Quark Insider: Sales Low, Spending Up, Employees Out
Highly placed Quark insider alleges sudden layoffs, irresponsible spending, and alarmingly low sales.
BY Pariah S. Burke
Editor, Quark VS InDesign.com
Over the weekend Quark VS InDesign.com was contacted by a source highly placed within Quark’s worldwide headquarters in Denver, Colorado. What the source had to say was unsettling.
[Quark] “spends money like it is going out of style.”
During the last six months I have met several times with different departments and executives from Quark offices in the U.S. and Switzerland. Specifics about current, future, and prospective Quark software products and services factored heavily into our discussions, but most of the conversation centered around Quark’s overall strategy and the sweeping changes to the global organization beginning with the appointment of General Electric veteran Ray Schiavone to the offices of President and CEO in November 2006 (read here). Everything I saw, everyone I spoke with, gave me hope for the return of a competitive, customer-focused Quark. It got me excited about Quark and QuarkXPress again. I wasn’t yet ready to declare “Quark is dead, long live Quark,” but I admit I was darn close—maybe I still am. If the information we just received is accurate, then my hope and excitement may be premature.
At the time of this writing, Quark’s Denver offices are still closed for the weekend, and Quark VS InDesign.com has not yet been able to reach the software maker for official comment. Although the weekend publication of this story also prevents us from reaching other sources for corroboration, the information below comes directly from statements made to us by a confidential source who is in a position to speak authoritatively about the Quark, Inc. organization and its personnel and actions. We’ll refer to this individual simply as the “Source.”
According to the Source, on Friday, 3 August 2007 Quark initiated a major reduction in force. The exact number of personnel laid off is not known, but was characterized as a “significant” number. Most of those laid off were notified of their terminations in e-mail messages directly from President and CEO Ray Schiavone; some employees were physically escorted from the Quark building at 1800 Grant Street in Denver. The majority of downsized positions were “customer facing,” which the Source notes are referred to internally as “luxury personnel.”
The layoffs come after alleged fiscal irresponsibility. “The company spends money like it is going out of style,” the Source said. The Source went on to qualify the statement by noting that company funds have been used to throw lavish senior executive summits and to purchase executive perks including season tickets to major sporting events and custom made gifts. Other recent meetings, summits, and training events thrown for industry analysts, key partners, and general QuarkXPress users may also have been more costly than Quark could afford. (Disclosure: Earlier this year I attended two such events at Quark’s expense.)
In a rare glimpse into Quark’s sales figures, the Source claimed that Quark has forecast the sale of 200 thousand upgrades from prior versions of QuarkXPress to version 7 in calendar year 2007. Actual sales are falling far short of the projection, the Source said, with only 35-40 thousand units sold so far this year. Unless sales pick up in the remaining five months of the year, reaching 40% of Quark’s forecasted goal will be optimistic.
Monday, Quark VS InDesign.com will attempt to reach Quark for official comment on the alleged reduction in force, irresponsible spending, and lower than projected sales.
Update: Quark has responded to the Source. Read “Quark Responds to ‘Quark Insider‘”.
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Well we saw this coming for some time now. Adobe’s totally taking over the desktop with InDesign and esp. PDF. I prefer Adobe having some real competition though! (Just look at their price-policy!) I do hope you can get at least some form of conformation Pariah.
04:27 PT
Just got v.7, since my designer is getting a new MacPro. Bought the educational version since we didn’t want to deal with the hassles of upgrading our 6.5 install (which was upgraded from 4, which was upgraded from 3.3). Anyway long live 3.3!!!
So . . . installation went smoothly on Saturday, but guess what . . . it wouldn’t activate. Tried both automatic and the challenge/response system. Challenge response system is saying if giving a Microsoft IIS based error saying the page is not found.
Nice !!!
So, there whole site runs on jsp but their activation is (was) through dotNet. This company company is dead. Software still won’t activate this morning. I guess the “luxury personnel” were the ones that ran the activation server.
Nice !!!
07:58 PT
Well, for one thing. If sales is really that low, it makes sense to cut down. But in all fairness shouldn’t analysts and marketing be affected too? I’m really shocked those are really poor numbers.
08:31 PT
I’m looking forward to what else you can find out. It certainly is a complete opposite from the newer, chic-er face of Quark. I
08:48 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
As a Quark employee, I am thankful that our new CEO is willing to make changes in the company that are consistent with the desires of our customers and employees. It’s unfortunate that a disgruntled employee provided you with completely inaccurate information. From what I see, the single fact that is correct in the story is that there are exciting things going on at Quark. I’m appalled that someone would represent me and my company in a way that is so inconsistent with the reality that is the new Quark.
Tim Banister
Director Product Management
Quark
10:08 PT
At approximately 9 o’clock Pacific Time this morning I spoke briefly with MacLean Guthrie, Quark’s director of corporate communications. When I called, MacLean indicated that she and others were discussing this story and a response. I expect a formal response today.
(Thanks for adding to the discussion informally, Tim.)
11:40 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Woz said:
Until I get official sales figures from Quark contradicting those provided by our Source, I think I’ll limit my arguement to that point to personal experience.
I do see a fair number of QuarkXPress workflows. I see more InDesign workflows, but, in my experience, XPress is still holding a large minority. The key is that QuarkXPress 7 isn’t penetrating as an upgrade to many shops. I still see XPress 6 and 6.5 on the Mac frequently, and XPress 4.x, 5.x, 6, and 6.5 in Windows-based shops.
As I’ve maintained for a while—and as I believe Quark itself now realizes—InDesign isn’g XPress’s leading competitor. The biggest competitor is prior versions of XPress. And that makes Quark’s job a whole lot tougher.
They’re in the same trap as Microsoft: They have to compete with themselves. When you’re trying to convince the market to purchase your product over a competitor’s you can take certain approaches that you just can’t consider when it’s prior versions of your own products that are hurting current sales. You can’t, for example, launch a negatively-toned campaign against your own organization (the current “Coke vs. Coke Zero” campaign illustrates the absurdity of that).
I agree, and I’ve been in on discussions relating to the future of XPress and Quark. I’ve seen some really cool stuff, and heard even more cool ideas (I can’t be more specific due to NDA). I can also say the same of the future of InDesign. If even half of what I’ve seen and heard comes to pass on both products, we press, pre-press, and layout people will be debating the hard choice between QuarkXPress and InDesign for a long time yet to come (and enjoying the hell out of it).
11:40 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
MBono,
I note that you provided the Penn College of Arts & Sciences as your Website. Can I assume from that that you may be trying to activate QuarkXPress 7 through the campus Internet gateway? If so, security protocols on the gateway could be the cause (just a thought).
For what it’s worth, I’ve personally installed or supervised the intall of hundreds of copies of QuarkXPress 7 (full retail and upgrades). Although I have had a couple of instances where automated activation didn’t work, nearly all installs sailed through activation without a hitch. More to the point, I’ve had no greater frequency of problems with XPress 7 activation than I’ve had with Adobe or Microsoft activation systems (which are also fairly infrequent in recent versions).
Have you tried contacting Quark’s customer service? I believe they do help with activation over the phone.
11:40 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Well, FWIW, I still plan on upgrading my QuarkXPress 6.5 oto Quark 7 when the funds allow. It’s not a bad application.
14:13 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
LOL! “It’s not a bad app” indeed. It’s just as good (or bad, depends on who you ask!) as prior Xpress versions.
Trouble is, it might not be a bad app, but it’s just not as good as InDesign ;-)
Just a thought here: What if Quark Xpress produced a layout app based upon the Xpress 4 app but with the ability to import/place PSD, PDF and use Open Type. Trick is to make it a very FAST app by not trying to be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ app and keep it simple. Let the creation of PDF be done via Postscript. If the app is AFFORDABLE, small and fast on both G5 PowerPC and Intel… A lot of people out still work with Xpress 3/4/5 and don’t need all those extras version 6 and 7 came with. (Like MS Office).
I know what you think: Who will buy the big 2000 bucks version 7? Well, try to see it like the iPod nano vs the big iPod. Not everybody want/needs the big thing. It would certainly keep Quark’s user base and file format .xpd intact and help it grow…
23:52 PT
I have just heard that about 30 employees have been laid off from Quark’s India facility. And this is just one of the lightning actions that get highlighted, whereas the fact is that good people from Quark operations world-wide have been steadily leaving since the last 1 year and there has been no effort to retain them. In the end it is all about the vision of the company, this is a privately help company and the vision and foresight of the top management (”the family”) can never match the corporate management style of Adobe tops. The Quark owner is a realtor at the end of the day, he doesn’t understand the intricacies of software development. There is not mandate from the top management to innovate, they are just jumbling existing technology around to productize it in various forms and extract as much possible money from it. As much as I wish against it, it would not surprise me that Quark is soon sold to a private equity firm or some of the like.
01:56 PT
Well, its true that India office suffered a layoff in the XPress division today. But then, “I am thankful that our new CEO is willing to make changes in the company that are consistent with the desires of our customers and employees.”
And now Tim will explain us the difference between ‘inaccurate’ and ‘completely inaccurate’. If an employee says that there are gonna be layoffs in Denver office and then the layoffs happen in India office, this means that the employee is ‘disgruntled’ and the information ‘completely inaccurate’. Jeez!!
02:21 PT
LOL!
Well Mr. Banister, from what I see, the single fact that is correct in the story is that there are exciting things going on at Quark.
Layoff indeed is exciting for you it seems!
03:15 PT
Some downsizing dicussed @ quark.com/service/fo...iewtopic.php?t=19056
04:10 PT
Woz: I had a similar thought a while ago. Why not have Quark introduce a “civilian” version of XPress? With Pagemaker slowly fading from the market there’s a niche there to be exploited, and judging by Pagemaker’s enduring popularity, there must be a considerable home market looking for a layout program that is more recent than Pagemaker 7, price about like Word, more advanced and less frustrating than Publisher, but not as advanced (or as expensive) as QuarkXPress.
I mean, look there, Adobe came out with Photoshop Elements and that didn’t hurt their cred one bit with the professional market and got them a home user fan base as well. Everyone I ask about Elements absolutely loves it.
The remark you made about growing the .qxd format base is well taken. I have nothing to add to that.
04:18 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Well, being an ex-employee of Quark India, I am sure about one thing. Always have a backup job! This company is ‘American’ in real sense. Bastards don’t understand the impact it has on the poor employee. Sorry for the abuse but it came straight from heart.
04:59 PT
Well, I would say, ‘Watch what Quark is doing.” Don’t find a job there! Else have a backup job.
05:19 PT
True, Adobe did do the same thing with ‘Elements’ and now rumor is they’re doing it again with an Online-Photoshop-App.
06:14 PT
I am one of the newly departed - not sure how many more, they are keeping it pretty hush hush because of the high profiles of several of these employees.
Does anyone out there know about that blog/list for former Quarkians that I have heard about over the years? Would dig a good rant.
Cheers.
08:57 PT
The way Quark is going at it, one of these days, exciting things may happen to Mr. Tim Banister too…
09:01 PT
Well Quark was my place of work for the last 5 years before I left it earlier this year.Let me tell you that Quark has neither got a vision nor any strategy for their employees,customers,products etc. Anyone who buys their crappy software must be out of their wits….. Its 0nly a matter of few months before it closes down. R.I.P. Quark !!!
09:51 PT
So from the thread, The “Source” = Shellie Hall correct? maybe that’s why she is now X Quark. Or maybe that’s why she made these statements.
So no longer sure this is really credible info, and more like a low blow for being fired.
(pre-emotive strike)
10:01 PT
MacMan:
I, too, read the Quark Forums thread “X-Quarkian” noted above. That’s a shame that Shellie Hall was among those recently laid off from Quark. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to be part of a group to which Shellie gave a presentation of Quark technology. Her passion for the subject was incredible. As a XPress evangelist, she seemed like a great asset to Quark.
As far as whether Shellie Hall is the “Source” noted in this story: First and foremost, we don’t reveal the identities of confidential sources. Therefore, I can neither confirm nor deny any conjecture as to the identity of the “Source” in this story; denying could lead to an identification by simple process of elimination. I will say, however, that the name of Shellie Hall is only the first you’ve seen among the list of recently terminated personnel; there are many other names on that list.
Another important thing to keep in mind: At no point in the story did I state or imply that the “Source” was an ex-Quark employee, recent or otherwise.
10:54 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
MacMan - you are an ass! Just because I was laid off does not mean that I am “the source.” I found out yesterday morning and had NO freakin idea what was truly happening in Denver. I am ex-Quark because the desktop strategy of the company has changed and I don’t fit the model. YOU TELL ME WHY JERK… Or wait… maybe you are the source, or maybe Tim Banister or Dan Logan or Dave Ebersole - maybe it is Jurgen himself! Oh no - wait - I think it could be Cliff Kaplan - didn’t he leak the QXP 7 features - OH BUT WAIT….. I WAS BLAMED FOR THAT TOO. If I ever worked with you in Denver… I am sure glad I don’t now.
11:30 PT
Shellie you are right but the future of Quark is what?
12:00 PT
Snr management should wite a book “How not to run a s/w co.”
12:03 PT
I remember a thread at prepressforums.com where Shellie galliantly defended Quack for days.
It’s a shame that for as much crap as she took for them that they’d drop her like that.
I guess Quack is realizing that “just tell everyone we don’t suck” is not a good marketing strategy. I hope they have a good plan B - like actually making a product compatible with prepress production.
12:48 PT
If Quack would just listen to those who use their product instead of dong as they please perhaps they wouldn’t be in the spot they are now in. Adding things that are not needed such as web and whacky color management, not to mention transparency that can’t be exported to PDF without flattening are just a few examples.
12:58 PT
Very passionate response, contrary to Shellie’s response, I’m not a Quark Employee, in fact far from it.
My post was solely based on use of grammar and common phrases she has used in both bloggs. The writing styles are identical.
Based on your reaction though I would guess this is not the first time ;-/.
The only comments other then the ones above are several made by the so called “luxury personnel” that Shellie talks about being outraged that they where address in this manner. and that they are never address as “luxury personnel” this miss leads people, and gives a unfair negative impression of a customer focused company.
13:41 PT
Hey MacMan - your comments gave me a giggle…. how do you know that the person who contacted this site is not a current employee? You don’t - so quit being the jerk that you are - and NO - I don’t have any compassion for you because you have posted on this site many times and just try to cause trouble and rile people up. The folks at Quark were very sad to have to let me go and my boss was visibly upset that this was happening. So - go get a life.
15:08 PT
Quark’s product planning and employee retaining policy is pathetic. There is no reason for making this hit list which includes Shellie Hall, Brian Penny, Matt Bargell, rob carey,Zach, tina,Manuella, Fabien, Mounavar Beck India staff etc etc. New Office is opening up in california and God knows this office is for what. In coming time there will be more shooting on the employees specially in India center and europe.
15:34 PT
The Quark company being mismanaged and acting like fools is not a surprise to me. I’ve had bad experiences with the company since before XPress became a popular application.
They have a long history of treating people like garbage. They’ve been TRYING to change that image. Boy, what an uphill battle!
Sure, they put a new face on the top of the corporate pyramid, but it’s still owned by the same pig-headed jerk who honestly doesn’t give a crap about his customer base.
If the company folds, I will feel sorry for anyone who’s been put out — both employees and customers. However, I’d say good riddance to an arrogant company which has treated others so callously for so long.
15:38 PT
I feel for all those who has been let go. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t been in that situation before could understand. You work in a competitive industry and that is part of the game. The worst part is that sometimes the one’s being let go are the better employees. I Wish you all good luck.
15:59 PT
Well put, Mjenius.
To Shellie Hall and everyone else recently let go from Quark: The staff of QuarkVSInDesign.com and I want to express our sympathies to you and your families. QuarkXPress, CopyDesk, QPS, and Quark Interactive Designer are good applications and systems. You should be proud of your work with those products, whether that work was in sales, marketing, programming, or some other capacity.
We sincerely wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.
Pariah S. Burke
Publisher
16:25 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
UPDATE
Although a Quark spokesperson told me to expect an official response to this story Monday, one was never received. On Tuesday I once again encouraged Quark to respond officially, but the same spokesperson stated that an official response would not be forthcoming prior to my scheduled interview with President and CEO Ray Schiavone late this coming Wednesday.
Simultaneous to confirming the time of the meeting I provided Quark with a preview of many of the questions I intend to pose to Mr. Schiavone during that meeting.
Until then, Tim Banister’s message in reply #5 above seems likely to remain the only commenatry from within Quark as to the questions of:
I hope to obtain answers to these (and other) questions from Mr. Schiavone on Wednesday. Quark VS InDesign.com will, of course, report the results of that meeting in a follow up story and continue to follow the events unfolding at Quark.
16:49 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Is that true? That Zach and Matt and Bryan and Fabien got fired too???? I am in shock! And very disappointed. I worked so closely with all of you… Matt - you are the most talented designer I have ever worked with… Zach you were the soul of QuarkXPress for a long time ad Fabien - you were my European counterpart. Bryan - God Bless you for helping me out when my house burned down in May… I will miss you all. God speed.
19:27 PT
I had been part of the Quark India office for almost three years and have seen from close quarters the working of the company and its culture and the whole shebang.
In all these years and hearing and seeing many other successfully running companies, it totally baffles me as to how can Quark manage to hire sooo many incompetents as its management team. The latest round of firing isn’t an exception. Every one and a half years we witness such a round of retrenchments. And that is not all. This is usually followed by a round of hiring fresh faces. So much so that Quark Inc is known throughout the industry for its hiring-firing policy. Obviously it’s highly irresponsible and shows the lack of planning acumen or foresight or drive in the company.
Yes I feel proud of working for a product like QuarkXPress, but that is a different aspect of my professional life and it doesnt dim the fact the company totally sucks.
Retrenchments might happen in the industry but there is some semblance of law. For e.g. in the US, if a company engages in such an exercise than there is a minimum number of years it cant hire new people. But no so in India and certainly not so with Quark with has hired and fired people with impunity.
Highly irresponsible and highly stupid.
It is now all set to be relegated to the pages of Desktop layout software history soon and it deserves every bit of it.
20:03 PT
Is it true that Zach also got fired? India office also got affected BIG TIME. Around 40-45 odd employees got fired. People from various positions were let go(managers, programmers, product analysts…..). and some one here is telling us that all this is exciting.
20:36 PT
can anyone confirm any of this??????
20:44 PT
There were exciting things planned and had the top management been good enough they would have been implemented but time and again even the top managers keep changing like for example Michael Jordan who came to Quark from Adobe left within a year. There were many talented people in Quark India like elsewhere who were given a shoddy treatment. And now many of them are working for big companies like Microsoft. The company management has one good thing, it is consistent across the lines, it treats it’s customers and employees just as shoddily and snobbishly i..e without discrimination.
I dont know what Ray says and what hype trick he has up his sleeve but it is confirmed that Quark has cut down planned improvements for QuarkXPress’ version 8.0 drastically. Many of the planned enhancement projects are simply gone into thin air. The only thing users can expect till another 1 year is continued performance updates for QuarkXPress 7.0 and related products Quark CopyDesk and QuarkXPress Server.
The middle level managers at the India office (with the exception of a few) are the real symbols of what things have become at Quark. They have been there since the start of India office around 10 years back and have become so compliant and bureaucratic that the only thing they worry about is meeting time-lines to please superiors without any concern for quality issues that will frustrate customers. As I said earlier it is a total lack of vision.
But I am still hopeful, maybe things would turn around after hitting an abysmal low, what with the California office news and lot of talent still with them. The company has claimed to become customer centric but it has also to keep policies to keep the good talent. The programming code of QuarkXPress 7.0 is in a lot better shape now and a lot of innovation is possible. And it would not surprise me if a top level management change is what that will drive this turn around.
23:13 PT
Oh boy, this company wants to die… But what if all you guys and gals got together and created a NEW layout app? Sort of like the Bare Bones Quark we discussed? Create the app you wanted Quark Xpress to be, but start small & simple.
With your experience and knowledge and with Adobe getting greedy (just check the upgrade prices for CS3) the timing for a “Fenix” out of the ashes from Xpress is very good!!! Wait, thats a good name for it: Fenix!
00:28 PT
And the best part is none of the empty headed middle level managers at Quark get fired. Now they deserve to have a full round of applause for saving their skin everytime something like this comes along.
The worst part is this always had (has) a bad effect on morale, on quality and thus on the product itself. No wonder there is overspending and sales are falling thru the roof. There was a faint flicker of hope for Quark India office about a couple of years back when they had hired an excellent MD but the dufuses here played their political games to oust him out and also the upper management sitting at Denver along with the mad Arab couldnt digest the autonomy that guy demanded. And thus ended Quark’s only chance of redemeption.
Now lets see how long it takes for the ship to sink.
01:59 PT
“Yet Another Ex Quarkian” seems to be disgruntled :)
02:18 PT
Just read this
03:38 PT
I was with Quark from last 7 years and I had seen lot many changes in company. Major drawback is that they never able to find the exact cause and finally make the wrong decisions.
Whenever there is Change in Management, New person try to find the sort the issue in his way but lack of correct data, he also make same mistakes.
Nobody till day able to do Root Cause analysis, do you think they are doing their job correctly.
I know QuarkXPress throughly and as woz told why don’t we get together and create a new layout application.
04:39 PT
Goodbye Quark, I don’t feel sympathy for a company that treats employees the way it does.
Ironically, when I got the e-mail from Pariah about all this going down, I was attending the local InDesign User Group meeting, with a nice presentation by an Adobe rep about various InDesign tips and techniques. My wife attended and at the end wished she could talk her company into moving to InDesign (she uses Quark).
But my point is that Adobe’s outreach and empathy for designers’ needs seems to far exceed Quark’s, and I expect that when this is all over Quark will actually be doing LESS for designers than before. The fact that they are dumping highly valuable evangelists supports this.
I remember starting as a designer back in 2000, and a mentor was baffled when I adopted InDesign instead of Quark. “Just get Quark,” she said, “it’s required.” That was Quark’s mindset for many years, and look what it’s gotten them.
06:30 PT
Maybe we should wait for a statement from Quark or Ray Schiavone himself about all this. It is clear however that there is some reorganization going on and that some of the laid off employees are upset because of the style this happened (and that is very understandable).
Everything else seems a bit vague, not much is confirmed yet Let’s hope Pariah can catch some more background in his interview with the CEO.
06:49 PT
I can only say the source can’t be in a possition “speak authoritatively about the Quark, Inc. organization and its personnel and actions” as looking at the names no longer with Quark almost none are so called “luxury personnel.” and what is a significant number when a company employs so many people.
IBM let 400 go afew weeks back, is that a siginficant number? it’s less than 2% of it’s workforce.
The source is obviously X or the janitor as they really had no idea about the true plans and reasons.
As Shellie points out herself the desktop strategies have changed and these people don’t fit that refocus within the company. My heart goes out to these people I have been in the same position before, and I wish Shellie the best of luck for the future and I would gladly offer her a position along side us working with these apps.
This is just a small spark fueled by the Adobe fan Club into a fictitious wild fire started by a disgruntled employee. again making a mountain out of a mole hill.
07:22 PT
Quark has no one in its QuarkXPress Quality Assurance department who will now test their Print / Post Script Features. This is EXCITING news for everyone especially for customers who will get more buggy versions of XPress
08:32 PT
BREAKING NEWS :- RAY SHIAVONE FIRED
08:35 PT
FIRE TIM BANISTER
08:35 PT
I heard that I was mentioned on this site as someone who had been laid off from Quark. This is erroneous and there seems to be quite a bit of misinformation being circulated.
Don’t mean to be a party pooper as I can see that this sort of wild speculation is what drives the entertainment value of this website.
Quel drama !
Matt Bargell
11:36 PT
You know…. I don’t think Adobe is so much worried about Quark anymore. I’m sure they’re concentrating more on other competitors such as Final Cut Pro, Aperture, and sadly, Silverlight. And you know they have no chance of buying out either Apple nor Microsoft.
12:14 PT
Just to concur with Matt Bargell’s comment, I (Bryan Penny) was not fired. I am leaving Quark but it was an independent decision.
The vision and future of Quark is very positive and I think Ray and the company will succeed and I wish them well!
13:06 PT
I wish I knew who “The Source” is, but Pariah missed a great opportunity to name him or her “Deep Page”
14:31 PT
I’d like to follow up on Bryan and Matt’s comments and mention it is a rumor as well that I (Zach Frison) am no longer with the company. To be honest there is a real sense of excitement around the office these days (and I’ve worked here for almost 10 years). Ray has worked with people at all levels of the company to define and agree upon both a short and long term vision for the company. We’re behind Ray, Ray is behind us and together we have some exciting plans in store for the near future. Stay tuned!
16:28 PT
OH wooooow ….. more exciting thing to come. Hmmm look like something is shuting down.
I feel some people ruined the jobs of others without knwing the background story.
Very Exciting.
22:44 PT
Zach, are you an ass? Could you have sounded more preposterous. You don’t have to publically lick on to Ray. He might have great plans for Quark but ‘excitement’ is not the right word to be used just after you laid off a chunk of your workforce. 45 people from India office is 10% of your workforce. You are behind Ray and Ray is behind you and you guys are standing in a circle and that makes you excited?? Previously I thought you only looked like a joker. Guess I was wrong.
22:59 PT
Ok, so everyone knows that people at Quark have been fired. So was I.
For my other Ex-Quarkians. CHANGE YOUR SHIT-ASS ATTITUDE. All companies go through a lay-off phase. It could be due to restructuring or due to financial trouble. As an employee, you get paid to work. You work to get paid. Its a give and take relationship.
If Bryan Penny says he left Quark, he did it for a better opportunity. I’m sure Quark doesn’t hold it against him. But if Quark let him go, he would definately hold it against Quark, just like all the disgruntled employees. Now that’s hypocrisy!
Move on, get a better job, get a life. If you feel or believe you aren’t capable of getting another (better) job, then you’re right, and you deserved to be fired. I mean, did you think Quark was the be-all-and-end-all of your career?
Sorry to say this Zach, but i agree with the part that says you are kissing Ray’s ass in public. And your ass-kissing will pay off coz you’ve always been good at it.
We all know Ray has been doing a lot to turn the company around. And Quark may manage it, because (as much as I hate Zach’s ass kissing), i have to admit that Ray is a solid CEO.
The longer Quark survives, the better it is for everyone. Customers get options, and benefits of price wars.
Once again, all those fired, don’t sob and feel sorry for yourselves (unless you are losers). Look for jobs, move on. We’re in the same boat.
X-Qian
02:55 PT
Have been through this interesting discussion thread. Guess everyone is only focussing on the desktop group. Guys wake up- there is a range of Enterprise products in Quark, there also was a CRM product.
Now - there was this clique of people who used to run the CRM show - with a few in Denver and ONE guy in India. This clique fleeced Quark to the hilt till the time they could - until someone finally decided that the CRM has been a huge drain to Quark’s resource (there never was any market for this product). Now this clique of people moved onto Enterprise products and quietly nudged out most of the existing team fromt he company. This group continues to drain Quark resources with no returns.
The last release of the main Enterprise product was nearly A YEAR behind schedule. So what- it was celebrated and gifts were doled out to the team. This group continues to eat up the bottom line of QUark with 3 Directors (good for nothing) on board - doing nothing but consolidating their positions. It is amazing how the big lady sitting in Denver is able to cover up their tracks.
And so life goes on…
btw - in this latest round of layoffs NOT A SINGLE resource from the enterprise group was laid off ! Amazing ain’t it.
It is time Ray started to uncover the machinations of the top brass of the Enterprise group…
WAke up time !!!
03:50 PT
Some facts…
CRM never had more than 5 engineers working on it.
QCM was the main product line that got closed and hundreds of Engineers from Enterprise lost their jobs including over a hundred from something called IPG.
Mercury got sold to another company for an undisclosed amount.
Last year, Quark took a BRAVE decision to do away with the porting of QPS to its latest versions of XPress and chose to re-design and re-write everything from scratch.
This product, QPS 7, started last year so can NOT be delayed by a year (unless you have a convoluted time warped deluded vision).
The engineers were rewarded because they did something that most companies dare not do…
05:20 PT
Pariah, have you got any luck in contacting Ray or is he still hiding somewhere?
I would love to know what exciting story he has to fool people around.
07:20 PT
I can tell you a lot about Enterprise developement in India. I have been here long enough and have observed a lot.
The Executive Director is a veteran at leading failed products and has survived just because of his proximity to a
Madam in Denver. He has a fixed set of cronies whom he has brought from Quark Commerce to Enterprise and
they (can you believe it they are all exceptional performers) are ruining Quark. While small fish get fired, these
guys have not drawn the attention of the CEO by talking sweet (something at which they are exceptional).
Can you imagine one Director for every 15 to 16 people in enterprise and each of them is exceptional. Also most
of whom came from Commerce to Enterprise at all levels are also exceptional performers. Then for God’s
sake why do their products fail.The CEO should look at this facet too or are his eyes closed because of those
sweet utterances they make.
07:49 PT
From my experience I think that’s true for many troubled privately owned companies. No matter how many times they change management or leadership they are in the same situation because the owner never realizes that the problem is that he/she doesn’t let them just do their job.
09:01 PT
Hi All,
I can feel that there is lot of excitement about Quark, but not in Quark. I see no excitement within Quark but only frustration because of internal politics and top management which raised to that level by default not because of any skills. Politics is there in all companies, but in Quark politics has become more important than company and that is why company is going thru such a bad phase.
Tim/Zach if Ray is really as good & smart as you say he is then why is he not able to see the monkeys (like Nitin Nanda, Dinesh Sharma, Rocky Goffey who are in company only because of Linda and there are others like them who are there because they are close to someone or the other in Denver) and fire them to save money INR 4-5 Million per year per head. He would have saved 4 times the money he has saved by firing 45 guys in India. I really wish that Ray would have had such a vision.
Anyway since I have some observations which I feel can come handy for Ray if he really wants to save this company, I am writing this because I still love Quark as a company and have lots to thank Quark for:
1. Please fire Linda, Nitin Nanda, Dinesh Sharma, Mohinder Pal Singh, Rockey and find others like them and hang them. Just demoting Linda and asking her to report to Jurgen will not help.
2. Give clear targets to guys in India and believe me they can deliver it, problem is not in India office, problem is that you guys don’t know how to manage India operations. Right from day one it has been made centre of politics where people where not treated and respected for work but for the fact that they are either Linda’s team or Jurgen’s team or Kamar’s team or is/was good in managing all of them. Recognize & respect work not monkeys named above.
3. Please hire some good management guys who know how to run business and create your second line, the fools who are there right now there with you are of no use. If they would have been of any use, this company would have been doing much better than it is doing now.
Just to clarify, I have nothing personal against Nitin, Dinesh, Rocky or Mohinder & Linda, it is just that they are biggest reasons for politics, confusion and mis-management in India office. So if you are really serious please get rid of these stupid people and try and retain good guys, you really have some good talented people in India office.
10:07 PT
UPDATE
Vex asked:
I also received quite a few e-mails asking the same question.
I apologize for keeping everyone in suspense; that wasn’t my intention.
I did meet with Ray Schiavone (and others) late Wednesday afternoon (2:30 PM Pacific Time). During the interview he responded to the allegations leveled against Quark by the Source, and we talked about some related topics as well.
Half an hour wasn’t enough time to fully cover all the questions I feel need to be addressed at this time. So, Quark and I have agreed to split the content of the interview across two articles. The first, which will publish later today, will respond directly to the above “Quark Insider” story. The second, which will cover what I consider even bigger, farther reaching questions, will be addressed in a second article after a followup interview with Ray Schiavone (hopefully next week, depending on Mr. Schiavone’s schedule).
Right now, I’m just waiting to hear back from Quark regarding some quotes I asked them to confirm. Then everyone can read the official response, straight from the top of Quark.
14:11 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Quark’s side of the story is published here.
19:13 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Yeh, people getting laid of sucks, sympathy to all of you.
I noticed the other day that this site’s homepage weighs in at a hefty “6″ on Google PageRank… this means that everything being said here must be fairly significant to both Adobe and Quark… makes me wonder if some of these pro-Quark guys aren’t maybe Quark’s marketing department in disguise
02:38 PT
nk, I like the comment. Maybe Pariah can respond to that and this, Why do comments like yours targeting Quark remain on this site when similar comments regarding Adobe get removed or edited.
Pariah, I await your personal attack and indirect response with baited breath.
PS, Slightly off mark with aka Chio, but It was enlightening news that I would never have found out, without your help.
08:58 PT
Macman said:
I honestly don’t know to what you’re referring, MacMan. On this thread, I have indeed removed 4 comments.
One had no content or purpose other than a vicious personal attack on one of the Quark employees who responded above.
The remaining three were removed because they were duplicates of comments that are still available above. One of those was an exact duplicate seconds apart—most likely the author clicked “Embed” twice.
The other two duplicates were messages from you, MacMan. The first examples was one I just now removed. It followed and echoed your comments in #69 just above. Your first comment didn’t go immediately through (the system flagged it for editorial approval prior ot publication), so you likely thought it hadn’t gone through at all and rewrote the same thought into a new comment. As they weren’t substantially different, I kept your more detailed first comment and deleted the latter.
The only other comment I removed from this thread was another of yours, MacMan. Posting under the alias of “Chio,” you repeated exactly the same sentiment as comment #48.
I don’t think I know what you mean by “enlightening news”.
What the rest of the people involved in this discussion may not realize is that you didn’t enter the name as “Chio aka MacMan”. I did.
You were trying the time-honored Internet tradition of posting the same information under multiple aliases in attempt to manipulate the other participants into thinking that your singular point of view was shared by others. This wasn’t the first time you did that, either.
This publication and I have a low tolerance for that. Consequently, from that point forward (Tuesday, I think) none of your comments will publish until reviewed by the staff.
I value your opinion—whether I agree or not—and contributions to discussions, but, as you proven unable to participate fairly and honestly, we’ve had to restort to using technology to enforce fairness and equality.
12:29 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Nk said:
I’m pleased to see so many Quark employees (Tim, Shellie, Matt, Bryan, and others) participating in the discussion. But, are any of the anonymous or pseudonymous respondants Quarkians in disguise? I don’t know. It’s possible of course, but I honestly doubt it.
In the past I have caught employees of an article’s subject commenting in disguise. I’ve also caught similar attempts at deception where it wasn’t an employee of the subject company but an employee of a rival to the subject of the article. Those are few and far between, however.
More often I catch one person not directly affiliated with either the subject or its rival(s) posting effectively the same information or argument in multiple comments under different names. Every time I find one of these, I look into the author’s location and identity a bit. Never do I recall having found such a person to be an agent of Quark, Adobe, or any of their known partners or vendors.
12:41 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Something else I’d like to say in response to NK:
For what it’s worth, I do genuinely like most of the things I know about Ray Schiavone’s New Quark.
Because of my work—here, my books, my consulting and training, and in many other roles in which I serve the creative pro community—I’m privy to a great deal of inside information from Quark, Adobe, and other companies. Somewhere between 50% and 75% of that information the companies themselves officially deliver to me (often under Non-Disclosure Agreement). The rest…Well, let’s just say I keep my promises, and I stay well informed.
Now, I’m pro-Quark and pro-Adobe. I am most certainly pro-QuarkXPress and pro-InDesign. (Note: The order in which I write them has no meaning.) I really like both applications. I also really like what I know about QuarkXPress 8 and InDesign CS4. I like what I know about new, as yet unannounced products, too.
In this case, we’re talking about Quark, so I’ll focus my response to that company and its products.
I’ve met several of the Quarkians who responded above, and many others who haven’t. When I’ve interacted with them, they genuinely are excited about the new direction of Quark.
Tim Bannister, for example. Although his comment above smacks of carefully written marketing spin, I know the guy really is excited for the future of Quark and his part in it. I know that because Tim and I spent the entire day locked in a conference room with 10-15 other people talking about the future of Quark, XPress, QID, and some other topics. The whole time, Tim was excited scribbling notes and passionately discussing his ideas, my ideas, and the ideas of others in the room.
I’m not asking you or other readers to get excited about QuarkXPress or InDesign (or another product) on my say-so. That’s a personal/professional choice each of us must make. I’m excited by both; if I wasn’t, I’d have no right to comment on them.
I hope over the last four years of writing and publishing Quark VS InDesign.com that I’ve proven myself competent, honest, and fair. (To Macman: If Quark considers this site fair, can’t you?) I hope I’ve earned enough trust from my readers that you will believe me when I vouch for someone like Tim Bannister, and, perhaps, even when I tell that Quark is indeed on a better track now than it was a year ago.
13:07 PT
Quark VS InDesign.com
Did anyone read this interview
00:32 PT
Now Quark recalls the fired empoyees …
10:42 PT
Thanks for the link. This is my favorite line:
“In addition, customers need to be able to easily use content from all sources: QuarkXPress, InDesign, XML, Flash, PDF, and others.”
So they are going to travel on the road that Adobe built? As odd as this may sound, this may be the smartest thing I heard from them. If everything they said in the past was true then Steve Jobs would be homeless, we’d be designing in windows, InDesign would be as popular as GoLive, printers would laugh at PDF, and the most exciting form of multimedia would be a slideshow.
13:32 PT
Mr Ray,
I suggest have a internal anonymous employee forum, which would yield you better insights what your employees feel about you and the way quark is doing. Going up the ladder or down. ! Quark is unnecesarliy spoiling the image Tim Gill had made few decades back.
Well Wisher!
21:16 PT
Hmm, thanks for the reply!
I’ve read the interview on “Planet Quark”, and I have to say that the views of Quark and the views of QuarkVSInDesign’s “mole” are pretty wildly different—somebody is telling lies! (at least the mole has the decency to back his claims up with actual figures). In any case, it would truly be very sad if many people around the world lost their jobs because of Quark taking a nosedive… (which doesn’t mean that I’ve converted—I still STRONGLY dislike Xpress).
Here’s an idea: if things get really bad at Quark, wouldn’t it be cool if Adobe bought them out? This may just be the random musing of a DTP moron, but think about it…
Anyway, better be going, before I lose MY job
01:50 PT
I have been working in electronic pre-press for over 15 years. I have always liked Quark XPress. That is until version 7.0 was released.
Now I can only hope for Quark to die of natural causes.
I now prefer InDesign, which has clearly surpassed QuarkXPress in the industry.
16:55 PT
yes, quark is nearly dead ..
again fired 10% all employées in switzerland ..
RIP Quark.
08:22 PT
They laid off a swath of mid-level managers in the US as well. Very Sad. Lots of folks who were loyal (many had 10+ years at Quark… but loyalty doesn’t mean much these days) and had worked their way up… including their interim CEO before Ray came on. They may be trying to “Revolutionize Publishing… Again.” but I don’t see it… they seem to be withering on the vine and haven’t been putting out the releases they need to in order to gain enough revenue/market/momentum to sustain themselves during the downturn. Their dynamic publishing solutions sound like a good idea but then again seem like a half baked assembly of their existing technologies and they are selling to EXACTLY the folks who are suffering from this downturn the worst (Corporations) who will have zero money to spend on it.
Not that I want Quark to fail… I don’t. I like both apps for different reasons. Actually I think all the Quark haters out there should want Quark to survive… because it keeps the Adobe from getting any more lazy than they are now (almost all the new CS4 features are clearly derived from something QuarkXPress already does… you can debate who does it better in various areas but it seems Quark does a better job of getting real and significant innovations in their software these days… ironic ain’t it!). Adobe has already given up the fight for desktop publishing and is taking InDesign into maintenance mode… As they should. Print layout is a limited and shrinking market which they have effectively already won… so why would the suits at Adobe sink more investment in a declining market which they already own and do not depend on to survive? Don’t expect any massive, feature rich releases out of them any time soon. The days of CS1/CS2 are gone… you’ll be lucky to get the same trickle that you got out of CS4.
In short, pray Quark survives. QuarkXPress is your only hope for big releases of cool new features. In their current mode, Adobe will eventually follow along with their version (with refinement/improvement or a half assed try at good enough) of the same feature. Basically if you want InDesign to be better in the long run… stoke the fire of the competition. Sink $300 to buy an upgrade copy of QuarkXPress… if only because you need Quark to survive to drive innovation… (and you might even like it).
14:52 PT
I am wondering how much people like QPS 7 & 8. I would love to see the new system since I spent years administering QPS 1, 2, 3 and 3.5. Version 7 looks like something new and I am wondering how people who moved up to it like it.
11:12 PT
Anonymous wrote:
«… almost all the new CS4 features are clearly derived from something QuarkXPress already does»:
SmartGuides?
Customizable Links panel?
Conditional text?
Live Preflight?
Smart Text?
Spread rotation?
Smart Text Reflow?
Come on. You’re kidding!
04:32 PT
nk wrote:
«Here’s an idea: if things get really bad at Quark, wouldn’t it be cool if Adobe bought them out? This may just be the random musing of a DTP moron, but think about it…»
XPress has only one chance: to become OpenSource.
04:35 PT
I don’t want Quark to go away because competition is good for consumers. But asking people to plunk down money so that they won’t go under is just pathetic. If they can’t make a compelling enough product to take away market share from Adobe, then they should try harder. Not ask for pity money.
10:54 PT
Quark is laying off again. Switzerland is closed.
09:14 PT
Its true.
1. 100 employees were laid off on May 19 2009
2. That’s about a quarter of a company I am told.
3. Layoffs are across the board - legal, support, sales and of course engineering.
4. Majority of them were from lowest ranks.
5. None from Senior Management.
6. QuarkXPress engineering completely moved to India.
7. Bet is on a completely new product scheduled to launch soon and an enterprise product that has been in market for years with new polish.
I wish Quark good luck.
13:24 PT
http://quarkcountdown.blogspot.com/
14:19 PT