Comments on: About Group CEO Irvine Out; NYTCo’s Nisenholtz Will Run Unit

By: asdasd asdasd

asdasd asdasd — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:00:20 +0000

Good to see Martin at the helm. About is one of the few Web 1.0 companies to still be thriving and will hopefully benefit from his vision. About has been slow to add social functionality to its platform and remains overly reliant on the content farming model at a time when content is ubiquitous. I think going back its roots as a expert-based search service (perhaps in combination with Google) could be an interesting approach.

From what I’ve heard, Cella was just impossible to work with and had zero ideas. (as an aside, I don’t know how managing the failure of Sidewalk.com makes you digital CEO material, but thats another thing). I know much of the senior staff left shortly after she had arrived and those who remained seemed disheartened. The company lost its magic and purpose.

By: Edward Capriolo

Edward Capriolo — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:25:21 +0000

Let me start out by saying I know nothing about CEOs and what they do so I can not evaluate her performance.@b723d0bf38450bd13320c753be95712f:disqus First, your targeting a mother for taking care of her sick children. Secondly, get real! About has two floors of a LARGE building for what 140-200 employees? Is one/two? sick child going to cause an epidemic? Get a flu shot and grow up.

You say,
“Then she’d ask her senior team for ideas, and communicate them up to her management.”
Then you say,
“many talented team members had their careers derailed while she pretended that everything was going to be fine”

So combining these facts… anyone who’s career was derailed must have been derailed by their own ideas.

Your opinion might be valid, but you sure are not going to convince me by scapegoating someone else for (your?) derailed career, or some supposed illness you contracted. How would you have solved the search problem for example?

By: JB

JB — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:47:27 +0000

Shmabouter – that type of hiring of senior executives is typical of NYT. They hire and promote charismatic people who make nice with the higher ups. But these people usually lack relevant hard skills. The Times is a very political place.

By: Shmabouter

Shmabouter — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:50:46 +0000

Ding Dong, the Crazy Witch is Dead.

How this could go on for 3 years is actually the question. This Martin crony (I guess she burned that bridge) never had the leadership to run About.com. It was clear from her legendary lunatic behavior, that the Empress had no clothes. All she had to offer was her charisma if you could call it that. Then she’d ask her senior team for ideas, and communicate them up to her management. About.com has always known that their traffic comes almost entirely from Google, and feared that a change in algorithm could substantially hurt their business. That fear played out, and Cella had no plan on how to turn it around. Meanwhile, under her “leadership,” many talented team members had their careers derailed while she pretended that everything was going to be fine.

She was much more interested in talking about her family and personal life than in running the business. Her apartment being on the same block as the office presented many opportunities for her children to come in to visit, especially when they were ill, so that they could spread the love to the office. Meeting with Cella was always an exercise in pretending that she was interesting while you listened to her go on for the entire meeting about issues with her family, and it often inappropriate, too much information.

Good riddance, and a comeuppance.

By: Dan Entin

Dan Entin — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:47:40 +0000

Niesenholtz didn’t take over as CEO when Scott Meyer left. Former CTO Ron McCoy stepped in during the search for Meyer’s replacement that resulted in the hiring of Cella Irvine.

By: JB

JB — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:59:31 +0000

Niesenholtz is more of a “big ideas guy” than an operator. At NYTimes.com he always had an operator doing the day-to-day. Will be interesting to see what he does.