Pros

Some creative freedom
Casual workplace
Working with friends
Access to industry insiders
Unlimited potential

Cons

Beyond poor inter-company communication
No professional development
No management training
Questionable promotions
Below average salaries

Advice to Senior Management

Give your people room to grow the ideas and strategy.
Provide more professional development so employees have more to contribute.
Stop insisting on higher revenue at the same time as you slash the work force and eliminate resources.

Pros

Home office/ little travel, Nice people-but not very professional

Cons

Pention is very poorly managed and has no viable market strategy to survive the demise of print. Management is non-existent and makes snap-shoot from the hip decisions. No long term strategy-no growth startegy. Terrible benefits-sub marginal pay rates.They are not even treading water and will likley go bankrupt. Their sales model is non existent-need a strong sales VP to guide them out of this death spiral

Advice to Senior Management

Accept the challenge of oinvesting in your company while the economy is down and you might survive. But it is not a good bet. Probably best to polish your resume and find another positon before it is too late.

Pros

Some of the magazine properties are exciting and have a long history, with strong archive content. In addition, many of the magazines have high-profile contributors.

Cons

In order to cut costs, many common services (editorial, art, etc) are being centralized. However, upper management is rarely doing the research needed to see if centralization will harm the print property in question. In my experience, the right decision was rarely made.

In addition, lay offs of talented people continues. Rather than let younger, less experience staff go, they let go the people with years of experience and knowledge, often those who could help the properties transition well to the Web. Unfortunately, the companies promise to be Web first is only rhetoric:

Advice to Senior Management

Look at long-term employees as assets, not as overpaid liabilities.

Pros

Still have good print properties

Cons

Highly leveraged media company that is still trying to figure out the formula for transition to the Internet and survive under an enourmous debt load.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to a few of the long term, loyal employees who have watched the company go through a myriad of changes only to now be structured almost identically to the structure of both Penton and Intertec in the 1990's.

Pros

Established company. Security. I have a lot of freedom to do my job and is given much respect for it. Management is very understanding when it comes to personal issues and works with you to make sure you are happy. Easy to pace myself in my current position. People are really friendly and easy to work with. Any over worked week is easily compensated by time off to make up for it. Great vacation system. Benefit Program is very thorough. 401K is done properly. Monthly deadlines keep you focused and on point. Work is challenging and keep you up on your skills.

Cons

Advancement in my field is not much. The only position higher than mine isn't in another state and there is a very slim chance that it can be taken advantage of. Pay raises are very slow and low. Yearly evaluation is not done properly and seems as though the pay raises are predetermined and not based on your performance. Monthly deadlines may cause you to have to work five days plus a full weekend because others may have not managed their time properly...their work effects you. Not many company activities to take advantage of. Leadership is sometimes distant on important issues.

Advice to Senior Management

Better communication would help tremendously.

Pros

Co-workers are great to work with, intelligent and nice

Cons

Incompetent management, no communication, lack of respect for employees

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate often and without baloney. Let employees know the truth of what's going on without sugar-coating it - they aren't stupid. Find ways to increase morale that don't cost much, but don't emphasize that there's not much money available. Truly value all the employees - not just the salespeople.