Seattle Times Reviews

Pros

The people that work at the times are very passionate about serving the public and bringing issues to light that the public should be aware of.

Cons

They don't promote information/education sharing among co-workers to grow the teams collective knowledge base. It is also difficult for new people to become part of the work community since most people have worked here for many years.

Advice to Senior Management

It is time to embrace new ideas and merge them with the traditional approach you've taken. If we don't change we will become extinct.

Pros

Important community resource-4th estate
award winning newsroom
three weeks vacation after two years employment
convenient location
non public company-should yield benefits of not managing for short term results
401k match coming back
domestic partner benefits

Cons

non public company-so financials, long term (more than 1 year) strategy have been pretty opaque
morale is (still) not great-save your own skin first
management could recognize and thank people more often-it doesn't always mean spending money to do so
benefits erosion continues
lots of silos prevent sharing of information to groups and departments
some astonishing behaviors are tolerated from long time employees

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to internal people with good ideas about the future of journalism, not just a specific platform
Support sales force-it is a tough environment for advertising during the recession, set goals with an eye towards external market conditions

Pros

* Work for the opinion leader in the Seattle area
* Feel pride in your work
* Forge a solid live/work balance

Cons

* Very slow to make changes
* Top-heavy management
* Under pressure from the downturn in newspapers across the country

Advice to Senior Management

* Reduce administrative/management overhead by half
* Build an ambitious new building at the corner of Denny and Fairview, financed by selling all other real estate properties.
* Forge an extensive sales partnership with KING 5.

Pros

-Great Benefits (health, vacation, etc)
-Great Company History: Long standing locally owned company
-Very good training throughout career
-Career advancement available for the best employees

Cons

-Very low morale at company
-Employees have little trust in the judgment of upper management
-Sales is not compensated at the industry standard
-Some unionized staff are not pulling their weight in the company
-Feels like a sinking ship

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees need to be energized and rewarded. Remove the dead weight (staff that are not productive) and reward successful sales people like your life depends on it (because it does!).
This is a great company with a hard road ahead. You shouldn't have separate print/online teams: just hire sales people that can sell both and compensate them for both!

Pros

You truly do help keep that 4th branch of government running. The worker bees really love each other and want to do a good job.

Cons

It's a rough time to work in print. Many of the great benefits that have drawn solid talent to the company have dwindled away.

Advice to Senior Management

There is a ridiculous amount of management compared to non-management at The Times. Redundant managers while good lower level people that do the grunt work get fired. The system has become excessively report and meeting heavy, probably because people want to know where the money is going. Also, the prices of advertising are going up as demand goes down. This is a failing economic model.

Pros

Great flexibility and good commissions.

Cons

You have to be a self-starter. Training is ok, but you really need to do it all yourself.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay sales rep a base salary so they don't have to write bad orders in order to make a decent living.

Pros

conveniently located, dedicated to quality journalism.

Cons

The executive team is out of touch with current marketplace with regards to sales. They rested on circulation and national advertisers for so long that when the advertising well dried up to other, more proven advertising options...they chose not to react and instead stayed the course on the sinking ship.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire someone that actually has successfully led a sales force...(outside of print)

Pros

Culture of respect for employees; good daycare and decent benefits (although that might have changed now). Culture of responsibility and pride in the product. Management is usually good about evaluating priorities and ROI. Lots of people have been there for a long time.

Cons

Lots of RIFs lately and uncertainty about where the industry is headed. Some departments are more secure and professional than others.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer job-shadowing or connect a new employee with a more senior employee in a similar position for support. There is a culture of longevity which is difficult for new-hires to crack.

Pros

Economic and industry conditions forced me out, otherwise I'd have stayed for life. The Times' pay and benefit package were far more generous than other companies I've worked for, including so-called "best companies." Great health and dental; four weeks' vacation after five years; etc. Senior and mid-level managers in the newsroom are smart, talented and great to work with. And I don't care what anybody says, Frank Blethen is a good guy who made some unfortunate mistakes. But it's unfair to blame the company's woes on his management without acknowledging the state of the industry. I hope he and his family can make it through this trough.

Cons

By the time I left the workload had become pretty intense -- resources shrunk, but not expectations. Don't know if that's changed.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't give up. Seattle needs you.

Pros

If you like working for a place that you feel you can make a difference in your community, the The Seattle Times Company is a good place to start.

Cons

Little to no progression up the ranks into management. Many of the mid-level managers have been there for 25 years+ and are going nowhere unless they take early retirement. Tough to move up into any positions unless your willing to wait 30 or 40 years.

Very "Status Quo" type place to work. E.g. they don't listen to younger/newer employees (less than 2 years experience) ideas for ways to improve.

Basic "old school" type work environment. Very bureaucratic, "top down" management structure.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize that by "serving the community" doesn't mean you must have a hard copy newspaper printed. Many online competitors are innovating faster/farther/better than you in the marketplace. Fundamentally, your business structure is top heavy and unwieldy, leading to managers to try and "silo" their department's knowledge bases to maintain their jobs, instead of helping the company get better/get well.

Also, many mid-level managers are afraid of disagreeing with the top-level managers even when the top-level managers are obviously missing bigger opportunities by trying to reorg a broken business model such as the paper's. This leads to managers being more "yes men/women" than actual thought leaders.