Divestiture
When Cox Enterprises sold Cox Media Group in 2019, I was offered a role with Cox Enterprises as Sr. Director of Product Development for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Product Development was a new team that needed to be built from the ground up. We would be accountable for the planning and execution of our separation from Cox Media Group and establishing a team that had expertise in Product Management, User Experience, Software Engineering, and Enterprise Architecture.
We had negotiated a transition services agreement (TSA) as a part of the negotiations with the purchasing entity. The TSA was crafted with specific target dates when the AJC would need to have an entirely new technology ecosystem that would allow us to operate independently. This included all business-critical platforms, including an Email Platform, Content Management System, Metrics, Native Apps, and more.
We had time frames ranging between 6-12 months tied to individual platforms. The TSA had some built-in leeway for extensions, but the support price increased significantly if we missed the dates. This was intentional as it ensured there were sufficient incentives to ensure all parties tackled the separation activities with due haste.
What made things more complicated was that FCC regulations did not permit us to work with our counterparts directly. All discussions and negotiations on planning the separation had to be channeled through EY or PwC (each representing one side of the deal).
To ensure we were positioned for success, a key hire was Surendra Nuthi, Enterprise Architect. The following is a sample of one of the many platforms we had to rebuild.