Former Tennessean Publisher Ellen Leifeld is coming out of retirement to become chief of the Courier-Post at Cherry Hill, N.J., according to Gannett Bloggers. The announcement apparently was made to staff today, but I don't see a story on the paper's website yet. [Updated: Here's the paper's story.]
She replaces Gene Williams, who was general manager and executive editor from March 2010 until he left last month.
Leifeld retired as publisher in Nashville in November 2009.
At Cherry Hill, she'll be chief executive of a paper much smaller than Nashville's.
Cherry Hill's circulation is 46,547 weekdays and 63,676 on Sundays. Nashville is 118,589 on weekdays and 216,434 on Sundays, according to the March 31 ABC report.
 |
| Leifeld |
At Cherry Hill, she'll be chief executive of a paper much smaller than Nashville's.
Cherry Hill's circulation is 46,547 weekdays and 63,676 on Sundays. Nashville is 118,589 on weekdays and 216,434 on Sundays, according to the March 31 ABC report.
This is great news for Gannett. Ellen is a true professional who will help Cherry Hill rebuild... Also nice to see someone COMING BACK to Gannett.
ReplyDeleteGood luck, Ellen!
Yes, Ellen is one of Gannett's best. Congratulations to her. A good and hopefully fresh start for Cherry Hill as well.
ReplyDeleteAnother women get a title. What a joke this company has become
ReplyDeleteThank God, a man wasn't chosen. Especially one who might actually know something about the community.
ReplyDeleteLOL, ROTFL, LMAO
As fun as it is to bash gender-based decisions, I would wonder why someone has to be called out of retirement for this position. That seems like an unusual move. Maybe it was a gender-based decision. But the "out of retirement" aspect seems meatier. Retired woman flesh! Mmmmmmmmm!
ReplyDeleteTechnically, she was introduced as an 'interim' publisher. Who knows what lies ahead? On second thought......
ReplyDeleteInterim publisher?? Wasn't that position done away with and replaced by general manager?
Delete8:55 I thought the advertising director had been serving as interim general manager. What's going on here?
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to Gene Williams?
ReplyDeleteGene Williams left on his terms, due to the fact that his parents are ill and went to take care of them. He was a good guy
ReplyDeleteWilliams retireda as GM/executive editor. Meg Downey has been sent to help the staff incorporate passion topics, a project the managing editor has grappled with for a year and still doesn't get. Kean announced Ellen as interim publisher Tuesday, even though staff was told ad director Bill Janus was taking Williams' place temporarily when the latter left. Truth is no one is rushing to permanently fill voids at the Courier-Post. The ME was appointed to his position after his predecessor's job was allegedly eliminated in a layoff and he's a giant failure. Anyone know a good employment lawyer?
ReplyDeleteSomewhere, on the Web, there's a story (Romensko?) about how she was brought into Green Bay to "merge" groups. (And I'm too tired to look for it -- you do it.)
ReplyDeleteHard to say what's on the agenda .. but based on the past, looking at either a "consolidation" and/or sale.
This is not good, IMHO. Then again, it rarely is.
Ellen is great. She successfully led one of Gannett's larger properties and was a group officer when she retired. Especially considering the "interim" title, does it occur to anyone that maybe she is being parked in Cherry Hill until there is an opening at a larger property? Wilmington, for example, is just down the road. There's a clue.
ReplyDeleteGene is a good guy. I wish him and his family well.
ReplyDeleteBeing "parked" in Cherry Hill is par for the course:The CP has always been a dumping ground for crappy editors.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't Hollis Towns get the job? He's ready to step up to publisher somewhere, isn't he?
ReplyDeleteHe would do well as the night janitor.
DeleteOk, why is this lady coming out of retirement?
ReplyDeleteSo, someone wants us to believe she really did "retire," eh? Sounds more like she was sideways with the former CEO when she last took a bow, don't ya think? Retire or we fire. Hard to believe Gannett couldn't find fresh blood on the open market. Hold it. Is this part of a settlement Ellen won? Did she quietly go to court to force her way back into the fold? Now that would make sense...
ReplyDelete1:37 This may be nothing more than a temporary gig while Corporate finds a permanent publisher. In other words, Leifeld is a contract worker sent on on temporary assignment.
ReplyDeleteI witnessed this happen at The Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock in the mid-1980s, when Mo Hickey was sent to the paper as what turned out to be the final publisher before Corporate pulled the plug on the paper.
I believe Hickey was in retirement when he was brought in.
Jim, I think you may have your statements at odds with one another.
ReplyDelete"Permanent" and "pulled the plug" are going in the opposite directions.
That is a very competitive market, a lot of money has already been lost. Are there enough local sports agate, local obits, and local crime stories to keep them printing daily?
Doubtful -- and Gannettoids do not have enough brains, smarts, or drive. Look at AnnArbor.com, which used to be "The Ann Arbor News."
9:34 and 9:35 are on the right track. Now if we could have a commrade from GPS confirm the rumors of shutting down the Cherry Hill press, we'd have something in the oven. Wilmington and Cherry Hill aleady share functions at multiple levels. Add the "Consolidation Queen" into the mix, a dash of uncertainty of current leadership, and you've baked a loaf of merged operations. For those of you that will wail about how it could never be... Take a look a Salisbury.
ReplyDeleteShut down the presses here? Gannett would love it, but wait. This is a union shop. It has been rumored for years that printing and trucking could be contracted across the river to Philly Inquirer a union shop, of course. Since their trucks come into NJ to deliver the Inquirer and Daily News they could easily just add another paper and save money and time. Would the unions go for this? Sure won't settle for printing in Wilmington or Asbury. Just saying.
DeleteIn 2004 Leifeld was in charge when the chain of 34 local mostly weekly papers and other publications (including the daily Green Bay News-Chronicle) where I worked was purchased by Gannett.
ReplyDeleteToday there are four papers (three weeklies and a semiweekly) and a quarterly magazine left. One of the surviving papers was created by merging three 100-year-old papers and a shopper; each of the weeklies has a single full-time editiorial staffer.
Any questions?
Where's the statement from Corporate that CP is not "interim?" As in, "fight to win?"
ReplyDeleteToday's paper and website report arrival of the new "interim" publisher.
DeleteDon't overly romanticize the News-Chronicle publications. Without Brown County Publishing dumping money in, those papers would have folded a year after Frank Wood accumulated them, 'The Chain Gang' notwithstanding.
ReplyDeleteRemember Frank took his money and ran after selling to Gannett. He was in it for the $$ as much as Gannett is.
Buying those papers and shutting down the marginal ones created better regional papers that are actually worth reading instead of podunk papers for Denmark and Oconto. It also improved profitability in covering that area for the GBPG - which had had the lowest CPM rates of all the Wisconsin Gannett papers.
Wood sold the papers because he was dying of cancer and didn't want to saddle his family with additional strife. He was NEVER in it just for the money, and that's an idiotic statement. If he just cared about bucks, he would have dumped the News-Chronicle decades ago and lived very nicely on the profits of Brown County Publishing's printing operations as well as very profitable papers in Oconto and Door County.
DeleteAnd if the consolidation was so good for Denmark, why did two new publications arise there just to get some semblance of local coverage, coverage that wasn't coming from the Gannett papers?
Indeed, folding the News-Chronicle allowed the GBPG to up its rates. That (and getting their hands on Door County) was the whole point of the sale from Gannett's standpoint.
Ellen did a great job in Nashville, considering she was moving in as an unknown. Unlike most Gannett execs, she became involved in the community and with the ones who ran different segments of the population without ignoring the people on the street. She didn't hide in her office, rather spoke at civic clubs, got involved with United Way. She would listen to everyone on the staff who wanted to ask questions. I don't know what she will do in Cherry Hill or what Gannett has done to get her to jump back into the fire. I imagine if you follow the money you will find the answer. Get all you can sister. Get all you can.
ReplyDeleteEllen is simply remarkable and Gannett is very fortunate to have lured her back into the fold, if only few months. Frankly, Cherry Hill is getting a turbo boost with her that they likely would not have found elsewhere. I don't see her staying in Jersey very long, but Gannett would be better off if they figured out a way to keep her.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletePeople, people: Ellen is at CP to guide the idiot managing editor through the most important transition in the company's history, the same dolt who has been protected for four years and whose steep learning curve has left staff demoralized and unhappy. He also has a problem dealing with women, so this should be interesting
The Courier-Post printing press employees belong to the same Teamsters Printing Press Union local as the Philadelphia Inquirer
ReplyDeleteand Daily News printers.
Asbury Park Press is not a union shop. I don't know if Wilmington, DE paper is or isn't.
The Vineland Daily Journal (NJ) is
printed at Asbury Park Press
printers and trucked to Vineland.