Una lección sobre cómo despedirse tras toda una vida como editor de un gran periódico

Richard Gilman, editor del Boston Globe y presidente del grupo New England Media, se retira tras una exitosa carrera. ¿Cómo despedirse de todo el staff y sus cientos de trabajadores?

Pues con un emotivo ‘memo’ enviado a todos por correo electrónico. Éste es su contenido (vía Romenesko). Para traducción automática al español, pincha aquí.

September 7, 2006

Dear Colleagues,

There comes the time when all of us must let go, and that time has come for me. This morning I met with many of our key managers and told them of my plans to retire.

I told them and am very pleased to announce to you that Steve Ainsley, the head of the company’s Regional Media Group, will become the new publisher of The Boston Globe and head of the New England Media Group.

Steve knows the newspaper business inside and out, as one can tell from his outstanding track record in his current role and his previous stints as publisher of some of our regional newspapers. Having worked with him for a good number of years, I have the utmost respect for Steve and know that he will be an outstanding publisher of this newspaper.

I’m equally pleased to announce to you that Mary Jacobus, president of the Globe, will take Steve’s place as head of the Regional Media Group. Though she has been with us just a short while, Mary already has made an impact on the Globe. She has demonstrated the qualities that make her an outstanding leader, and she will do extremely well in her new capacity.

These plans have been kept quiet until now because, intended or not, power passes from one person to the next as soon as the plans are made known. With this reality in mind, we’ll make the transition as quickly as possible. Though I will continue as an advisor until the end of the year and Mary will gradually transition into her new role, Steve will assume full control as publisher when he arrives here next Tuesday.

This is the right moment to make this transition. We have installed a very strong senior management team and, in the time of considerable change, a sense that we have done much to define ourselves for the future. As we embark down these new paths, it is important for the next generation of leadership to be in place to lead us.

What pushes me personally, as my family and friends will tell you, is that it has been a priority of mine to retire from corporate responsibilities early enough in life so I can pursue a series of writing projects through which I can express myself as an individual. It’s one thing to work through others, as I have been fortunate to do with all of you. It’s quite another to succeed on one’s own. I’m eager to get started with that.

As I move forward into the next chapter in my life, I want you to know that I’ll look back on the past seven years with considerable pride. As Steve will quickly discover, it is a great and wonderful privilege to lead an organization with the immense responsibilities of the Globe.

Our journalism ranks among the very best in the nation, bringing a laudable number of awards including three Pulitzer Prizes during my time here. One of those prizes was the Gold Medal for Public Service, recognition for the newsroom’s outstanding work in uncovering widespread sexual abuse by Catholic priests. What’s more, we distinguish ourselves nearly every day with coverage of the big breaking stories, with our investigative and narrative journalism, and by focusing on where our city excels – from sports to arts to medicine.

We have been very innovative in developing new content for our readers. We introduced the Ideas section for one set of reader interests and Sidekick for another. We went against the grain in remaking our Sunday magazine into what is now one of the best in the nation.

Let’s be clear. None of this would have been possible without the huge support of The New York Times Company.

We have been equally inventive on the business end of things, taking approaches that other newspapers later followed or tried to follow. We broke down the walls between print and online to create BostonWorks as the first cross-platform brand for recruitment advertising. We entered into a win-win deal that turned Advo, the preprint distributor that elsewhere is the bane of newspapers, from a competitor into a customer. This year we launched Boston Globe Media as our multi-platform solution for advertisers, and already imitators are popping up around the country.

We built out a portfolio of products both through internal development and acquisition. We launched Globe West, South, North, and Northwest. We acquired the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, which continues to produce its own award-winning journalism, and partial ownership in Boston Metro and New England Sports Ventures. This fall we’ll expand the capabilities of boston.com and make the second (Worcester Quarterly being the first) of what we think will be many forays into the field of niche publications.

We were able to do all of the above in the face of the unprecedented change facing our industry. We built a strong leadership team, transformed our organizational culture, took some difficult steps to operate more efficiently, became more flexible, innovative and frankly more determined to meet whatever challenges head on.

There’s a lot in which we all can take pride, in which I take pride.

I leave knowing that each and every one of you, like your predecessors before you, will give your all to a successful future at the New England Media Group. Steve will lead you in bringing about what I’m absolutely sure will be many great things in the years ahead.

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