For some time now, I've predicted USA Today's No. 2 executive, Susie Ellwood, would likely be the paper's next publisher, after Dave Hunke retires as chief of Gannett's best-known daily.
I repeated that yesterday, when Gannett announced Hunke, 60, had been given a new title: chairman. Ellwood was handed full control of all the paper's daily operations, while a search is underway for Hunke's replacement.
Ellwood, who's around 60 years old, has been executive vice president and general manager since last June.
But Anonymous@10:18 begs to differ: "Jim you are delusional. Susie isn't getting the job."
With that, I'm opening the floor to other suggested candidates.
To get the ball rolling, I'll start with these three: John Zidich, publisher of The Arizona Republic and president of the West Group of community newspapers; Michael Kane, publisher of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and president of the East Group, and Margaret Buchanan, publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer. So:
Ellwood, who's around 60 years old, has been executive vice president and general manager since last June.
But Anonymous@10:18 begs to differ: "Jim you are delusional. Susie isn't getting the job."
With that, I'm opening the floor to other suggested candidates.
To get the ball rolling, I'll start with these three: John Zidich, publisher of The Arizona Republic and president of the West Group of community newspapers; Michael Kane, publisher of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and president of the East Group, and Margaret Buchanan, publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer. So:
- Ellwood
- Zidich
- Kane
- Buchanan
You read it here. It won't be an insider. Those days are over.
ReplyDeleteEllwood had her chance did nothing for the last 8 months
Zidich no chance reached his limit
Kane no chance no leadership skills
Buchanan lol no chance all hat no cattle
Sue Clark-Johnson passed through Phoenix on her way to bigger things. Phoenix IS one of the better-run papers. Can't beat the website. So why not Zidich?
ReplyDeleteI miss Clark-Johnson. She actually sincerely spoke with people.
ReplyDeleteAnd I mean everyone; didn't matter your department, didn't matter your job title.
I know! Can you believe it?
Contrast that to any of these speculative candidates for publisher of USA Today.
I think Mickey Mouse should lead since USA Today has become a Mickey Mouse operation.
ReplyDeleteBob Stover is under consideration.
ReplyDeleteSCJ was a phony of the first order. She couldn't hack it when she finally made it to the head of USCP. She went back to Phoenix a failure
ReplyDeleteGANNETTOID ICEBERG AHEAD - FACEBOOK + JOURNALISM
ReplyDeleteJim, right here, from "MIT Review" --
http://blog.wavii.com/2012/01/23/wavii-instant-news-feeds-for-any-topic/
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ReplyDeleteHINKE...HAVE A OTHER SINGLE MALT BABY! Too bad all the Gracia ass kissing you were doing didn't pay off.
ReplyDeleteHave fun vesting your stock given to you at $30 a share and having a retirement that is UNDERWATER,
If you were a woman at Gannett Hunke, you would be in the drivers seat.
Does anyone know what Jennifer Carroll does at Gannett and why the duck she is still here? Seriously, is this another quota-gaining woman that Gracia needs to keep her number up?
ReplyDeleteSo when the guys were running Gannett for oh I don't know 100 years there was no talk about the good old boys runni g the company and harassing women. Now a woman runs the company and you sexists can't wait to pounce? Nice going Jim
ReplyDeleteDerek Osenenko.
ReplyDeleteI doesn't matter who becomes publisher. The Hunke experience shows that Gannett only wants weaklings in that role who will bow to corporate demands without a peep. The company has shown time and again that independent thought and high standards aren't valued among publishers or editors. Need more proof? Paulson, Hillkirk, Weiss.
ReplyDeleteTom Curley is available, maybe he can bring back Larry Linguist to boost circ, Ron Cz. to fix finances, Janet R.to get HR in shape and Bob Dubill to get Edit back on track. Or not.
ReplyDeleteIn a grand effort to mimic the outstanding success of the USAT Sports vertical, the News desk will be partnering with one of the major political parties to provide in-depth coverage during this election year.
ReplyDeleteAs part of that partnership, the presidential candidate of that party will be named publisher of USAToday.
"We don't see any ethical issues with partnering with the ruling bodies of the sport of elections. We think our audience will appreciate the in-depth coverage this partnership will provide. At the very least, readers will know who wins in November as Gannett usually partners with the losing team. Yahoooooo!"
While the Sports partnerships have skewed less positive for USAT, the News partnership does include a presidential debate with the partnered candidate wearing a DealChicken costume.
If a presidential candidate commits to this partnership in the next 10 days, a vice-presidential candidate will be given a complimentary Your Life vertical to use as their own. If you don't have a viable veep candidate, take Maryam. (Let her know the Senate meets in Washington, though.)
Martore will pick someone ill equipped to handle the job, because shell listen to Banikarim and dolts like Hunke. In turn, the new pub will make a inappropriate hire as editor. Face it folks, USA today, which was fucked up under current and past leaders, will continue to swoon.
ReplyDeleteMy guess...someone from Patch.
ReplyDeleteAriana Huffington.
ReplyDelete@9:03, thanks for my morning chuckle!
ReplyDeleteHow about Skip Hidlay?
ReplyDeleteBob Dickey, for the great job he has done with the other newspapers. LOL.
ReplyDeleteBuchanan’s the poster child for what’s wrong with Gannett, key to why this company needs to look outside for Hunke’s replacement as its long condoned the acts of too many like her.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, the short list of insiders is the same cast of characters who led this company into the ground and few current and former Gannetters have any real confidence that any should be trusted to lead it out and forward.
What this company really needs is creative, entrepreneurial leaders. People capable of pushing back on many of corporates ridiculously flawed, slow-moving edicts, people willing to risk their own jobs to do what’s right versus doing anything to save it, people capable of reigniting employees long-last passions and taking the many solid ideas they have to offer and leveraging them for further success and profits.
All qualities that none of this lot has nor have they’ve ever valued. Exactly why the list is so small as many who actually had and led with those skills fled Gannett long ago, further reasons why an outsider needs to be brought in (at many sites) as its time for a real cultural shift in how this company is led.
Its future really does depend on it.
10:38 described ideal candidates to be USAT's next publisher as "people capable of pushing back on many of corporates ridiculously flawed, slow-moving edicts."
ReplyDeleteThat is true, and Martore & Co. might even tell candidates that they want such an entrepreneurial risk-taker.
But risk-taking hasn't been in Gannett's DNA since Al Neuharth launched USA Today. The company's culture is very, very, very conservative, because the major shareholders want it that way.
Wall Street doesn't believe any newspaper publisher is capable of making dramatic, envelope-pushing changes that will completely turn things around.
Since at least 2006, when Craig Dubow launched a faux transformation of the company, Gannett's strategic plan has been this:
Drain the company of as much capital as possible as quickly as possible, while keeping the company largely on life-support. You need to look no further than the recent Investor Day, which Corporate headlined this way in a statement:
"GANNETT HOLDS INVESTOR MEETING TO PRESENT GROWTH STRATEGY AND CASH FLOW-FUNDED CAPITAL PROGRAM AND EXPECTS TO RETURN MORE THAN $1.3 BILLION TO SHAREHOLDERS BY 2015."
(Emphasis added.)
Gannett will not make any big bets on digital businesses. The recent acquisitions of sports properties are peanuts compared to Facebook's just-announced $1 billion deal for Instagram.
Indeed, in the Investor Day statement, Corporate said: "The company will continue to evaluate opportunistic bolt-on acquisitions similar to Fantasy Sports Ventures (owner of Big Lead Sports and related websites), but has no current plans to pursue sizable acquisitions."
(Again, emphasis added.)
Is that a climate that would attract a real risk-taker?
The hatchet will continue to fall, and Mark Silverman would love to wield it and rake in some big bucks as he glides into retirement.
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ReplyDeleteDerek Osenenko created a trail of misery and paranoia wherever he went and was a perfect corporate yes man.
ReplyDeleteTom Beusse is the perfect choice. Talk the big talk. get rid of virtually all the old guard. make everyone else feel like third class citizens. Spend lots of corporate money. He'd be perfect.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Zidich the ethically-challenged editor who was knee-deep in the Fiesta Bowl scandal while it erupted around him?
ReplyDeleteFor as much information I get off this blog, it really disheartens me to see Dave Hunke disparaged.
ReplyDeleteYou must not really know him. He can't fight corporate cuts... anyone not at USAT see's more than there fair share of cuts to keep that ship from sinking. He is the most caring and ethical person I have ever worked for and he cares deeply about all his employees down to the janitors.
Get off the "it's the publisher's fault" bandwagon and take the guy out to lunch. You will never make a more wonderful friend. I know from experience he would rather cut off his fingers than let anyone go.
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DeleteHah. Good one Dave. Have another.
ReplyDeleteTake the guy to lunch? The guy never bothered to talk to a newsroom staffer. Probably couldnt find the newsroom. Thats rich.
ReplyDeleteHe was solely responsible for the vertical strategy that was so successful - NOT! He ran USA TODAY into the ground with that idea. He took up numerous hours of staffers time to sit in useless meetings for months. I know I was one of those people in on the strategy which made no sense from the beginning - all they did was make promises they couldn't keep, restructure (get ride of people) and wordsmith the concept. It was a complete waste of my time and was one of the reasons I left. I wanted to do real strategy work - something that is foreign to Gannett.
ReplyDeleteBy any and all measures, Hunke is a massive failure. I have yet to meet a bigger Gannett bullshitter. He could not be out the door fast enough, in my opinion. LOUSY leader, even lousier judge of talent.
ReplyDeleteI hear the search involves graduates of the National Clown College, a feeder for many Gannett properties.
ReplyDelete1:19, he's walking out the door with several million and all ten fingers.
ReplyDelete".... he would rather cut off his fingers than let anyone go."
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a good one. He was more than happy to eliminate my position and -- when the highest level of executive management personally went to him personally to plead to keep me because they feared it would significantly damage the product otherwise -- he just scolded them and said, "It's about the organization and positions, not individuals. Make it work." Meaning he could care less about performances. We were just budgetary numbers to be eliminated.
Hunke had no idea who I was, what I did or why it mattered. And it mattered not to him. All he amounted to was just another in a long line of top Gannett managers who personally profited by destroying the products and the careers of the people who honorably supported them. I landed on my feet just fine. As for many of my other colleagues let go? Not so much.
Well I see Hunks will retire in September, but not before he sneeks off to Asia to visit major advertisers there. Funny, you couldn't get his ass out in NY, Chicago, or LA but NOW he suddenly decides to be a salesman?
ReplyDeleteThe same phoney crap he's been shoveling since he got here. Thank God he's going.
My reader@10:18, quoted in this post, said flat-out: "Susie isn't getting the job."
ReplyDeleteSurely, they mean she isn't getting the job permanently, because, in fact, she got the job yesterday -- in every way but the title.
This leads me back to my original question: If Ellwood isn't in line to be Hunke's successor, then why hand the job to her even temporarily?
Why not leave things as they were; search for a permanent successor, then announce Hunke's retirement and his replacement simultaneously in September?
Certainly, there seems no urgency to get a new permanent publisher in place. If Ellwood isn't to get the job, then all this new arrangement accomplishes is to install a lame-duck interim publisher for five more months.
Also, it virtually guarantees the paper won't get a permanent top editor to replace Hillkirk until after September. That'll mean the paper will have gone nearly a year without certainty at the top of the editing ranks.
Wrong again
Delete3:24-please do not degrade the National Clown College like that-graduates deserve better than Gannett.
ReplyDeleteHunke's going to Asia. Why don't we just send Mr. Haney from Green Acres: "Well Mr. Takamatsu, let me tell you how we do things over in the US of A."
ReplyDeleteJim -- you're in SFO. Do you really think the Gannettoids are capable of doing something challenging and inspired? Like what you see, daily?
ReplyDeleteThere's a better chance, the public debt will be paid off, in the next five years, than the Gannettoids doing something inspired.
Get out, while you can.
Gannettoids -- laughing at you. You're doomed. McDonald's has more original thought than your crew.
Did someone actually mention Margaret Buchanan for the position of USAT Publisher. She can't even run a third rate newspaper in a fly over state much less the Nation's Newspaper.
ReplyDeleteBut she would have a larger group of people to pick from for her personal chores that she thinks are beneath her such as gasing and washing her car.
Frank Vega will be lured away from San Francisco Chronicle. He and Suzie were bff's in Detroit.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Frank Vega would be a perfect fit
ReplyDeletehow about Mary Junck from Lee. She certainly has demonstrated the kinds of skills that Gannett seeks in top execs -- major strategic decisions that failed followed by near bankruptcy and self enrichment.
ReplyDelete@1:19 you don't know the Hunke that has ruined USAT in 3 short years. There is nothing honorable about this man. He screwed over many, many people to keep his million dollar paycheck. Maybe he was a good guy once, but he sold his soul to the devil when he took the USAT job and he delivered on every evil dictate from above just to stay employed. I was close to Hunke once, so I speak from experience. He knew exactly the destruction that he was being asked to cause and he did it any way just to keep his paycheck. The staff despises him for good reasons and if he was really a good guy, then he should reach out and make amends to the folks he stepped on to get ahead, but he never has and he never will because he is a chicken shit. Good riddance, Dave Hunke.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone see this as something other than Hunke getting shivved? The guy is only 60, LOVES newspapers, and almost certainly loved running one of the biggest (though far from the best) newspapers in the country.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know WHY they shivved him?
As for Susie Ellwood, she was such a flop in Detroit it was amazing to see her get promoted.
Of course, Gannett is company that replaced the Peter Principle with Paul Principle (inspired by Free Press Publisher and Editor Paul Anger, who has proven that you can be promoted WAY BEYOND your level of incompetence).
How about Captain Kangaroo for publisher of USAT or Mister Rogers. Either would beat the cast of characters mentioned here. Bob Dickey. You're kidding! An ad sales manager who kissed Sue Clark's back side for 20 years. Mutual admiration of two bff's. Agree they are both phony and neither have had many original ideas, just BS and lofty memos making maintaining the status quo as lead strategy. How about some true talent from real leaders who can innovate and inspire?
ReplyDeleteHow about a write-in campaign for Don Stinson for USA Today Publisher? With Craig Moon as deputy sheriff/Associate Publisher.
ReplyDeleteHere's a thought, Zidich moves to USA TOADY and Karen C returns as Publisher of Az Republic.
ReplyDeleteJim, putting a lame duck in a position is commonplace throughout Gannett in recent years. It happens in levels clear down to features editor (remember when we had those?) I saw it repeatedly. Everyone knew the lame one wouldn't get the position except him or her. So the doomed candidate works his/her butt off with elevated hopes, only to be pushed aside when a friend of the editor/publisher/fill-in-the-blank gets pulled in. It's been going on for some time now, and they're not above doing it to Susie. I don't know her; had dinner with her once. Seemed intelligent and decent, but everyone is better at dinner....
ReplyDeleteShe's the same age as Hunke. They push much younger folks under the bus.
Unless Buchanan’s lunch would be properly plated (food aligned in a manner fitting to her) and delivered to her like she’s accustomed to 4:56 p.m., it’s doubtful she’d even take the job if offered.
ReplyDeleteThough getting her out of Cincinnati might be the last chance Gannett has in saving what’s left, that is if she hasn’t already crossed the point of no return, one many feel will occur later this year when she takes it to the smaller format with even less content.
re: 1:00 am: makes perfect sense and follow the SJC, Dickey, Zidich pattern. What would the Phoenix folks think of that? Didn't seem Karen had many fans there?
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ReplyDeletecrotchfelt back to Phx. maybe! her boy toy stay at home, can't get a real job hubby hates Indy. if she goes to phx, watch the swinging door as many many will leave quickly. her success is due to lots of private pic of her corporate buddies.
ReplyDeleteTHE ANSWER!
ReplyDeleteLook under "Consultants, Bankruptcy."
Have monkey to throw darts at list.
No worse that GCI board.
9:51 Skippy that you? Worked your magic in nj and looked like things went real well for you in Kansas. How's writing those press releases? What that the type of new challenge you were seeking?
ReplyDelete