf you think anyone believes your b.s. about positioning this company for growth, no one believes you, Ms.Martore. You don't look out for anyone below senior management,NAND your hollow words of praise and promises has fallen on deaf ears. You and your ilk are responsible for the cancer that has infected this company. Once proud properties like USA Today are foundering. Your solution to cut the guts out is the wrong one. Get some people who can sell some fucking ads without the carrot of exotic trips and bonuses. Hire an editor that will kick some ass and shake out the dead weight and non performers. And hire some decent reporters and writers.
It's about the product. You get what you pay for. Twentysomethings who can't write, edit or have no perspective on the news or historical significance do not serve an "iconic national brand" or at the
Local level, serve the "hometown advantage."
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ReplyDeleteHow can a company profess to care about our health and insist on mandatory annual physicals hang the constant threat of furloughs and layoffs over our heads. Gracia?
ReplyDeleteThe incompetence began with Doug McCorkindale. Paying top dollar for the British media deal, another $1 billion on stock buy backs at ridiculous prices. He begat Dubow and Martore, who have the inspirational leadership skills of George W. Bush and an eye for talent best reserved for a third rate chili cook off at the county fair.
ReplyDeleteIf you think anyone believes your b.s. about positioning this company for growth, no one believes you, Ms.Martore. You don't look out for anyone below senior management,NAND your hollow words of praise and promises has fallen on deaf ears. You and your ilk are responsible for the cancer that has infected this company. Once proud properties like USA Today are foundering. Your solution to cut the guts out is the wrong one. Get some people who can sell some fucking ads without the carrot of exotic trips and bonuses. Hire an editor that will kick some ass and shake out the dead weight and non performers. And hire some decent reporters and writers.
It's about the product. You get what you pay for. Twentysomethings who can't write, edit or have no perspective on the news or historical significance do not serve an "iconic national brand" or at the
Local level, serve the "hometown advantage."
Martore? Banikarim? Ellwood?
ReplyDeleteYES. We can definitely do better without them.
What hurts is Dubow, Martore, Dickey, the board, etc., think all of this is just fine....Everytime I see the PBS chief on the air asking for donations, I think that he should donate his G A N N E T T board income to the station.
ReplyDeleteOkay, let's take your comment at face value. 30 times pay of lowest paid worker. That would be, rounded, about $450,000 a year for the CEO. Okay. Let's do that. Of course there are hundreds who make more than that, sales executives, for instance, but also others who specific skills. Can they make more than 30 times more? That would go over real well, make a big sale, get nothing more because you are capped out. Bet the NBA players would like that too. No more $100million contracts for sitting on the bench. Or, like some, getting that for not even playing. I mean, come on, where do you come up with this stuff?
ReplyDeleteYep, that's what corporate America has become. CEOs and the like get to write their own checks.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to talk about performance pay, because I am sure you will never find a single executive who has done such a "good" job to warrant such salary increases that they collectively have taken over the past couple of decades.
That's why we need to support the Income Equity Act. This bill (which has been introduced over and over in the past several congresses) "Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) deny employers a tax deduction for payments of excessive compensation to any full-time employee (i.e., compensation for services exceeding the greater of 25 times the lowest compensation paid to any other employee or $500,000), and (2) require such employers to file a report with the Secretary of the Treasury on excessive compensation (as defined by this Act) paid to their employees. Defines 'compensation' to include wages, salary, deferred compensation, retirement contributions, options, bonuses, property, and other forms of compensation." - That definition is directly from www.govtrack.us
If you haven't heard of it, I'm not surprised. The CEOs and bigwigs are trying to play it down. The news media has largely ignored it, too.
Google it. This is a bill everyone should get behind, especially anyone who has ever been laid off while their former CEOs rake in millions.
Getting the government involved usually backfires. Citibank just fired to first shot in executive pay backlash all by themselves. If a Wall Street company can do it, anyone can.
DeleteDon't forget about the the "sales" trip to Tahiti at WKYC TV. How could they be hurting and still take sales staff, GM, his wife and clients (Milano monuments and Liberty Ford)to Tahiti for a week? The GSA is taking lessons from gannett!
ReplyDeleteJim, I laugh at your definition of "off-topic." If you deleted all of those posts, more than half of every post in every thread would be gone.
ReplyDeleteLook at the "discussion" of the Enquirer photo for glaring examples. There are some decent posts there, but there are also quite a few people running in to perform, toss in pointless snark, or to push the envelope of dumb. Most of that could be deleted, and we would be the better for it.
You need to raise your game, Jimmy. Big time.
Dear 9:29- The "pointless snark" is frustration among the workers on the front lines. For every front liner who does something to move their paper of station ahead one step, corporate seems to drag the organization back three steps. And before you crow about leaving if one doesn't like the job, remember how bad the economy is in this industry. The jobs we would love to jump to elsewhere aren't out there or have a lot of candidates when they do open, from the ranks of the already laid off and unemployed.
ReplyDeleteThe current Content Evolution is a perfect example of an idea that already off the rails. At my site, there is little to no direction from on high except for the front page high profile pieces everyone is expected to deliver for the roll out. Literially most of the "content generators" don't know what their "beat" is going to be. One higher up has been heard to say they don't care what the rest of the paper is filled with. That's a great attitude as paywalls are set to roll out.
What little morale left at Gannett is disappearing,hence the "snark."
RE: "It's about the product. You get what you pay for. Twentysomethings who can't write, edit or have no perspective on the news or historical significance do not serve an "iconic national brand" or at the
ReplyDeleteLocal level, serve the "hometown advantage."
Were you an editorial prodigy when you started in this business? Are you just angry because you have refused to adapt to the current climate of online media?
Christalmighty, can some of you get off your high horses about "the current climate of online media?"
ReplyDeleteNo site I have seen is doing anything more, at this point, than giving that lip service. Most of us are adapting quite fine to online media; we've been working with it for years. I just don't like the scatterbrained way my site is going about it all, and we think we're one of the big dogs.
We give the new, mostly young, reporters smartphones and sic them loose to shoot video of practically every story they write, and they're getting exhausted and frustrated and it shows in the videos and attendant stories. It's overkill and leads to more of a hodgepodge on our frenetic, hard to navigate website.
We don't have any apps, no mobile or tablet availability, but we do tweet and send out text alerts.
We're so far behind the game and we're struggling to play catchup. It's insane. Yet we keep hearing that online content is going to rule the game, and the readers are going to pay for it? Yeah, right.
Well, the that is where the climate is - online. Who is buying that continuously shrinking, nonsense of a print product anymore?
ReplyDeletePeople won't pay for the online product because it's blatantly apparent that the whole operation is shoddy.
Quick competitive update:
ReplyDeleteToday's NYT and WSJ crushes USAT again. See you tomorrow.