Recession?? Real or imagined?

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Permalink Reply by Sean on June 16, 2008 at 11:43am

Not sure what to call it...A recession? Downturn? Whatever it is, something has happened in Northeast Florida, especially in terms of revenue generated from real estate advertising. To counter this, we've been aggressive in tightening up our distribution and printing costs to maintain our margins. As well, we've created a couple of auxillary products targeted toward other market segments to offset the loss from real estate. Not only are we holding our own, we're becoming a leaner and more efficient machine that will be poised for serious growth when the economy improves.

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Permalink Reply by Chris McMillen on June 18, 2008 at 12:11pm

I believe that this is the way its going to be for a very long time, this is our economy and our world. With that said I tell my salespeople that the only thing we can control is market share and activity. It is going to require a higher level of activity to maintain what we have. Once everyone believes and accepts that this is the way it is, there will be an increase in activity by our customers. The organizations that maintain a high level of activity with customers now will reap the rewards when customer activity increases.

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Permalink Reply by Eddie Lee Rider, Jr. on July 23, 2008 at 11:40am

Yeah, when you have some mom-and-pop advertisers that have traditionally had some real name recognition and presumed staying power in your category tell you they are dipping into their retirement funds....

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Permalink Reply by Kerry Smith on August 21, 2008 at 8:18am

We're focusing on serving our top customers. We've had every sales rep submit their top 10 customers and we're meeting in small groups to strategize what we can put together from a packaging standpoint to ensure they get the results they're looking for. Whether it's leads, stature, internal sales force training, etc. Going into Q4 we're asking everyone "what do you need to make happen in the next 6 months" and then building integrated programs designed to accomplish their objectives. We're hoping this proactive approach will not only deliver better results, but also ensure that our sales people are engaging their customers in meaningful dialog around building business, rather than just selling stuff. Internally, we're holding some of our open positions open and we're keeping a very close eye on expenses to brace ourselves for an extended malaise.

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