[The Sky takes passengers on Bahamas and Florida cruises]
A reader tells me this year's trip for select Phoenix employees leaves April 15 from Miami, and is aboard Norwegian Cruise Line. This is an annual event for Arizona Republic advertising staff, plus significant others, in what my reader says is called the President's Club.
Earlier: Union for WKYC employees describes trip to Tahiti.
What do you know? Please post your replies below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
The Presidents Club is what you get when I lose 2 weeks of pay to give corporate bigwigs cash for their cruises.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Medvedev will relay this information to the Somali pirates, LOL!
ReplyDeleteThere are similar programs at properties across the company. Advertisers agree to spend a certain amount of money and if the reps sell enough of the packages, various people get to go on a trip. Usually, it's the advertiser, rep, Ad VP, publisher, etc.
ReplyDeleteOh my . . . will the folks in Phoenix taking the buyout get to go? I think that would be a lovely retirement gift.
ReplyDeleteAround my neck of the woods its known as an Advertiser Trip Incentive. Bahamas anyone?
ReplyDeleteActually, the President's Club trip has nothing to do with specific advertisers. It is a reward trip for the top 10 reps in the company for excellence over an entire year. Generally all 10 of the reps have far exceeded their revenue goals for all 12 periods of the year in both print and digital products. Many, if not most, companies which employ sales reps have similiar programs. Also, generally executives do not go on the trip (except for a couple of managers who qualify based upon annual performance).
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what the Tahiti trip was about. NBC station GMs, Sales Manager and top Account Exec. Travel with significant other along with clients who spend a certain amount. As I said in an earlier post and was shot down, this east coast station sent the three employees plus seven other parties on a luxury Tahitian cruise. The air fare alone for the three station employees cost more than most people at the station make in a year.
ReplyDeleteWorks for me! It would give me an incentive to succeed amist all this horror! We used to have a similar program, but under our current leadership, things change midstream to benefit the ad director
ReplyDeleteI know being in sales is a rough job. But one wonders how much more incentive is needed to do your job, when you're already given salary, monthly commissions, and bonuses.
ReplyDeleteAdd now an all expense paid trip with a significant other to the list?
It's also rumored the President Club crowd are also given a cash bonus.
If I understand what is being said, this is not an incentive program to customers, this is a straight up "top 10 salespeople" reward.
Where are the other "top 10 employees" awards? Top pressman, top reporters, top finance people, top whatever job... are we all paying with our furloughs, cut-rate benefits, layoffs etc for these "top 10 salespeople" to go on a cruise?
If this company has to furlough employees quarter after quarter, keep all employees under the dark cloud of "reductions in force", buyouts, and refuse to give raises for 3 years running, how can they continue to justify rewards like this?
I'm not jealous, I'm disgusted.
Amen 1:33-very hard to get up and go to work for these folks today-I have never been so pissed off in my life. At least it gives me an unemployment check and a week off to look for a job at a company that values its employees.
ReplyDeletekeep in mind, too that sales reps don't get furloughed either. At least they didn't at my TV station.
ReplyDeleteAgreed 1:33
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see such an incentive program for other parts of the company. Win a Pulitzer, win a trip. Bring about $1 million in savings (not through job losses, furloughs, etc.), win a trip.
But since the only reason any of us have jobs here is to bring more money to the financers, the only ones who get rewarded are those directly responsible for immediate increases in cash flow. Absolutely nothing else matters, period!
You don't agree corporate people? Then lets see you spin the message YOUR way.
I agree with 1:33 and 3:02. Do readers buy the newspaper or look at us online for the ads, beyond the Sunday food ads and coupons? I believe they read us for the news, and not the ads. And the most complaints I hear about our slow-ass sites are due to the annoying popups and plethora of ads.
ReplyDeleteI want a reward for producing something the readers actually want.
3:11 pm - And something the advertisers want as well.
ReplyDeleteMost advertisers know that content sells. That is why so many advertisers want on page 3A or ALWAYS to have content "touch their ads." Why? Because content - the news the newsroom produces - is like gold to them.
That is the "dirty little secret." These top ad reps could never go on any trip if it were not for what the newsroom produces, and gets little or no credit for, day in and day out.
Sadly, with cutbacks and furloughs, they are producing less of it. Tighter papers, lower circulation.
it is a self-defeating spiral.
Hello people..get used to being treated like a #..
ReplyDeletethats all you are..
they need to come up with money to pay the big salary's.
Ceo pay...and so on...
Let's all do a work slow down..
Qaulity slide..
Call in sick at the worst possible moments....
you like the rest of us,,have poor pay, poor Health benefits..
any little perk is gone..
WAKE up..Power in numbers...
that's the only way to shake up management...
Most internal studies show that readers read our newspapers for advertising content as much as editorial content, and sometimes more in favor of ads, depending on the demo and day of week. As someone with over 20 years of journalism, I will say this: with the Internet now as our major news sources, at least ad content isn't 8-12 hours old by the time the paper hits the driveway...
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be some confusion between this and the trip for advertisers spending a certain amount of $$$.
ReplyDeleteThe President's Club is a yearly contest where the top sales people are basically given a company paid vacation. Although it seems like the same 10 salespeople win every year.
The other trip that is being described in this discussion, where advertisers who spent a certain amount of money is a different trip altogether. That is a trip incentive contest and the destination is usually Hawaii.
Phoenix does both of these programs. Have no idea if we actually make any money on the trip incentive, but they've been doing this the last few years.
I thought that they were a good news and will order again.
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Have a lovely day!
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