Cox Newspapers Reviews

Pros

Good benefits, not much overtime

Cons

No chance for advancement, cliques were not only allowed but enabled.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow some personality within this business...HR needs to be consistent with everyone and stop encouraging cliques and employee bullying.

Pros

A good company with great history

Cons

Senior management more of clock punchers than leaders

Advice to Senior Management

Please stop and think before making decision that affects your employees’ life

Pros

The benefits was more than satisfactory. The ability to make good money was there and I took advantage of this.

Cons

Communications between management and employees is seriously lacking. Also there was too many products to sell and clients became annoyed by this.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. They are the face of the paper and when management makes bad decisions it reflects on the employees, not the managers.

Pros

Benefits are great, company is good about training and support for employees. Generally kind management, at least at this location. However, see below...

Cons

It's a horrible time to be in the newspaper business, and Cox knows it. Cox is selling (or trying to sell) several newspapers, and the flagship paper in Atlanta is losing money fast. So there's not much hiring going on, and some fear that management will resort to layoffs (there have already been some voluntary buyouts). And even if you get hired at a Cox paper, you might get sold to someone else who could clean house to increase profitability.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let all your good people leave.

Pros

Cox cares about its employees to the last man. In a time when newspapers are laying off people like a dog shakes water off its fur, Cox has been extremely generous in its severance packages and in its forewarning of layoffs. Salaries are generally competitive, the benefits are on par, and the work environment (generally speaking--the AJC can be a nightmare and is the exception to this rule) is extremely enjoyable.

Cons

The newspaper industry is a dinosaur. If you take a job with a newspaper today, it had better be because you have a love for them. Job security is scarce.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep fighting the good fight, and keep treating employees as family.

Pros

Flexible schedules, no micromanaging, freedom

Cons

No rewards, little feedback and lack of consistency with offering performance raises.

Advice to Senior Management

Give feedback, reward your employees, promote their strengths, encourage growth and advancement, tell people when you are going to be out of the office.

Pros

The company offers an individual a tremendous opportunity to contribute to the success and future of the division by proposing and instituting innovative concepts especially at this juncture of the industry. If you are a reliable self starter and demonstrate initiative the company will allow you to thrive if you are determined and tenacious.

Cons

Because of its fiscal conservative nature, the company is slow to implement. Although this is changing because of the industry climate and self-survival, historically there are has been a tendency for new ideas and innovative concepts to come from the top down and not inversely. This has resulted in consequences of missed opportunities and bad timing. Most new ideas that do not originate from top management must be validated by outside consultants.

Advice to Senior Management

Institute a feedback system to harness the intellectual abilities of employees for new ideas and innovative concepts, set-up incentives for excellent work, innovation and results, closer communications between employees and senior management, promote fellowship within and between departments, streamline the approval and project management process to accelerate implementations.

Pros

Lots of opportunities with the internet and technology areas. It is a dying industry attempting to play in the internet community.

Cons

It is a dinosaur industry with matching management. Inbred leadership lack a lot of knowledge or strategic competence to implement new direction. They are short on innovation, execution, strategic leadership and vision. They miss opportunities hourly therefore anything new is a threat and they move very slow with outsiders. It is like teaching an elephant to dance.

Advice to Senior Management

It is essential that you put strategic leadership in place. Innovative thinking and competency should trump longevity and loyalty. You need a human capital strategist in place not a high level personnel director. Silo management is a limitation but silo thinking is a strategy blocker.