American City Business Journals Reviews

Pros

The people who work at ACBJ truly believe in the work they do, and do it with passion. It's a focused company with great people, who are both good at their jobs and also great colleagues.

Cons

There are great opportunities for learning, doing great work and advancement, but the financial potential for growth can feel limited.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep hiring great people and staying focused on your mission. Find ways to keep compensation increasing, in order to keep those great people working there.

Pros

Overall this is a wonderful company comprised of many hardworking people that have been there for years.

Cons

Lack of trust and appreciation for the effort expended by the sales team to try and hit management's expectations

Advice to Senior Management

Trust and believe in your sales people. Trust that they are working hard.

Pros

Prior to working here I assumed it was more of a magazine or corporate environment but the ABJ is a true newspaper committed to old fashioned journalism. It can be a scary industry but subscriptions keep rising every year due to the narrow focus on Austin business - which is always hot. Management seems to keep things fun and the high-profile nature of this business makes for an interesting environment. Time off is never a problem.

Cons

It's very fast paced and a small team. Too fast sometimes. Need to hire more people and expand more. Half the office uses Macs (good) but other half uses PCs (bad). Downtown location is nice but means we pay to park in a garage.

Advice to Senior Management

Raise salaries!

Pros

Exceptional product. A well branded, quality company.

Cons

A ton of long hours

Pros

It was a great place to start my career in sales. I would recommend it to anyone trying to break into the media industry. It is not a place long term

Cons

Sale manager wasnt cut out to be a sales manager. Publisher didnt lead the right way. didnt interact with entry level employess

Advice to Senior Management

take care of your employess they will stay

Pros

networking business to business contacts leads

Cons

new media internet integrated marketing

Advice to Senior Management

staying client focused

Pros

Great place to start a career with competitive salary and benefits, as well as a great place to grow your career.

Cons

It is a newspaper, you need to work 5 days a week, and holidays and time off are not as frequent as some other employers.

Advice to Senior Management

The managers at this location are actually great. No one is perfect, but they seem to treat their employees fair, and reward and recognize good work.

Pros

I worked for a smaller division of ACBJ (a trade magazine) so we had the feeling of working at a small company even though we operated in a larger one. Work-life balance was not necessary promoted, but most everyone left at 5pm.

Cons

No communication/movement between divisions. ACBJ is headquartered in Charlotte so NYC employees are really removed from the larger company. Specifically the magazine I worked for was not innovative and very far behind competitors. There was little effort put into competitive analysis, digital/new media or anything that could take the company to the next level.

Advice to Senior Management

See cons.

Pros

* Small and entrepreneurial culture focused on getting scoops and beating the daily.
* A team atmosphere.
* Great access to powerful and dynamic business people.

Cons

* The weekly model is dying -- consumers of news want it immediately. I feel like ACBJ is extremely slow in embracing the trends (online, blogs, Twitter, etc.).
* Two-day deadline-to-print gap leaves the paper vulnerable to getting scooped.

Advice to Senior Management

*Yes, your average reader is probably in their 50s, but in very short order their primary vehicle for getting news will be online. Have an aggressive plan to have the majority of ad revenue come from online ads and a majority of circ revenue from online within a year or two.
* With dailies cratering and ACBJ still making money, maybe it's time to take market share and cover local politics heavier to increase circulation.

Pros

ACBJ is an extremely family-friendly company, their benefits package is very good. Salary is comparable to daily newspaper competitors. They always, always have let me work my schedule around family issues when necessary.

Cons

Weak leadership at my particular paper. No career advancement opportunities. No career development.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the risk and hire some of the fabulous journalists running loose out there instead of always promoting from within.