Bay Area News Group Reviews

Pros

I worked with a wonderful group of people who were committed to making the newspapers great. In spite of tough economic times, people believed in the product.

Cons

The general morale of the employees was low due to buyouts, layoffs, furloughs and salary reductions. Too many leadership changes in certain groups.

Advice to Senior Management

Cost saving is important but so are your customers and your employees. Focus on a strategy the will sustain your long-term success and stop throwing stuff to see what sticks.

Pros

Good people to work with

Cons

Newspapers are struggling right now

Pros

Some supervisors are good, hours are reasonable, there are some smart, hardworking people, most people have at least one weekend day off

Cons

Furloughs, freeze on vacation accrual -- it's not a company with a lot of resources or ways to reward employees. Computer systems are horrible. Upper management provides no direction or recognition.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate with employees what's happening and how you're working to improve our position -- then actually do it. Find a way to reward your best employees.

Pros

It was a great job for a long time. I was busy everyday and learned a lot about the business. I felt a great sense of accomplishment.

Cons

Morale is often low due to continuous staff cuts.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop cutting the staff. Build the newspaper up instead of tearing it down.

Pros

They are attempting to catch up with media technology using third party vendors.

Cons

Managers now are utilizing intimidation on employees including screaming at them in the office floor in front of other employees. It is also not unusual to hear a yelling match between managers. It is management by desperation. The thought here is to scare the workers into not questioning management for fear of being the one embarrassed by the manager’s public lambasting. Management feels the bad economy has given them the opportunity to use this abusive style because the employees have nowhere else to go. There are very few content employees here. Everybody is looking for a way out.

Advice to Senior Management

Good luck!

Pros

Used to be great when it was Knight Ridder and up to the point we were bought by Singleton. The employees there are some of the best people I've ever worked with! Really good training program and they offer lots of classes! They are really trying to diversify into other products, so there is a lot to offer the customer. Really good team atmosphere and the Managers are definitely hands-on.

Cons

Upper management has chosen to have an adversarial relationship with the people below them, and the tone they set is negative and arrogant and is evident in every communication they have with us. A lot of pay cuts and job reduction where a lot of the staff is doing the job of what used to be 3 people. A lot of meaningless reporting and management seems to think when our revenue is low the best way to sell more ads is for us to do more reports. In most outside sales jobs management really pushes to get the reps out into the field to sell, but not here. I've never had so much reporting and paperwork that there are some days I literally can't get out into the field because I have to sit in front of my computer doing reports. Pay used to be good, but now you have to hit 95% or more of your quota or you don't make ANY commission. When you do hit your quota, the commission is still the lowest I've ever encountered. Management expects very long hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Upper management and some of the admin support positions should treat the reps as partners and not as lowly subordinates who they can talk down to. Re-evaluate some of the processes. Don't let the departments that support the booking and creation of the ads inhibit the ads actually getting done. Definitely pare down the required reports. Change the pay structure or you're going to lose all your good reps. The economy may be bad but there's always positions out there for the good sales reps.

Pros

Union Protection.
9:00-5:00 shop
Name recognition.

Cons

Newspaper industry is ravaged. Senior Management is circa 1985 . Constant internal strife.

Advice to Senior Management

They need to hire young bright people in senior management who can bring fresh perspective.

Pros

Easy career oportunities in the chain allow for much lateral and upward movement

Cons

A little female bias in hiring. Only 2 men out of 17 reps. Need to balance this out.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more seasoned (read mature) reps for your dailies.

Pros

The people that work here are friendly and fun! I really enjoy the people I work with and also the ones I work for.

Cons

Newspapers are a tough business right now because of the economy.

Advice to Senior Management

Every once in a while, give us some good news. Don't dwell on the negative.