The good news at PointRoll is that they saw an 18% increase in the number of advertisers that worked with them this past quarter. They saw additional campaigns but they did see there is pretty much globally pressure on pricing. And so they, too, as a business are looking at redefining some of the things that they have historically been doing and repositioning themselves for other areas of growth.
Too late to the party. They had a seat at the adults table but sat on their fat growth margin and did nothing. Pointroll can't catch-up. Areas of growth? They need to blow-up and rebuild to have any chance at survival. Pointroll needs to be very concerned, as does Gannett, with the potential of losing more of their big ticket clients.
ReplyDelete8:38's is a good observation. Too little too late.
ReplyDeletePointroll just lost another great employee today. Tria Pavlides quit exactly two weeks before she is expected to receive her huge bonus payout!
ReplyDeleteTria follows Julie Murphy out the door. Rumor is that she too is joining A firm that Saradakis is involved with!
Pointroll is figuring out whether is acquires a crappy little technology company called Rovion meanwhile, the rest of the industry is passing it up!
ReplyDeleteStay tuned as Flashtalking is taking a bunch of their clients away from them.
Rovion is NOT the answer. A change in the leadership at Pointroll is the first place to start.
Investigation is still ongoing at Pointroll. It seems like Barbara Wall and her legal henchmen have discovered some very interesting and scary behavior among several senior people.
ReplyDeleteI believe that change in the ceo and head of sales is going to happen.
Serious allegations by a handful of whistleblowers have been confirmed.
Tria.....another one bites the dust.
ReplyDelete"18% increase in advertisers"... That means things suck otherwise she would have talked revenue.
ReplyDeleteWho brags their churn has gone up?
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ReplyDelete7:10 I realize that "smoking babe" is meant as a compliment. But I discourage comments about someone's physical appearance.
ReplyDelete10:04 you are dead-on. 18% increase is the only thing Gracia could sell as a "positive". Volume, revenue, return clients, number of campaigns have all dropped significantly. Add to that a troubling turnover rate and it paints a very real picture of what Pointroll is today. The analysts aren't stupid, and neither is Gracia. I'd expect some change very soon.
ReplyDeleteWho cares if we gained a few new advertisers in 2012 when our revenue is down year over year. We seem to be losing clients and employees every day now. The new advertisers we are bringing in do not replace the large $10,000,000 revenue streams we are losing. Major clients like Ford, US Cellular, AT&T, Kohls, Toyota BMW are leaving us. We all know the senior executive team are checked out and the sales reps I am close with are all miserable. This place sucks. How did Gannett allow this to happen?
ReplyDeleteWhat other areas of growth?
ReplyDeleteTria is out! Good for her.
ReplyDelete45 people have quit in 2012, wow!
In 2012 45 people experienced the most beautiful day of their life. Their breakfast that day tasted better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.
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ReplyDeleteDoes anyone want to take a guess who is on vacation again?
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ReplyDeleteHey Jim,
ReplyDeleteAny luck on finding out the bonus payouts for leadership team?
Also can you look into PTO time for employees who have been here 5 years? Is it 6 or 7 weeks vacation?
haters gonna hate.
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ReplyDeleteHere's an edited version of 6:38's comment; I've removed the name of an executive who is said to be on vacation for security purposes. (I don't want to invite the attention of burglars.) Also note: I don't have a soft spot for any particular manager at PointRoll or elsewhere in Gannett.
ReplyDeleteHere's the comment:
XXXXX is on VACATION again this week. Last I checked, Pointroll was NOt part of the Gannett furlough program, so how is it possible XXXXX is able to take four weeks of vacation in 2012???
Seriously, everyone at Pointroll is disgusted by this executive abuse of power and no one questions it.
We have a serious problem in sales where clients are leaving us for competitors, none of the executive show up for client meetings and call minutes beforehand to cancel and we are in TE middle of losing our LARGEST CLIENT...FORD and our fearless leaders ... are NO WHERE.
We have lost 49 of the 250 employees in the last five months!!! Does anyone think that is normal? With the exception of 4 people, the entire sales team is gone and now with the departure of Tria, we are really screwed.
Jim,
Please do not delete this post as I can tell you have a soft spot for the Pointroll executive, but this is alarming and should be exposed to Gracia Martore and the Board.
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ReplyDelete8:49 I remove comments that accuse people of crime.
ReplyDeletePointroll is in trouble back half of 2012. Rob Gatto set up the plan so the first half was a layup. Expenses and quota are heavy in Q3/Q4. Reps and managers will look to exit as they can't attain goals in the back half. The reason Mr. Gatto set this plan was he believed Aggregate Knowledge was going to acquire Pointroll. He had his entire org chart mapped out. He would lay off a significant number of point rollers in KOP as the AK/PR merger went into affect in Q3.This plan blew up and now Gatto is screwed. The point is this: Rob Gatto does not give a crap about you the point roll employees. None of you were part of his plan. He has only been with point roll since 2010 and since that time the company has fallen apart. 50 people have exited in 2012 alone. Gatto has no intention of making point roll a better place to work, no intention of building a better technology, and frankly doesn't care if you have a job or not. The old guard built the Pointroll business from scratch! The new leadership has been relying on momentum and its slowly coming to a halt.
ReplyDeleteAgreed I have done some research and the manager in question has taken 34 PTO days this year....
ReplyDeleteSignificant bonus pay out to this person at the end of the month totaling 81k.
Jimmy, please don't delete or edit as this is not slander just stating facts...
We do not have a voice here and this is our only outlet.....
Shappy, what's up?
ReplyDeleteWhats the real deal with FORD. How many layoff if we lost them?
ReplyDelete9 people will be laid off.
ReplyDeleteat least 30 lay offs if Ford is lost
ReplyDeleteIf Ford is retained still expect layoffs
2:48 this is not your only outlet. You can start your own Pointroll blog!
ReplyDeleteThe MidWest lost another sales executive this week.
ReplyDeleteFrancie has resigned.
7/19/2012 12:09 PM
ReplyDeleteSo Rob Gatto was speaking for Gannett trying to sell Pointroll to Aggregate Knowledge. That seems weird.
By the way, Pointroll is one word.
Also, affect does not even come close to mean what you tried to make it mean.
Pointroll is in sad shape.
ReplyDelete12:09 doesn't know what they are talking about. Gatto doesn't set the plan by quarter it is mapped to the revenue spread of the last year and checked by Gannett finance.
ReplyDelete10:22 That my be correct. The point from 12:09's post is that Gatto had plans to make himself and his inner circle $ with his AK plan but it was an epic fail. The rest of the pointroll employees were likely not part of his new org chart. Gatto's choices have not been good for pointroll employees, which is why they are walking out the door every day. His choices have not been good for Gannett, which is apparent from declining year over year revenue. Gracia has nothing positive to speak of aside from a few new advertisers. Someone needs to come in and clean up the mess. Some of us still want to be here at pointroll.
ReplyDeleteTria hasn't told her team that she has resigned, her last day is next Friday. Wow!!!!! Integrity at its best.
ReplyDeleteThree new resignations. Have we hit 50 yet? 240 employees, that's a pretty sick tunarover number. What's happening to these critical roles being vacated? Open heads remain open. Are we going to get more support in the field?? This place is a huge black hole.
ReplyDeleteTop Executives will plan their strategy for mass turnover and succession planning once they return from their two week vacation.
ReplyDeleteWait till bonuses are paid out on Friday more fallout expected.
6:06 there is something noble about being a "Company Guy". Personally, I have a voice and call shennanigans when I observe it.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy that bonus on Friday and continue not to be a "Game Changer".
7/20/2012 11:16 AM
ReplyDeletethank you for clarifying. that makes a ton of sense.
Now if only they could have presented it that way.
Rob Gatto's resume came across my desk today. He is actively searching.
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