Doner

It's been a few months since we reported on Doner's Alan Kalter-related pension plan fiasco, not to mention the John DeCerchio payout and layoffs. But Choice Hotels win notwithstanding, a tipster tells us: "Doner's Pension Plan scandal has finally gotten some serious government attention. The matter has fallen under the jurisdiction of the Cincinnati Regional Office of the Department of Labor, which has officially opened a case and an investigation is in progress." We're waiting for reply from the Doner camp so this is still hearsay at the moment, but holler at us if you know of anything else.

More: "Choice Hotels Assigns New Agency"

Choice Hotels are a conglomerate of hoteliers you may be familiar with: EconoLodge, Comfort Inn, Clarion, Comfort Suites, Rodeway Inn and Clarion Suites. Today we're hearing the company has chosen a Boston's Doner, a claim that Choice Hotels representation would not confirm. The company did assert that they've chosen a new agency, but stated more information will be made available later this week or next.

According to AdWeek, the account was handled by Arnold in Boston. The Havas agency became AoR in 2000.

This is the first news we've heard from Doner since that whole John DeCerchio thing, and the pension business. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More: "What's It Like Inside Doner, Right Now?"

Just months after things have calmed down at Doner, where layoffs and pension issues have been plaguing the company, there's good (not really) news. They're hiring, two writers, we hear! And juniors at that. Chomp, yon scribes.

No idea what's happening with the pension plan, though we did hear that at least one former employee randomly got a check in the mail from Doner, claiming it was old 401k money. But ah, don't you take that with you when you leave a place? Send us your tips at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com.

More: "What's It Like Inside Doner, Right Now?"

Update: Jeffrey Feiger's office claims they are not handling this case.

Below are excerpts from an e-mail Doner CEO/Chairman Alan Kalter sent to his staff regarding the pension plan no one seemed to know about. He says things like, "[r]ecently, an employee who voluntarily left was asked how he wanted his pension benefit addressed, as there are multiple options one has upon leaving the company. He was surprised to learn he had a pension. Happily so, but still surprised."

Kalter goes on like this, indicating that the agency was on the ball about the pension matter because of this one employee. Right well, then we don't feel so bad about revealing the many staffers had no idea the pension plan even existed. Because, you know, since you guys were all ready on top of it. Yeah, this e-mail probably isn't the result of our reporting. Anyway, here's more.

"We realized then, that we have failed to communicate this benefit properly to you. I apologize for that sin of omission."

There's a bunch more. Click continued to read it. There's also some rumor that former employees have had to go through legal avenues in order to obtain their pensions — some have even suggested that a class action suit is being compiled against the company as we speak. But maybe it won't come to that now that the shop has gotten some transparency. Too little, too late? You tell us.

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Over the next 10 years, John DeCerchio should apparently receive $5.5 million per year from Doner where he used to be a Vice Chairman and CCO. We knew this but couldn't prove it. More here.

More: "What's It Like Inside Doner, Right Now?"

Who knows, but you? We're hearing lots of crazy rumors about pretty much everything from how the agency's creative department will be restructured to pension plans to John DeCerchio's payout. It's too much to put together, honestly and we don't want to be making wild allegations so rather than do that right here and now we're asking someone to come forward and explain this because it's just too, too much.

Rob, how's about it? You game? In the case that the rumor about Doner monitoring e-mails sent to us at AgencySpy (we hear this from like, every agency, so it's not new) please call me at 212-547-7935. Your many many many anonymous tips are welcome too, but this thing is looking deep. Deep. Throat.

There's also e-mail (agencyspy at gmail dot com), twitter/IM (agencyspy) and smoke signals. But it's cloudy in NYC today.
More: "Updates on Doner; It's. Not. Pretty."

Correction: Todd Riley took over the interactive department when Keck moved to his new position as head of Emerging Media.

Update: We're told Gail Offen was not demoted to CD.

After last/this week's "bloodletting" at Doner, we've received more than a few tidbits about the state of the agency, why things happened the way they did, and what's going to be changing now that some 100 employees are no longer calling the shop home. To start it off, we hear they lost a major account, demoted at least one ECD and a couple CDs and started the dreaded "do better or you're gone" evaluations that tend to reek of bullshit. Here's what we're hearing (btw we contacted the agency but received no responses):

— After some 20 creatives were let go from his group, ECD Randy Belcher, we're told, has been demoted to CD and now works in ECD David Vawter's (We had it as Vader before, shoulda known) group.

— CDs Michael Ward and Gail Offen were also demoted, to senior art director and senior writer.

— SVP Emerging Media John Keck has been gone from the agency for more than a month; so Doner's already late-to-the-game interactive department has been helmed by (according to sources) Todd Riley who took over the interactive department helm when Keck moved to his new position as head of Emerging Media. Many of you are saying that the agency's paltry attempts at interactive have led to its demise. But who's to blame? John DeCerchio, Sheldon Cohn and John Parlato? A culture of creativity based on work that includes characters and jingles does not a successful agency make.

— Obviously all these changes mean there's a new chain of command. ECD Rob Strasberg purportedly sent out a little message letting some of the creatives know they'll be evaluated. Er, re-evaluated, since clearly someone had to decide whether they were axed or not last week. Why not just do it all at once?

— This one is questionable but definitely shady if true. I'll quote directly the source who shared so not to mess it up: "two of creatives who were laid off had left Doner before and had been rehired. When they were rehired, Doner agreed in writing to credit them for their years of former service, which is important come severance time — but when push came to shove, Doner refused to honor their commitment. Translation: We know you won't sue us because you don't have money for a lawyer now."

— We're told there were more layoffs yesterday, mostly of people who were gone last week, either out of town, sick etc. Many presumed they were safe. Not so. Still waiting on numbers.

Since the agency hasn't done anything to help us get this right, we're hoping some of you will. What you see above is a lot to swallow, so e-mail, anon tip, send a pigeon, call, IM, tweet — just let us know if any of it's wrong. Contacts: matt at mediabistro dot com, tweet: agencypsy, IM: AgencySpy, call: 212 547 7935.

More: "Doner Advertising's Lay-Off Madness"