This is from Scotts CEO corner. Guess transforming the company is laying off folks, run up debt, and create opportunites for himself..... way to go Freedom !!!!!!!
CEO Corner: Creating opportunities during a recession and industry change

Better check your sources carfefully, he supposedly declined offer................

He should take whatever offer they offer given the debacle currently taking place with one of his regional newspaper groups attempting to transition from a broadsheet format to tab.

If he doesn't grab the Playboy gig, one of his toadies might snatch (no pun intended) it from him and you'd lose your lunch if you saw her in a future centerfold spread.

Jennie Lambert as Ms. June would make an entire generation of young males celibate!

From Scottys mouth..... boy did he every slam Freedom and RC with this big all about me statement from freedoms website;
Guess there is no genius at freedom now.....

Flanders, 52, said he will quit his Freedom post June 30 and become CEO at Playboy July 1. A replacement at Freedom was not immediately named.

“This is very much more about where I’m going rather than what I’m leaving, ” Flanders said. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to run a public company built by a creative genius.”

By free market standards, and what other standards should you use to judge a libertarian rag, the Register is the worst newspaper in the state, shedding readers faster than any other major publisher.

Will Flanders take his anti-science blowhards with him? Nah, nobody else would take the clowns that the Hoiles family continues to employ for bizarre ideological reasons while their franchise dies.

When Flanders came in 2006, he talked of creating an Orange County television station and saw tremendous opportunities for the Register.

Read this story to see his vision and compare it to what transpired.

Flanders was quoted in the Register, “This is very much more about where I’m going rather than what I’m leaving."

CHICAGO, May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PEI) (NYSE: PLA, PLAA) today reported a net loss for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009 of $13.7 million, or $0.41 per basic and diluted share, which included $8.7 million, or $0.26 per basic and diluted share, of impairment and restructuring charges. This compares to a net loss in the same period last year of $4.2 million, or $0.13 per basic and diluted share, which included a $0.6 million restructuring charge.

First quarter 2009 revenues totaled $61.6 million, down $16.9 million from the prior year period, primarily reflecting the outsourcing of operations, asset sales and the effects of the global economic slowdown on advertising and consumer spending. The quarter's segment loss was $1.3 million versus segment income of $0.1 million last year.

How bad must the numbers be at the Register if Playboy looks good to Flanders?

Well excuse me. You didn't call it. I did. Check the other navel gazing blog entries. Now get this.

Burl Osborne, a board member, will become CEO. Alan Bell, former CEO and Jon Segal nemesis, will rejoin the board and strike terror in the hearts of anyone who cares about the future of the company. Not that it has one as Freedom Communications.

He expanded interactive revenues? He hired Michael Mathieu, who managed in two years to bring in zero revenue. Interactive revenue is down from when Scott came in with his grand interactive strategy.

My only regret is that Scott Flanders, Jon Segal, Linda Fisk,Doug Bennett, Jack Stoner, Vernon Debolt, and Jennie Lambert weren't onboard my Airbus jet from Rio de Janiero to Paris last night.

Midair catastrophes are the only way Freedom is going to cleanse itself from the moronic managerial practices taking place within the company.

Good riddance Scott. You're a douche bag who should never have attained this high office. I'll bet you'll cause Hef to hang himself with his red smoking jacket within a year inside the Playboy Mansion (you visited several times over the last couple of months)grotto once you take control and kill his internet model.

12 issues of Playbot for 1 cent. My sperm is worth more smattered on your worthless face.

L-O_S-E_R = Flanders

Go ahead smartboy, make Linda Fisk Miss July / August and Jennie Lambert Miss September and watch men saw off their penises on North Shore Drive. (except Jon Segals' son who is as queer as a tennis helmet)

perhaps now that Scotty boy is out (do you need help packing?) the family will wake up and do something about the poor folks who are losing their jobs to outsourcing to a company in India.

Hey Concerned: First the family would have to recognize they are throwing millions of dollars away on F.I., in both salaries and on this division signing contracts with third party vendors to accomplish what many of us were already successfully doing locally for FREE! Oh yeah, not to mention these "Rich, robust SOLUTIONS", don't function properly.

Will Playboy wind up being printed on newsprint?

He'll hire Michael M. and Linda F. to revamp the sites and make playboy lose even more $.

Then he'll get blackstone to invest / save it making him look like a Heroe.

Want to save Freedom money? Ditch the use of Salesforce.com.

It costs Freedom more than $87 for each of its 750 associates to use this useless platform.

That's $65,250 every month being wasted and given to Salesforce.

They pay Gary Thorne more than $100,000 to oversee it.

Lousy stupid Flanders!

Wake up people.....1), the family doesnt have a clue and couldnt hit their plate with a fork 2) what about all those other "smart" senior management team at fitch, where have they been when Scotty has been making such " great" moves. Just goes to show Freedom is just like Playboy, may have been great in the past, but is now like Kathy Griffin, " Life on the D list" Yep old RC must be very proud of the kids now.........

come on guys. Your just a bunch of disgruntled ex emplyees probably. Interactive is the future of this company. Its not their fault the print side is sucking. Revenue is down huge on the print side. Imagine if you took all the online revenue away. The company would have folded last year. Interactive revenue is whats keeping the papers afloat.

Hey anonymous:

Wow, I didnt know it was that simple... I guess Scotty was right and thats why he is bailing to another company. Wow, I didnt understand, but I now see the light. Scotty was... "GOD"... but nobody knew it. I guess now moving to bunny HQ in Chicago, he can hire Jake and Elwood to be his interactive gurus. WOW!!!! hurray for interactive!!!!!!!!

anonymous:

I am neither disgruntled or an ex employee.
I believe the point people are trying to make is that Freedom has wasted a ton of money under Mr. Flanders... Interactive may indeed be keeping the company afloat and I myself am very proud of that... However the atrocious allocations and spending on worthless products and 3rd party applications would perhaps have been better spent by investing in better equipment and better pay for the people who actually do the work and are forced to do more with less.

Im not saying he is god. But every paper in the country has an interactive initiative. They just went about it the wrong way the first time. I think it was more MM's fault than Scotty Boys. Scotty just got sold by MM with all the wasteful spending. I think its on the right track now. As for people working harder for the same amount of money. I hope your not referring to the editorial staff. These are people I do not feel sorry for. These kids went to college to get their journalism degrees knowing they were going into a shitty paying gig. What a waste of an education. If your gonna go to school for four years than go for something you can make some money at. They chose their path.

It wasnt MM fault.if scotty boy spent more time at the helm of his own ship rather than golfing, being on other boards, interviewing for the playboy job...maybe freedom wouldnt be in the tank. Dont you get it, it was all about scotty trying to get his next job, albeit Playboy isnt exactly moving up in the world. As he says on the website...its about transforming and opportunites. We were just to stupid in thinking it was about Freedom, rather than opportunites for him. Just like Professor Harold Hill... on to bunny land.
Guess J.S. will finally get is big day at the helm now.

PS. you might want to look into who actually had a big part in recruiting and hiring M.M., it wasnt all scotty boy.

I'm not a disgruntled employee, but I am a concerned associate. I'm concerned in the condition that SF has left Freedom. It's true that online revenues are up, but at what cost. I would like to see how those increased revenues stack up against the cost of all the third party contracts plus the salaries of the PM's overseeing them.

Yes, the future is online, but have we been building a foundation for longevity or have we just been padding a resume for SF?

Neither am I disgruntled or an ex-employee. I would agree that interactive revenue has grown; that is if we weren't just moving money from the print side to the online side. Who was it that said print revenue sucked? Oh yeah, Anonymous.

That's right print revenue is sucking eggs....for two reasons, we simply moved money from our left pocket (print) to our right pocket (interactive), pissed off customers by "bundling" and taking away THEIR right to choose, and then we sang loudly about how much interactive growth we were enjoying. Please....call it what it is...F.I. is a joke and has wasted so much money.

I came up in Freedom on the Interactive side, long before there was one... I then migrated to Print as a Corporate lackey... In 2002 we did a better job of "realizing" online revenue to the bottom line than today. A donkey is never going to win the Kentucky derby and Freedom has stables full of them...

What do Scotty and Greek criuse ship captains have in common?

They are the first one who bail out from a sinking ship.

Huddle up children and let me clue you in on how this interactive thing works.

And advertisers submits an ad schedule to a sales rep for $1,500 for an ad or adds to run in the paper for a Midnight Lingerie Sale featuring Jennie Lambert as the fashion model.

The ad rep writes up an insertion order for the ad breaking it up (without consultanting the client)into two segments: One for the ad to appear in the paper say for $750 and the other to appear on the paper's website for $750. (The amount going for internet may differ based upon that rep's monthly online goal)

The paper's internet coordiantor writes up an internet I/O for 75,000 impressions, ROS. (that means run of site, Jennie)

At the end of the day, FI appears to have gained $750 of "new" revenue when in fact it was all smoke and mirrors.

The same dollars are filtering to the bottom line.

FI is a joke.

hey Anonymous- back up the claim (with some concrete evidence)that the interactive side is keeping freedom afloat. that's a pretty bold statement. i don't think that's true, but if you can convince me i'm wrong i will admit it. how many clicks does it take to make a dollar? how many clicks does each entity generate? i think the print side still makes the most $$, just not enough to satisfy the Rock.

To air france pilot:

there are some great posts on here that criticize much of Freedom's management. You have posted under some other names with some good ones. Please do us all a favor to keep this blog alive and encourage others to join in. Leave jon segal's son out of it. He has nothing to do with the company's problems.

Well, speaking of wasted money, smoke and mirrors and calling obvious failures a huge success....let's talk about the Colorado Springs Call Center. In a recent "success update" their fearless leader, was heralding the praises of her local talent and screaming loudly about her outbound operation making $400,000 in revenue in five months with 11 sales associates! This is hilarious considering the local properties generate 3 to 4 times that amount in the same time period with 1/3 the staff, HAH! Colorado's goal is to generate $100k per month by year end. This is another example where expenses far exceed revenue.

HELLOOOOOOO........Board Members and New CFO....someone, anyone, please pay attention....stop the insanity! Stop the waste. It's simple math. Cut the spending on useless ventures, projects and hair brained ideas and you will save a fortune! Hell, you may even save your company!

Lets see here.... $400,000 revenue divided by 5 months divided by 11 sales associates equals..... wow, no wonder Scotty bailed!!!!

Please be advised that at least one posting on this blog claiming to be from me is, in fact, from someone using my name. I did not make nor do I agree with any such postings.
Leslie Laredo, President, The Laredo Group, Inc.

Speaking of The Real Leslie Laredo. What did that venture cost Freedom?
And Back to the interactive conversation. If any of the print reps would get off their ass and stop bundleing and taking from print dollars and actually learn how to upsell their clients online, we would not have to spend money on talented people who can sell it by itself.

In response to your question "anonymous"... I seem to recall the charge at $1000 per head for the BS training session put on by LL. Of course that does not include lodging, airfare, food and transportation. There were at least 15 people in the Company who could have taught the same lessons. I bet one guy, who was from Florida, would have even done a better job.

Hey Leslie Laredo, come clean...tell us how many sessions you conducted for Freedom...I know Scott Flanders attended one of your's in Dallas....You were so impressed by his presense you said.

Loved the evolution of dance segment you played and how you danced in front of the group. How much did you charge for playing that to the Freedom kids after their morning break and how many Freedom employees would still have their job if Flanders had not hired you?

What was our ROI on your program?????

Will you be conducting seminars for Playboy??????

Apparenting Laredo training was a useful as Dick Cheney taking firearm safety classes..........big waste of money. Way to go Scotty, another brillant idea of yours....what next, will you have bunnies now wearing vails & clothes and selling the magazine to third world countries.

Flanders will become the New Playboy CEO July 1. His four-year contract has a starting salary of $875,000, with annual raises of $25,000 PLUS 150,000 shares & incentives.

Flanders will continue to reside in SoCal and "commute" to Chicago because he intends to do extensive travel to Europe with his duties at Playboy.

Ahemmmmmmm! Who is he married to? Jodie Foster's character, Nell??????. I suppose so long as he has direct deposit into their joint checking, who cares.

Here's an idea of the dialog inside the Flanders estate.

Scott: "Good-bye honey, I'm off to Prague to oversee the photo shoot of the Girls of the Czech Republic. I'll be back in 10 days. Don't forget to clean the cat's litter box."

Mrs. Flanders: "Chicka, chicka, chickabee. T'ee an me an t'ee an me. Ressa, ressa, ressa me, Chicka, chicka, chickabee."

Scott: "Yeah, whatever you marble-mouthed retard. I must go, my driver is waiting. Let's go Porterhouse, drive me to the airport. I-am-soooo-ready-for-Prague."

Hey, here's a tip to anyone scheduled at the country club to play Jon Segal in tennis next week.

As he is about to serve, ask him how the first week of the new "compact editions" of the FENC dailies went down. Say, "hey Jon, was it your intention to run five duplicate pages inside the 32-page paper?

Did Jeff Ashe know what want he was doing?

You want to see the personalifaction of lucky sperm squirm inside their Lacosse shirt, just watch Mr. Segal react to this inquire.

This dim lighted bulb didn't realize the properties that he oversees was moving to this format to well after the transformation had taken place.

Here's another way to be a burr under his Polo shirt. Say the name, "Ashe." And trust us, he won't be thinking of the great African-American tennis player but rather the tomb stoned teethed incompetent who rarely shows up to work but despite his slacker attitude was put in charge of installing the new press for VB and JL.

How does the saying go: losers of a feather f**k together?

Thanks Scotty and your brillant executive team at Fitch for your leadeship. Remember its all about where the family is going, not where we have been. Thanks again for the " transformation" as you said.

Also, you can take down your CEO corner now, as we " got' the message it was all about " you", and not Freedom. Grandpa is really proud now. Say hi to Hef for us.

I suggest Freedom begin printing raffle tickets for $100 a piece. Any full or part time Freedom employee can purchase as many tickets as he or she can afford.

One ticket will be drawn and that person will become CEO for 2 years at a salary comenserate with that of Flanders et al.

Even the if the nightside janitor in Yuma won, that person could not F up Freedom anymore than Flanders and others have.

We could draw runners up and they could fill the slots of Hodges, Fisk and other dead wood, boot lickers in the company.

too bad such a fine company that many non-family members put their heart and soul into, ended up such a poor state. But that what happens when trust fund babies and flim flam artists from the outside run the place. Oh yea, what about that dude from National Lampoon, whats up with him???? Was CFO now interactive..... wow, guess the "lampoon" is on Freedom.

As Bob Hope says, Thanks for the Memories.......

Hey Lets Make a Deal: Interactive would have to take part of the ticket money for doing nothing.

Blackstone told Scotty outsource everything they could. Being a good minion, Scotty decreed that Freedom should outsource business process and information technology. But like the rat he is, he’s jumping ship before any of it is complete. At completion there will be no savings and the company will have outsourced the people who know how to tell if there is a savings.

There was ill will from a subscriber base that had been exposed to off-shore help when they have a delivery issue. That worked so well, they brought it back on-shore. Now he’s going to do it with advertisers, brilliant. As the beacon of great leadership he is Scotty doesn’t learn from the mistakes of others or his own.

Everywhere on the Internet it is touted that if the newspaper industry is to survive it has to be flexible and change its business model. By outsourcing Scotty, has frozen business processes that need flexibility to change instantly with the market. If there was a glimmer of hope that the company could somehow survive after the end of the year when the banks take ownership, Scotty crippled the company’s ability to compete in the information space by ridding the company of the folks that would help transform the business model to a new Freedom. Scotty is proud of how many people he’s cut from the payroll. Like the guards at Auschwitz, Scotty’s army is dictating to those left on how to train the very people who are taking their jobs. They get to dig their own graves. The savings? It wont be enough to pay for Scotty’s wine bill for a month.

He has the vision of a deer in headlights and the leadership skills of a lemming. Has there been a vision unique to him that has created revenue? (besides his own?)

Blame the others as you wish, but the fish stinks from the head!

Hef has been selling sex for years, but he won’t know the real meaning of getting F’d until Scotty gets on board. Condolences to the employees and shareholders of Playboy.

Sad Employee Says: "Oh yea, what about that dude from National Lampoon, whats up with him???? Was CFO now interactive..... wow, guess the "lampoon" is on Freedom."

I forgot about Doug Bennett. Met him at a conference when he first came on board.

My immediate impression of him was that he was putz with ZERO sense of humor which seemed ironic given his previous employer, National Lampoon.

Where does Freedom find so many incompetent individuals?

Any news on new CEO? I get tired of looking at freedoms website that still has the CEO corner with Scotty telling us about transformation and his ehealth appointment.

For a news company, freedom corporate website sure has dated information. Get with it Fitch folks!!!!!!

In answer to your question, Hef, all indications point to Burl Osborne as the next CEO of Freedom. Freedom didn't have to search long and hard for this dinosaurer. Seems he was hiding out on its Board of Directors when he wasn't submerged in the La Brea Tar Pits.

Here's his bio:

Burl Osborne, age 97, Independent Director. Mr. Osborne formerly held several positions in the Belo Corporation: President, Publishing Division from 1995 to 2001; Director from 1987 to 2002; and Publisher from 1986 to 2001 of The Dallas Morning News Co., with which he became associated in 1980. Mr. Osborne continues as Chairman of the Belo Foundation. In connection with The Associated Press, Mr. Osborne has served as Chairman of the Board since 2002, Director since 1993 and as a member of the Executive Committee. Mr. Osborne also has served as Director and Past Chairman of Southern Newspaper Publishers Association; Director of Newspaper Association of America; Past president of the sons of the Alamo, Chapter President of the Doughboy's (WWI) Reunion Foundation, Currently, he serves as Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists; Co-chair of This Internet Thing Is A Fad Foundation; Director of Give Our Kids & Grandkids A Place On Your Board Committee; Director of the National Kidney Foundation; and Director of J.C. Penney Company, Inc. since April 1, 2003. He is also Pressident of his neighborhood POA and occassionally walks aimlessly through the streets of Dallas muttering something about a damn headline proclaiming "Dewey defeats Trumans"

Mr. Osborne earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and a Master of Business Administration degree from Long Island University. He obtained a correspondence degree from the Columbia School of Broadcasting. (not affiliated with CBS) He also participated in the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. He's brushed against Touchdown Jesus on the campus of Notre Dame In South Bend and has played lawn darts on the campus of Dartmouth. Mr. Osborne has done shooters with Barry Switzer and once Bob Knight threw a chair at him during an Indiana / Marshall basketball game.

wow, what a resume!!!! Anyone older they can get? How about John Wooden

The end is apparently nearer than we think.

After reading Mr. Osborne’s bio its apparent he doesn’t have the credentials of Freedom’s current CEO. He hasn't demonstrated how to leave every company he works with in worse shape than when he started.