Jack Klunder Memo

Over the past weeks, I have been spending a great deal of time talking with the newspaper advertising sales leadership. These conversations have been very helpful to me and have confirmed that we have a very dedicated and talented sales team.

However, it has also become clear to me that in order to improve our revenue performance, we need to manage advertising’s sales operations in a much more disciplined manner. To address this need, we are organizing a new administrative group in the advertising department. This administrative group will be responsible for working with the advertising sales leadership team to implement effective processes for managing:

·Revenue planning, including reporting, goal setting and tracking
·New product development and implementation
·Sales strategy development, including pricing and product packaging
·Sales performance, including compensation/incentive programs, standards and metrics and accountability
·Coordination of sales training and recruitment with Human Resources

I am pleased to announce that Kim McCleary La France has been named to oversee this new group as Vice President Sales Operations and Planning. Kim will be strongly supported by Michele Manzo-Lembo and Ralph Muniz. As a result of this move, Marian Shima, Director of Public Affairs will take over the Public Affairs department and staff, reporting to Gwen Murakami.

Michele Manzo-Lembo has been named Director of Sales Strategy and Operations and will continue to oversee the development and implementation of new products, coordination of sales training and recruitment and advertising technology and systems. She will assume the additional responsibility of managing the processes for revenue planning, sales strategy development, and sales performance accountability.

Ralph Muniz, Director of Advertising Administration, will continue to oversee the management of advertising’s financial budget and revenue reports and will help to develop new benchmarking and metric reports that will enable the sales team to more effectively manage their business.

We are still in the process of searching for a Senior Vice President, Sales. In the interim, Kim and the Sales Directors will report to me.

This new structure will provide sales with the infrastructure and effective business processes to support our sales team and optimize our revenue performance. Thank you all for your continued support.

Jack Klunder
President, Los Angeles Times Newspaper