iHM's Greg Strassell is out. He’s been the Senior VP of Strategic Services/National Programming Platforms. He joined iHM in September 2013 from from CBS as a senior VP, reporting to Regional Markets President Matt Martin. In December, he was promoted to Senior VP at the National Programming Platforms division. Strasell supervised the teams in programming research, ratings analysis, brand management, talent development and at Critical Mass Media.
On the local level...Michelle Matthews is gone in St. Louis. She was Digital PD and Classic Hits PD at KLOU 103.3 FM. Matthews had been with the company for 11-years, previously as Regional Programming Mgr. for Omaha-Wichita-Sious City. Prior to that she was OM of its CC's Omaha cluster.
Next...let's see what happens today.
Media writer/expert Jerry Del Colliano this week blogged iHM had targeted a 33% reduction-in-force. He wrote that 'fat cats' have a target on their back.
Writing in his blog, former Clear Channel N/T Brand Manager Darryl Parks sheds some light on the RIF process:
iHeart Media, or any company for that matter, sees little else than a expense in a person and cuts them lose. But, with most everyone given a copy of their company’s home game, they end up better off.
That says it all, doesn’t it? A calculated brain drain based on salary and tenure.
Prior to my own demise, the end of each year was one of dread. First came a budget process that was always about “doing more with less.” Less people, less marketing and less printer cartridges. “A subscription to the Cincinnati Enquirer? I know you’re a news/talk station, but why do you need that?”
What was disturbing was the wasted time and adversarial nature of the weeks and weeks of meetings, having to subjectively rank employees by their perceived worth, which was corporate code speak for “name your top five and cut the bottom two.”
Once I had to explain why we needed producers at a news/talk station. When I simplistically said, “to answer the phone,” a few on the other side of the table nodded with an understanding approval. “Oh. Makes sense. Hadn’t thought of that.”
Then corporate figured out it was wasting everyone’s time, including their own, and just gave the Market Managers a flash drive with the names of those on death row.
Easy, clean…efficient. No need for any discussion.
Each November or December a date was set and the execution orders were carried out.Best known for his media programming expertise and as a popular radio talk show host & personality at the legendary 700WLW in Cincinnati, Darryl is now commenting on the media and cultural issues that affect each of us with his entertaining, independent and diverse viewpoints. Darryl is the Senior Vice President of SImply Money Media based in Cincinnati. He also heads up DarrylParksMedia which focuses on talk, news, talent and digital content creation and strategies.
No comments:
Post a Comment