local media insider

Gatehouse Media's ten strategies for hiring and developing people

At the end of the day, it's not who you know; it's who you've hired

Alisa Cromer
Posted
It's the people, stupid.
Kirk Davis, president and  COO, Gatehouse Media, is tasked with transforming a group of 300 newspapers many of them in very small cities  that sprawl mostly across the east coast of the U.S. Davis' definition of an intentionial organization is "how many things do you have to excuse or work around?"  And typically, what you work around, are people. "All these companies are is people. Change the people change the strategy."

Here are ten steps to creating an intentional company through managing people at Gatehouse Media, taken from his talk at the SNA/Blinder Revenue Summit, and follow-up communications:

1. Build an infrastructure: Right products and right training

Davis has a refreshing attitude of "what a privledge it is to manage any number of people," a far cry from the collective industry whine over the difficulty of leading people through difficult transformations. "You are what people talk about when they go home, what they talk to their partners about," he says. "Managers have an incredible impact on people's lives."

While people strategies are discussed  here, the right infrastructure also has to be in place for people to succeed:  That means a robust digital product line and adequate training, as well as  recruiting and accountability systems. In the case of Gatehouse all of these efforts are working in parallel to get to the end goal, a transformed company and culture.

2. Right people: "saints, sinners and savables."

From the book, "Leadership Without Excuses" Davis argues that one way to simplify personnel strategies is to look for three kinds of people in the company, and address them via three different management strategies.

First, "you have to protect the saints, and ask yourself, am I connecting with these people so they know how much I love them? Glue good people to the company."

The next question, however, is "What am I doing to address the people in the organization that are taking us down?"

Savables are people who are "not sure yet."

"Most of these people were relatively good at their job when we had the good fortune to take a lot of orders. Now all of a sudden it's so performance-driven, You have to do something with them to move them to one side or the other." 

Strategies for working with savables include identifying and acknowledging strengths, and creating a clear choice about the path to success in the changed environment. Managers not only have to reach out, and train, but also show  that programs are working, players are rewarded and back-sliding is not an option.

Finally, the definition of "sinners" goes without saying. These are the people who have already given up in their job and  company and are holding the company back. Whereas in days gone by, these people could be shuttled into a safe corner to wait out their careers, today, with all hands on deck, there is no longer the ability to "park" the non-performers.


3. Hire great people when you don’t have positions and create openings
The confidence to  address poor performance is partly about timing and quality of candidates.  Aggressive recruiting is  especially important in an industry that has a tarnished reputation for lay-offs and diminishing revenues:  The truth is, newspapers may no longer attract the best candidates.

Davis advocates for top management to become talent scouts. “I’m a serial recruiter” says Davis, who says he interviews five people "every week of my life."

"If you are afraid you can’t hire somebody else, and terminate somebody to make room," you both lose the good people, and lose confidence in holding to high standards of accountability, for fear of not having replacements.

"You’ll address poor performance in the company when you have people you can’ t wait to get inside the company. When somebody finally leaves, and  you say 'I’m not really upset about it.'” 

4. Imagine a future when you have fewer better paid staff

"Bigger staff isn’t better, better is better." Having this philosophy helps build confidence in paying more to better people, and weeding out the ones who are not contributing.


5. Pursue secondary objectives when hiring. 

Davis  looks for secondary expertise or ability to bring exceptional ideas to a team and the transformation process. He even uses the interview process to get ideas from candidates.

An compelling example is his flagship program to recruit publishers. A recruitment video features Davis, in rolled up sleeves, inviting people inside and outside industry to  "Write a job description for your future and ours." 

In fact, top candidates for publisher were asked to answer five questions in writing: 

- What do you think the future is going to look like?
- How have you been a part of the change movement?
- Who are the companies that are going to thrive?
- What do you think the new role of a publisher is?

"It was amazing how seriously they took it, and the quality of the responses we got," Davis says. The tricky question regarding the role of the publisher in print companies  is not yet defined in the industry; by asking these more open-ended questions, Davis not only got to see what and how candidates thought on a deeper level, but also learned from them and many of their ideas were incorporated into the overall strategy for how Gatehouse will evolve.

Secondary skills for sales people can include SEO ability, experience with video, banner ad design, use of social media and other digital DNA that candidates bring with them to the team and collective internal resources of the local organization.

6. Be creative with employment ads and processes

"There is always some (recruitment) process that is rubber-stamped. Have those secondary objectives, be proud of how the candidate is going to reflect on the process."

Davis' recruitment video added panache to his pitch, and the questions got candidates excited about being heard. 

(As a side note, Davis points out a company called, Kayak, a tech start up, has it's own unique recruitment strategy. From the moment top executives learn about someone they should hire they have a seven day rule to get that done.

"The whole thought  is that 'we’re a pit crew on a formula racing car;' never let the candidate sit alone, make eye contact, give them a beverage, no interruptions, don’t check email, and do some kind of problem–solving. Anyone who interviews has veto power.") 

The point is that more out of the box thinking can help band local media companies as exciting places to work. 

7. Test both new hires and existing talent within the company Gatehouse also tests its new hires using a company called Culture Index (to be reviewed next week).  The testing is used to identify internal talent, teach people how to communicate better and to identify core traits of people who are successful in key job positions, such as management and sales.

8. "Hire people who are educated but focus on keeping them educated."  Companies need to both get the right digital DNA into the company, and also to create a learning environment keeps them up to speed and engaged in changes as they occur. "We need to learn faster than our competitors." 

9. Develop accountability systems

To improve accountability, Davis has created a spread sheet that shows every every sales person's performance and activity in every market, which can be looked at by top executives at the corporate level. The next step is to roll-out the certification program -  currently designed for and used in the editorial department - to the sales departments. Under this program, there will be set of standards which each sales department must meet to be certified - every quarter. Only the departments which have passed certification will be able to sell the new product launches. The "Inner Circle" model will also allow Gatehouse to rank publishers company-wide in a transparent way.

10. Be the change you want to see

Cultural change, especially in the sales department is a work in progress. Davis also noted, "I'll be honest, We don't have the right to expect brilliance yet from our sales people." However, this expectation is on its way. Once products, training, recruiting, pricing and accountability are managed, the "legs are  under the stool," and the certification process will be fully actionable and accountability in place. One result of his approach to accountability on the part of management, too,  is employee loyality. Several people at the conference attested to the the loyalty Davis commands from his teams as a result.


Many thanks to Kirk Davis, President and  COO, for sharing his "human being strategies" at Gatehouse at the SNA/Blinder Revenue Summit.

Alisa Cromer

The author, Alisa Cromer is publisher of a variety of online media, including LocalMediaInsider and  MediaExecsTech,  developed while on a fellowship with the Reynolds Journalism Institute and which has evolved into a leading marketing company for media technology start-ups. In 2017 she founded Worldstir.com, an online magazine,  to showcases perspectives from around the  world on new topic each month, translated from and to the top five languages in the world.