Faith the Consultant

Sean and I have been doing really well. Dr. Deerhorn was open to having scheduled conference calls with Sean and Sean was able to work out a way to have privacy during those calls so everyone on the tour doesn’t get to listen in on his therapy sessions. I had my meeting with Veronica and it went in a direction I didn’t expect. Rose took me to her office when Veronica was ready and I took my seat in front of her.

“I have to say, Faith, I’m surprised at your lack of professionalism.” Her voice was grave.

“I’d like to apologize for my behavior, but I felt like I didn’t have a choice. As the HR rep for our writing staff, I have a responsibility to our employees and you’d been cancelling and putting off meeting with Stormy for months. Veronica, I know you know how much stress he’s been under.”

“Yes, well, thanks to you, I have a feeling Stormy as well as the rest of us will be under much, much more stress in the coming months as you have pretty much put the nail in the coffin of the paper and the station. We’re all going to be out of a job, Faith, and you helped to make that happen.”

“What?” I asked. My mouth had gone dry and my palms were sweaty.

“The paper and the station have been bleeding money. The paper has been in the red since we started and it hasn’t gotten any better. Our investors are frustrated and unless I can fix this in the next 6 months, we’ll all be unemployed.”

“What does that have to do with Stormy?” I asked not understanding the connection to my role in this.

“Stormy was the only thing bringing in viewership and readership to the station. He has a following that covers all the important demographics for viewership and readership and was the only thing bringing in more subscribers and viewers. He was the only thing that brought some hope to this dismal situation the paper and station are in and now that he’s not going to be on the station anymore, we might as well close both factions because print is dying a very fast death.”

“Have you given surveys to the readers and viewers to see what they want?” I asked.

Veronica looked off guard at my question.

“Yes, why?”

“May I see the conclusions?”

Veronica handed me a few stacks of paper and I quickly flipped through them. Veronica wasn’t lying, the numbers of viewers/readers projected for this month were the lowest they’d been since we started and the advertisers were starting to pull out. I don’t envy Veronica’s job, that’s for sure, but I saw something hopeful that she might have overlooked.

“Our 18-30 demographic used to be really strong but they started dropping off a few months ago.”

“And?” Veronica was getting impatient.

“Why don’t we do an electronic newspaper app for phones or a website for subscribers? We wouldn’t have to pay for printing costs anymore if we went completely digital and we might be able to regain a majority of the 18-30 demographic we’ve lost if we spend the time to make the paper more digitally connected. People are addicted to their computers and smartphones and being able to have 24/7 news from our paper may be the thing to increase the numbers. You could even incorporate it into the news broadcast from the station. Stormy could be the anchor that introduces it since he has the most clout with viewers and he could even highlight stories from it during the broadcast. It would ease his workload and he might be able to do more with either the paper or the station.”

Veronica blinked at me. She was speechless. I continued on.

“We have enough budget set aside for two summer interns, but what if we used that money to hire two web designers to set this up for us instead? They could maintain it and update it and attract advertisers with a good design. If we get enough advertisers the money from that should pay for their salaries within months.”

I handed the papers back to her and waited for her response.

“I’d have to talk with the investors…” I could see the gears turning in Veronica’s head and I saw hope in her eyes after a few moments, “You know, Faith, you should really be working in a consulting firm.”

I thanked her and then she dismissed me, so I guess I’m not in too much trouble with her; I’m definitely not fired, that’s for sure. Veronica is going to see if we can work this out budget-wise and then present it to the investors. It’s a last ditch effort to save the paper and the station. Before I left, Veronica told me that this was a confidential meeting and that the employees are not to find out about the struggles behind the scenes until absolutely necessary. I’m not going to tell anyone but I am going to start trying to put together severance packages for everyone so if we all really do end up out of a job, at least I won’t have to do that amidst the panic of everyone coming to me wondering if they’re going to be taken care of. I’m going to try and get a severance package together for every single employee. Just in case it’s needed.