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The Seattle Times

Is this your company?

DO NOT WORK HERE- Advertising Sales - Advertising Account Executive The Seattle Times Employee Review

1.0
Aug 20, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people are cool and benefits are decent. You can work from home if you’re in sales.

Cons

Where to begin? They don’t pay a liveable wage. Currently they are in bargaining with the Guild to get their employees more money but the paper is broke and the Times isn’t budging. They charge you 150/month to park your car there and if you’re in sales it’s a necessity. They have zero training, they call themselves a 122 year old start up and man is it. They don’t have anything together, you get zero support from upper management. Don’t get sick within the first 3 months or you won’t get paid, and vacation time?! You can’t take one for the first 6 months and THEN you only have 5 days. Mandatory trainings for Advertising Staff every Friday and if you question them then they send a note to your manager. If you don’t make quota because it’s a rat race to get monthly recurring revenue (and if you’re like me you get stuck with an 85% transactional only desk) good luck in ever making commission- and then you’re lucky if you make ends meet. When you don’t hit your goals consistently they write you up regardless if you’ve done every thing they’ve asked for and asked for help, whatever they don’t care. You’re disposable as an employee and unless you’ve been there for 10 years or longer you’re never going to make it. Their turnover rate is horrible, and while they are an in house agency- they still don’t know what they are doing. They have impossible standards and then you’ll get emails of them guilt tripping you to donate to the United Way (sometimes multiple emails a day) when people in their department have to utilize their services in order to make ends meet because again- THEY DONT PAY A LIVABLE WAGE. You can literally walk out of the Times and DOUBLE your salary. DO NOT WORK FOR THEM. The newspaper is dying and the company is broke. They will sell you a pipe dream and you’ll go broke working for them. It’s not worth it.

Explore other reviews about The Seattle Times

5.0
Apr 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Really good company full of people who care. This is a place where people celebrate decades of work -- largely, I suspect, because of how kind and helpful everyone is. Honestly, there are more than a handful of people who I know have been here for over 30 years. There's a reason people stay and it's obvious.

Cons

Antiquated decision making, slow to change, and not always very considerate of new ideas. Leaders can sometimes take awhile to come around, and the technology here is so bad. Our hybrid meetings are a joke - the helpdesk team doesn't care about their work and our work computers are absolutely terrible.

2.0
Dec 4, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There is a lot you can learn working for a newspaper / news website that also sells digital marketing to advertisers. Many co-workers are kind and thoughtful people.

Cons

Employees lack the tools and resources to do the job they have been asked to do. There is a culture of fear and top-down direction. Finance team sends punitive emails and copies several layers of managers instead of having more direct conversations. HR seems to be more interested in covering the company's butt than encouraging inclusion and continuous improvement.

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