MediaNews Reviews

Pros

Great colleagues, and a place where a good degree of autonomy existed in which to do one's job, as long as guidelines and deadlines were met with regularity.

Cons

Underpaid profession. Print journalism is not the place to get rich, or even live comfortably.

Advice to Senior Management

Management in a difficult position since sale of company to new overlords. New operational policies made it hard to continue to turn out a product in which one could be proud. Advise to management would have been to give greater weight to employees' opinions; they truly cared about their work, but the working culture sometimes created the impression that voicing opinions was an exercise in futility.

Pros

The only pro is you don't have to be that good to keep your job. You basically have to use a really bad word publicly to even get a notice.

Cons

Lack of leadership. Lack of opportunities. Managment doesn't care and it shows. People who try to do a good job are just put aside so not as to threaten anybody above them. Serious lack of leadership, wimpy in fact. There are maybe two people in charge who can make a decision to save their lives.
When mistakes are made, so are excuses depending on who made the mistake. It's always "OK' or 'fine."

Advice to Senior Management

It really seems like they don't care.

Pros

I have to say there is not reason. This is an unfair employer and a Director who cares very little for the employees.

Cons

Not one person at MediaNews has been given a raise, in three years. I think that says it all.

Advice to Senior Management

To be fair. Explain to the team why they are not recieving raises but upper mgmt is recieving bonuses.

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

There are some creative things going on at lower levels in the company. Some teams and managers are exciting and interesting to work with and for. Some managers are excellent at giving recognition and encouraging development and follow-up on good ideas. They don't begrudge time off or vacation taken but some managers will make you feel guilty for taking your earned vacation or a holiday off. Most of the time, within the microcosm of an individual group and at individual property, you get a sense of doing something worthwhile. But it is often stifled or ignored at a higher level.

Cons

Good ideas that might actually help the group survive or blossom in the downturn of the newspaper industry are ignored our outright shot down. Beyond a very small group level, recognition and feedback are either non existent or outright hostile. Benefits and pay are a joke. They want to hire the cheapest people they can get, but then can't understand why the projects they want done are beyond their scope. They wonder why the business model is dying but ignore or quash ideas from their own employees with experience in the technology and directly with audiences they want to foster and grow.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employees you have who know what they are talking about. Rather than hiring so-called experts, talk to your own people who have been dealing with new technologies and directly with audiences for years.

Pros

It's a good place to get your foot in the door. But don't stay too long. Set a time limit for how long you'll be there. Build up your resume and look for the next step to advance your career. There are other opportunities out there. You just have to look and be open to jobs outside the newspaper industry.

Cons

Once you're in, there's no chance of moving up at the paper. Hours are long and the demands are high. Employee morale is low.

Advice to Senior Management

They should do more to protect employees.

Pros

Speaking from a sales point of view, the newspaper in San Jose is a great company to work for if you can handle the heat. Tip: To survive and be financially prosperous there you have to be a go getter, fearless, charismatic, friendly and persistent. If you have a positive sales mentality already where a client may say "no" to you, but you hear "yes I'm interested, but tell me more", then you're already ahead of the game.

Politics aside, I have to give the company kudos for providing the best training program for sales reps to learn and grow from in the Silicon Valley. Every rep has had the pleasure of being trained, at one point, by the Training Director, once a college teacher, on "Consultative Selling" and it blows away any other program that I've personally experienced out of the water! I wish every MediaNews paper had the training that is provided in San Jose. The training department. is #1! Here's what makes it great. The training for all sales reps is...ongoing! Yes, ongoing! It never stops! Why am I yelling? LOL
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Training: Every week you can learn something new, every other week there are group training sessions and every month there are department training seminars to train you in every technique you could possibly imagine. At times, the training department will even make it fun where sales reps get to compete with each other like on a game show i.e. Jeapordy.

Although there are numerous classes and labs offered, much like being in school, you are not required to attend all of them. They are there for you when you need them as long as you are able to fit them into your work schedule while maintaining your desk and more importantly achieving your revenue goals. If you're a young sales rep with a few years of sales under your belt to a seasoned professional, it doesn't matter. The training provided caters to all levels.

I was an employee there for a number of years and I left with a plethora of sales skills worth gold and endless sales knowledge. Also, the pay is very competitive. Without saying how many years I've worked there or the kind of experience I have the average base salary is $50,000 + commission + sales spiffs. There's always room to negotiate. That's all I'll say about that.

And lastly, the people who work there make it worthwhile. They truly hire only the best sales reps with unique and open-minded personalities. If you're a social butterfly, have the gift of gap, have a sense of humor and respectful to all, you'll fit right in. Not a day went by where I didn't crack a joke or hear one down the hall. Q: "What does a duck like to eat with soup?" A: "Quackers!" Ok, lame attempt I know, but you'd be surprised at how many laughs I get with that one. hehe. Yes, a good handful of the reps are funny which also adds to the workplace environment. I believe humor is a key quality to have.

From working on a team to karaoke in the cafe, to fighting for that sale to being out in the field or competing in a fun sales game with your rival teammates, everybody just naturally gets along with each other . It’s great.

Cons

Well, it goes without saying that nobody ever likes the politics or what happens behind closed doors of upper management, right? I have to admit that it's because of the management that I decided to leave. But putting my personal case aside I will say this. A majority of the managers and upper management are very experienced, support their reps and believe in helping you achieve personal success. I can only speak on the advertising side of things. Editorial might be a different story.

This is partially negative. I had the pleasure of working for some very great managers at one point. I am forever thankful to them as I wouldn't be the successful rep I am today without their support, trust, vision and guidance. They never stopped believing in me and they forced me to never stop believing in myself. And I haven’t. "Just jump, and the net will appear."

So yes, there are a handful of managers of high caliber there if you’re lucky to get on the right team. The company was just no longer a good fit for me nor could a follow along with all of their methodologies. You just have to follow your heart. Overall, I'd rate management as being spectacular.

Another downside to working at the San Jose paper was constantly living in fear of losing your job. Let me explain. The paper in San Jose is a well respected company to work for, however, over the past couple of years it has been struggling to keep up with competitive powerhouses such as Google, Yahoo, Craigslist and the SF Chronicle.

During the past few years there have been several layoffs and certain departments have had to either be relocated to other cities or moved overseas to save costs. There have already been two layoffs in 2008. This isn't confidential information. It's public. It's been in the paper. I once had cream of the crop benefits up until 2007 when our benefits were drastically cut. And employees who had accrued 5 weeks of vacation from the prior year went to zero on Jan 1st of 2008 so I heard. Before employees could take that time off anytime they needed to during a given year because they earned it the year before. So they didn't lose 5wks, but to explain it a little further it goes back to zero every January 1st and then you earn it back gradually throughout the year.

It's sad to see not just the Mercury News, but all MediaNews newspapers struggle in this digital age. Regardless of what's happening in the print industry now and despite their continued efforts to compete online, I'm glad to see the company not giving up or stop believing that they can still remain successful in such a competitive media market. I just wish it wasn't at the cost of losing valuable employees. Regardless, I am grateful to have worked at the San Jose Mercury News. I left on good terms and gained a tremendous amount of sales knowledge.

Advice to Senior Management

Professionally speaking, I'd like senior management be more careful with who they decide to hire or place in a managerial position and not pass out promotions to upper management like candy on Halloween. If the candidate does not grasp onto the training or lacks the appropriate sales experience/background for the position, don't hire/promote them! I would have stayed if it wasn't for that.

I believe there are many great people out there with the right experience who would be more than happy to take on the role of being a sales manager at the Mercury News. So as one manager once told me, I say to you senior management, "don't stop believin" Qualified managers are out there. Please don't be hasty in hiring someone because time is running out or for the sake of filling a body.

Just as sales reps are reviewed each year, so should managers. Repercussions should be set for them. And if they do not live up to your expectations to help grow the business with forward innovative thinking, then let them go!! Your future sales teams will appreciate it.

Pros

It's preferable to unemployment and might be a good place to start a newspaper career.

Cons

Owner purchases properties and puts them on life support. Products never get better, they are simply kept alive.

Advice to Senior Management

Find ways to grow the audience and pay higher attention to quality.

Pros

name recognition and good office location for Denver professionals

Cons

spotty technical execution of online ad serving customer service, overworked staff

Advice to Senior Management

hire more qualified people and more resources to get the job done well, provide more opportunities for career growth

Pros

MediaNews Group is a newspaper company, however there is also an Interactive division. Unlike other newspaper companies, Dean Singleton and management are dedicated to keeping up with the times to invest in online news too. We are also privately owned by Dean, so our decisions don't come from shareholders. Instead, Dean makes all decisions. Leaves room for flexibility!

Cons

The newspaper industry is obviously declining, but with our Interactive division, we're working towards online-where most of us check our news now-a-days.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep in touch with employees closer.