Finally, An Honest CEO

I gave Reuters CEO Tom Glocer a bad rap the other day for sounding like he had New Media all figured out. Contrast Glocer’s rhetoric (we will be a “seeder of clouds”) to the down-to-earth realism of McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt, reflecting on the recently accounced purchase of Knight Ridder:

Gary Pruitt, the chairman and CEO of Sacramento-based McClatchy (MNI), sounded convincingly authoritative when he answered a reporter’s inquiry about the speed with which newspapers’ classified ads will move to mobile platforms like cell phones. “In five years,” he said, “17.2% of all classifieds will be delivered on mobile devices.”

Then Pruitt paused. “I’m kidding,” he confessed. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Anyone who isn’t confused and perplexed by the radical transformation of media is either claiming to know more than they actually do (to put it nicely) or has no idea what’s going on (or both).