Yet another layoff at my small shop

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Although agents work long and often irregular hours, most have the freedom to determine their own schedule. The Internet and other electronic tools allow agents to do more work from home or while on the road, enabling them to send messages and documents to clients and coworkers, keep up with industry news, and access databases that help them target potential customers. Advertising sales agents use e-mail to conduct much of the business with their clients.


http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos297.htm

My dad was in newspaper ad sales/management for decades. He had a lot of freedom, but I can't recall any vacation when he wasn't phoning clients on a daily basis no matter where the fuck we were.

It boggles my mind that some of you believe that someone who works largely on commission wouldn't be trying to sell as much advertising as possible. It would be similar to one of them looking at an empty copy desk from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and concluding, "These fucking journalists never work."

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

If revenue is down, and you furlough everyone except the ad reps, the ones responsible for revenue, the anger in your place would boil over. Probably not a good situation.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

Our ad reps have been doing well recently. They got us six pages on Sundays, which is a lot for us, and no longer do we have a one-page section.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

Hmm, wouldn't be the first time I heard that from non-editorial idiots. (Of course, I've heard that from some editorial idiots, too.) :

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

i guess we both only know what our eyes tell us.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

Fair enough, but when the paper is empty, too, in terms of ads, then the only conclusion I can draw is that they aren't doing their jobs well.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

Or that the product they're trying to sell (ads in newspapers) are no longer considered valuable. Or that the economy is in the shitter and people are cutting advertising expenses.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

When the ad reps start blaming the newsroom for poor ad sales because reporters are not writing enough puff pieces on advertisers, it's hard to figure out where the animosity comes from.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

Is it a coincidence that the newspaper industry veered off toward the shitter when companies started drawing publishers from the advertising side of the business rather than from the newsrooms? Things that make you go hmmmm......

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

Except that our ad staff has been this way since I've been here.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

I've found that as publishers they operate pretty much the same whether they came up via the newsroom, advertising, circulation or composing room/pressroom (two of those, and neither were terrible). The publisher who was best-liked by employees was an accountant, and that's what he resumed being after corporate whacked him. Imagine that, a beancounter who understood how every department worked. In my experience, with a couple of exceptions, the editors-turned-publishers were not so good, because personal ambition was their goal all along (rather than love of journalism) and they were willing to smooch any butts necessary to climb that ladder. They were probably soulless bureaucrats-in-waiting when they were newsroom interns.

 

Re: Another ad rep bites the dust at my shop

My shop laid off another today. This time a 20-year vet in production. Nice woman and the people in back are taking it hard.