Gannett (GCI) is part of the
crumbling newspaper industry. It has not gotten its online properties to nearly
match the revenue of its traditional print operations, so the firm is still
shrinking and has no real answer to it troubles. Gannett’s stock is off 80%
over the last five years, which is much greater that the shares of either The
New York Times Company (NYT) or The Washington Post (WPO). Gannett’s revenue is
likely to drop again in 2010.
But, Gannett CEO Craig Dubow made
$4.7 million last year according to the Gannett proxy. That is up from $3.1
million in 2008. Senior executives at the paper company get the customary
access to private cars and the firm’s jet.
Gannett has fired thousands of
people over the last two years and asked others to take weeks without pay. The
company has not come up with a single meaningful strategic plan to overcome the
slide in its fortunes. Operations like The Huffington Post, Politico, and The
Daily Beast have flanked Gannett. It never had the intelligence to launch its
own large internet-only products. Perhaps it feared that would cannibalize its
print properties, but they are dying anyway.
Dubow got a pay raise last years
in exchange for letting go many of his own people and failing to solve his
firm’s most core problems.
Imagine the Board
of Directors at Gannett invited you (a well-known compensation consultant) to
provide advice on pay issues. Compose a formal memo to share with the board
describing how and why you would restructure pay administration for the organization.
Be sure to address the following in the memo:
What
recommendations will you make to restructure executive pay?
What
recommendations will you make to restructure pay for media staff?
You will need to do
some research to learn more about the media outlets in newspaper, TV and the
Internet Gannett controls
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