Once again I find myself being shit on

My rant about work. It's finally here. Yes it's long.

Once a year the newspaper puts out a “progress” edition. It’s the advertising supplement I mentioned in the previous post.
What is it? It’s a story that is written about a business. It’s not news. It’s an ad. These stories wouldn’t make it into the regular paper.
The ad people have been selling these spots in the progress edition. A full page is $800. A special section which is a sixth of the page is $180.
Once the spot is sold, a sheet with the name of the company and a contact number.
Now it’s the editorial department’s problem. We have to set up the interviews, take the pictures and write the story.
Unlike a normal story, we have to send it back to the company to have the copy approved.
We make any changes that are wanted and let the purchaser of the ad pick the pictures they want.
Once everything is all done we put it into a folder and it heads up to the graphic designers for page layout.
They take the pictures and text and turn it into a presentable adtorial.
The nearly finished product goes back to the sales department for the thumbs up or down.
The really neat thing is this is above and beyond what we normally do. It takes time and effort.
Why do we do it? Because it makes the paper a lot of money. This year, it was a 28 page supplement. It works out to at least $25,000 of revenue.
The last two weeks were crazy. The newsroom was hectic. Everyone was stressed and we could all use a vacation.
The editorial staff wanted to go out for lunch at a restaurant and put it on the company’s tab. I’m guessing it’d run max $150. Six of us at $25 a piece.
I myself probably spent at least 20 hours in the last week working on the thing. I’d estimate a 60-hour work week.
I’m on salary so I’ll never see that money.
The lunch is a no go. Instead, we’ll ordering $20 worth of pizza and a couple two liters of pop.
Why does this really tick me off? The sales people, who sold the ad and approved the final draft, were given a commission.
It makes sense. A little extra money for incentive. They take home 20 per cent of the cost of the ad. That’s $160 for a full page.
What did I get for writing the copy for the full page? Nothing, not even a nice lunch.


It’s nice to walk along the street in front of the News-Optimist.
Parked outside is a 2003 Camry, a 1994 Sentra, a 2004 Escapade, a 1995 Ford Ranger, a 1989 Mercury Topaz and a two-year-old Subaru among others.
Which ones do you think are driven by the newsroom?

The company, Glacier Enterprises which is buying papers like mad, has a president’s club incentive for Saskatchewan.
Three individuals are rewarded for their hard work over the past year.
Two of those three awards go to the top sales people in the province and the rest of the staff is left with one award. Nominations are being collected.
The sales people don’t need more prizes. They already get commission. They’re rewarding the guy who already makes the most money.
Why not give some incentive to people that aren’t already given cash rewards for working hard?

The hours. I have to complain about the hours. The sales people get to work at 8 a.m. they are already working when I stroll in around 9:30 or 10.
They take their lunch at 12. They leave the office at 5. I get lunch whenever I have a free moment. I go home when the job is done and I cover the evening games when necessary.
I work the weekends when something is going on. They have two full days off.

Our general manager used to be the sales manager, so she is biased towards the sales department.
She sees the news copy as space filler in between the ads. She could care less what goes on the front page as long as her co-op ad is in the top right hand corner.
She even compared our paper to the regional. Saying more people in the Battlefords believe the regional is the actual newspaper.
What is the regional? It’s the free newspaper full of ads and flyers. It contains no actual news. The text is all government press releases and other crap we don’t run in the real paper.

I know. There are a lot of jobs I could do if I was just into a 9-5 job that paid.
I like my job. I wouldn’t mind having the revenue distributed a little more evenly.
Go communism!