Village Voice Reviews

Pros

Laid back work environment
Friendly co-workers
Fun work

Cons

Lots of pressure to make sales
Incompetent managers
Low pay
Low balance between work and personal life. You're literally at the office 60 hours or more a week
The company has no fear of laying people off when they're not making money

Advice to Senior Management

Do some of your own dirty work, and stop putting it all on the employees who get paid significantly less than you. Help people reach their goals, instead of ultimately losing the company money.

Pros

Very well known company. Promotes from within. Good and solid working environment. Lots of potential for advancement. Strong team ethics.

Cons

No real disadvantages. Need to update the office a bit. Team morale can be low or non existent at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Very well known company. Promotes from within. Good and solid working environment. Lots of potential for advancement. Strong team ethics.

Pros

This is a good place to start if you have NO experience, they'll teach you the ropes. Casual and open atmosphere between sales reps. There can be some fun events and every once in a while it's a cool product.

Cons

Number one, print media is dying and so are their sales. A lot of people do not like the brand and what the writers at this paper write about, always trying to get a rise out of people. There is a real disconnect between departments, to the point where there are "click" groups separating sales from editorial from art departments. Plus, there is absolutely no communication between papers around the country so who the heck knows what is going on and if there are best practices to share. Management constantly attacks the sales reps to sell more, more, more or look to be thrown out the door, door, door! Only 1 or 2 of their 10-20 sales reps actually make any real money, yet they sell you on the idea that everyone will make good money. If you have no outside sales experience, start here for a trial by fire, and then get the heck out as most other sales jobs will pay much better.

Advice to Senior Management

There should be more emphasis on relationship building with clients so that you have long-term advertising campaigns instead of the "turn and burn" approach you normally take to bring up ad count. Management should provide leadership and have a clear plan to actually manage where the sales team is heading during this tough economic time, instead of aggressively coming down on staff to sell or else. Be realistic on how much the majority of sales reps make there instead of just selling the potential amount that only the top 5% makes. Lastly, break down those barriers between all the departments with not just parties where everyone goes back into their clicks but with some sort of company event that has activities to help staff to get to know each across departments or at least a monthly meeting that tells everyone what each department's plans are and recognitions; build a team.

Pros

Fun, young, casual, and laid back environment. Recognition of name. Networks over the country.

Cons

PAY. Opportunity for advancement. Poor work/life balance. Unprofessional work environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership is actually quite good.

Pros

The product and assocated events.

Cons

Expensive benefits, no sense of security, stressful

Advice to Senior Management

Managemen positions are turned over too quickly

Pros

Name recognition, chance to delve deeply into stories (no pressure to write a daily or weekly story - the budget was there to thoroughly research and cover a topic), liberal, no subject off limits

Cons

mentally unbalanced management team, backstabbing, stressful environment, employees in tears on a regular basis, management that doesn't tell the truth (if you go on a vacation, don't be surprised if there is someone there to fill your shoes when you return, for example).

Advice to Senior Management

Get help and find another profession. Otherwise, leave your egos at home and treat your employees with the same respect you would expect.

Pros

Great newspaper (but in a declining market), quality staff. Occasional perks.

Cons

Top management is very arrogant and at times has anger management issues. Company appears to be in a steep revenue decline that will limit future opportunities for employees. Was a very good place to work prior to the New Times merger.

Advice to Senior Management

Adopt real people oriented values and a mission for the company that extends beyond benefitting Larkin, Lacey, Tobias. Top management intentionally intimidating, overbearing approach restricts the advancement of the organization and centralizes creativity in a most dangerous fashion. Management needs to open their eyes to each market place and the unique opportunities and charachteristics of each. There are opportunities being missed -- just requires some trust from top management that seems unlikely to happen. Learn to compete without alienating the rest of the world. Stop burning bridges - not many outside of VVM at this point is rooting for Village Voice Media to succeed - too many people feel screwed or have felt abused by top management.

Pros

Get to know San Francisco culture very well. It is beat the street sales. If you can sell this paper you can sell anything.

Cons

The level of respect towards employees is poor. It is a revolving door; hiring and firing left and right. The pay is way too low for the roster of responsibilities. Training almost not existing.

Advice to Senior Management

It is a sales job. Allow employees to work from home if they hit their numbers. They should not have to check in physically with the office at the end of the day. They certainly should not have to collect payment for advertising.