Thursday, July 09, 2009

Publishers memos | The grade so far? F-

[What, blame us? Dubow, Martore, Dickey]

I haven't seen a single publisher's layoff memo that mentioned decisions made by CEO Craig Dubow, Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore, newspaper division President Bob Dickey, or any other Gannett Management Committee member. Instead, they blame -- what else? -- the economy.

But, really, Anonymous@7:24 p.m. puts it, ahem, more colorfully, in assessing the handiwork of Cincinnati Enquirer Publisher Margaret Buchanan.

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3 comments:

  1. Blaming the economy is total bullshit. The more they lay off, the more they can stuff in their pockets. The photos of those fat faces say enough.

    ReplyDelete
  2. furloughed fury7/09/2009 10:16 PM

    Of course publishers doesn't blame the teflon executives in McLame. Who would bite the hand that feeds them bonuses and BMWs?
    Here's who should blame them and hold their feet to the fire. Shareholders and employees, who in many cases are one and the same, through the 401K program.
    The debt situation should be enough to spur both groups to action. The board had to approve it. How much due diligence was done. And by due diligence I'm talking by outside financial experts, not some in-company suck up.
    A few people here have talked about executive malpractice as a way of wrestling the golden parachutes and other bonuses the board has gotten while making decisions which failed to keep the fiduiery (sp) interests of the company first.
    The rest? Three rounds of layoffs, two furloughs and a crushing debt due by 2011 (see the Deal Article for detials)
    And in the meantime Dubow gets an $875,000 bonus, when any regular employee who have been shown the door for failing so badly on the job.
    Disclaimer: I was not laid off, but good friends were, like most Gannett employees my 401K has lost so much value it wouldn't buy a decent car.
    Jim has done a great job being the watchdog on this band of thieves and incompetents. Somehow we need to find a way to pick up the ball, hold the boards feet to the fire for their bad decisions, force their resignations and strip them of their golden parachutes and other perks.
    Repeat after me: Class Action Suit

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do you think the company would be laying off people if it was making anywhere near the money it was in the past. Management may be stupid, but not dumb. Assume all management decisions were wrong, the company would still be making a lot of money is a good economy. Not to belabor the point, but things you may have noticed, are bad out there. People are not advertising.

    ReplyDelete

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