20 Under 40 - 1995 Profile: Amy P. Falkner

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 1995

Amy Falkner caused a stir in December 1989 when she interviewed for both reporting and advertising jobs with The Syracuse Newspapers.

"No one had ever done that," says Falkner, a former sportswriter who credits a post-graduate stint at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg with opening her eyes to the business side. The perplexed personnel chief finally asked: Did she want to report the news or sell advertising?

Falkner, a high-school and college athlete, braced for criticism from newsroom cronies and set out to conquer a tough new game. "I lost three calculators in the first month," says Falkner, who nonetheless finished her first quarter as top advertising salesperson.

Now responsible for 60 special sections a year, she coordinates ad sales, editorial and production. Making it all the more daunting,thead-sales staff supports three papers: the SyracuseHerald-Journal (evening), The Post-Standard (morning), and Sunday's Syracuse Herald American. By the end of October 1995, full-run special-section advertising was up 700 inches over the same period in 1994; part-run was up 8,000 inches.

Falkner's newsroom-honed creativity helps to spur ad sales. Recently, the company sponsored a murder-mystery train ride to tout a section promoting OnTrack, Syracuse's scenic railroad. The mystery: Who killed the competition? Among the suspects: a zone manager accused of wiping out weeklies and another supervisor who left a bloody glove inside a mailbox crammed with direct-mail advertising.

It remains fiction, of course, because the competition is far from dead. "You're up against television, radio, direct-mail, on-line, and even the guy with a computer on his kitchen table," she says. "It's a real interesting game."