From: Tribune Communications
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 10:19 AM
Subject: Message from Don, Nils, Tony and Eddy/Restructuring Tribune Interactive and Human Resources
As members of the Executive Council, we've spent the last several days speaking with the leaders of our business units and with our employees, getting their input and thinking about the best way for the company to continue moving forward. As many pointed out, we have accomplished a lot over the last two and a half years -- thanks largely to your creativity, effort and dedication. We also received an abundance of feedback about additional ways to improve our capabilities to capitalize on opportunities.
Fortunately, there is a lot of opportunity ahead.
Today, we continue moving ahead by announcing several organizational changes designed to streamline corporate operations and increase collaboration across the company. These changes entail restructuring Tribune Interactive and our Human Resources organization in ways that enable us to enhance our focus on revenue, reduce overall expenses, leverage centers of excellence within our business units, and improve the level of service to our internal stakeholders and customers.
Tribune Interactive is evolving in recognition of the importance of digital and mobile revenue to Tribune Company's future and will be renamed Tribune Digital. In this new configuration, all functions related to revenue will be headed by Don Meek as EVP/Tribune Digital. Don will report to the Executive Council and his day-to-day contact will be Tony Hunter. As part of this evolution, Doug Thomas will continue as EVP/GM of Tribune365, and report directly to the Executive Council, with Eddy Hartenstein as his main point of contact.
Under Don's leadership, Tribune Digital will develop high-value, market-driven projects to drive business unit results. We’ve also charged Don and his organization with determining the solutions required to drive more revenue in the short term, while positioning us for future growth. The scope of this effort will include Advertising Operations, Innovations, Product Development, Market Support, Audience Development, sales of our technology solutions to outside clients and related Finance and Operations functions.
Eddie Tyner will lead the company’s Marketplaces (Classifieds) strategy and incorporate ForSaleByOwner into his organization. Eddie will collaborate with the business units to refine our strategic direction and drive innovation in this critical revenue category. He will report to Don Meek.
Julie Anderson and her content team will report to Gerry Kern. Julie and Gerry will define the most effective way to ensure collaboration and coordination in the delivery of content to our business units.
Stephen Waldon and the Healthkey content team will report to Tami Dennis, VP/Health Content at the Los Angeles Times. We expect the excellent working relationship between the Healthkey content team and our business units to continue.
The Research and Business Intelligence functions will be divided between Kathleen O'Hara's marketing team at the Chicago Tribune and Bill Nagel's business services team at the Los Angeles Times, and we anticipate increased collaboration across the entire company on these important functions and initiatives.
TRG -- The Results Group -- led by Ellen Glassberg will become part of Bob Fleck's organization at Chicago Tribune and continue to work with all the business units across Tribune Company.
We're also planning to restructure the company's Human Resources organization in a way that will allow us to share best practices and leverage the HR expertise residing in the corporate office and in our business units. We want employees to feel connected not only to their individual business units, but to Tribune as a whole. We've asked Gwen Murakami, Janice Jacobs and Mike Bourgon to lead this effort. This leadership team will focus on both business units’ human resources needs and corporate shared services functions.
As a result of these steps, several positions are being eliminated and Marc Chase, Carolyn Gilbert, John Martin, Jeff Kapugi, Geoff Melick, Betsy Phillips, Barb Buchwald, Ken Perry, and Louise Sheard will be leaving the company. We appreciate the contributions of these individuals and wish them well in their future endeavors.
We are confident these changes will enable us to improve operating results and internal collaboration. Let’s stay focused on the future.
Don, Nils, Tony and Eddy
SOURCE: Jim Romenesko
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