I’m struck today by the contrast between two corporate ousters and how one signifies class and the other signifies crass. The first: as the whole world knows by now, AOL’s CEO Jon Miller was pushed out by Time Warner’s top management in favor of an NBC veteran with expertise in ad sales, Randy Falco. It’s sad for Miller, who had an impossible job bailing out a sinking ship these past four years, because he apparently liked his job and would have preferred to stay.
But, Time Warner issued the obligatory “we wish him well” statements. Chairman Dick Parsons had this to say about Miller
We thank Jon Miller for his four years of farsighted leadership during a difficult time at AOL. We wish him well as he moves into the next phase of his career.
I’m sure Miller might not see it this way, but venerable Time Warner was honorable in its public (and probably private) treatment of him, particularly in contrast with how brash upstart Gawker Media’s executive Lockhart Steele Nick Denton treated the fired editor of Gawker’s Valleywag, Nick Douglas.
Douglas was ousted by Denton in a surprise move that had the blogosphere buzzing earlier this week — young Douglas’ snarky style and high-profile perch had obviously attracted some fans. But that’s beside the point.
The point is that Denton Steele went out of his way to, well, um, trash Douglas in a staff memo that found its way to The New York Times’ DealBook blog. Not only did poor Douglas not get anything remotely resembling a “wish you well” from Denton, Denton Steele put in writing that he thought Douglas “settles in too closely with the subjects,” had “an elevated sense of one’s own importance,” and displayed a “repeated misunderstanding of the purpose of our sites.”
Denton’sSteele’s memo gets worse too. While Gawker may have had good reasons to replace Douglas as Valleywag’s editor, did DentonSteele have to go out of his way to trash the guy — in writing, no less — among company staff? That is just mean-spirited, particularly given that Douglas is fresh out of college and was probably cocky, particularly given the high-exposure, juicy job he had been handed with no life experience to guide him.
Can you imagine Dick Parsons circulating a comparable memo to Time Warner staff about Jon Miller? There’s probably no love lost between Time Warner’s senior management team and Miller, but there’s no way that Parsons, or any other seasoned and reasonable executive, would harm an employee in such a shameful way, particularly an employee who had just been fired.
So take heart, Jon Miller. It could have been worse. At least Time Warner wishes you well.
Update: This post originally identified Gawker’s Nick Denton as the author of the butt-kicking memo. In fact, the author was a Gawker executive with the improbable name of Lockhart Steele. Thanks to Mathew Ingram for the correction.
Cynthia Brumfield at 2:23 PM|Comments(1)
Cynthia, I don't want to get into the habit of defending Nick Denton, but that memo was apparently written by Gawker exec Lockhart Steele.
Posted by: Mathew Ingram at November 18, 2006 5:41 PM
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