In addition, GateHouse, which was trading at five cents per share when markets closed today, reworked its severance agreements with CEO Michael Reed (pictured), CFO Melinda Janik, General Counsel Polly Grunfeld Sack, and Chief Operating Officer Kirk Davis.
While the GateHouse employees who will be shown the door when the centralized copy desks are implemented will be lucky to get two weeks of severance pay, the company's top three officers will be sitting pretty if they lose their jobs.
Reed will receive two years and three months in pay, which includes not only his base salary, but a monthly average of his bonuses of he past three years. For Davis, it will be two years of the same, while Ms. Sack will receive 21 months worth of salary and bonuses.
And those figures don't even include the fringe benefits, none of which are available to the hundreds of workers who will no longer be receiving GateHouse Media workers, thanks to the corporate decisions of these people who made sure, despite their singular lack of success and their continued drive to pull community newspapers away from their communities, they will be taken care of no matter what happens to their product and the company's bottom line.
CEO Michael Reed received an $800,000 bonus for 2011, according to the company's filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ms. Janik received $125,000, Ms. Sack $140,000, and Davis $350,000, for a total of $1,415,000.
The information is buried toward the end of a long annual report and certainly was not included in the news release GateHouse Media issued earlier today.
And while GateHouse's top officials continue to make sure their futures are assured, the newspapers that have made it all possible for them, including such local publications as The Carthage Press, Neosho Daily News, and Pittsburg Morning Sun, are struggling to make do with barebones staff, little support from corporate, and fewer and fewer connections with the local community.
11 comments:
Good post, Randy. I had heard of this centralization plan, with Dale Brendel of the Leavenworth paper being one of the key players involved in the move to consolidate operations in order to ostensibly save money. The end result, of course, is job losses and less connection to the local communities as you point out.
Gatehouse Media puts out a collection of terrible papers and they reward these clowns? I don't get it.
how can reed, davis and numerous other henchemen maintain their employment. company eliminating news holes, eliminating positions, hiring other media companies cast offs and ridding themselves of top notch newspaper people because they decided to disagree with the brass. it is just a matter of time before they file for a chapter. and with the guarantees they have, do you think they care. big question is - how many community newspapers will they destroy prior to going under.... keep drinking the cool aid henchmen - you'll get yours.
Has Fortress got the blinders on regarding Reed, as Reed does regarding Davis??? C'mon how can these so called Corporate chieftans continue to post losses and maintain their positions. Their plan has not and will continue to NOT produce positive results. Leadership is horrible, the threats continue, and so do the losses!!!!
I'm a current Gatehouse employee who just watch 15 co-workers lose their jobs with more to be announced in June. Makes me want to puke. I sure hope Mike Reed has some body guards cause he will need it!!!!!
Interesting some posts refer to these leaches as 'henchmen' ... they're cutthroats ... how can they sleep at night? ... if they do, they best keep one eye open ... somebody oughta form a possee and ride eastward ... just don't forget the rope!
Again the little guy gets screwed so the stumble bums that run this can take good care of themselves ! I hope the whole company goes belly up as an earlier poster commented they put out an awful product.
Don't let the smiles
fool you, greediness always hides behine them.
More proof positive that left to their own, most business execs will make decisions by greed first, not caring for their employees nor our economy nor their customer satisfaction; particularly in oligopolies and monopolies. A sad part for me is that so many of our youth are seeing the greed as acceptable and no need to question. Another upsetting part is when I view MO legislation that is designed to give businesses more rights and powers over their people, and that diminish the importance and power of the individual.
I used to be sad watching the newspaper industry go down.Now I am angry. Just the thought of these corporate hooligans maintainig their high paying positions, as they make terrible product and staff decisions, pisses me off. A comment posted earlier about Fortress having blinders on - hell, this company has not a clue. They too are being duped by the fast talker Reed !!!!
I have a woman calling me to interview for Gatehouse in ten minutes! Is it even worth it?! I need a job, but WOW.
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