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photo by steed media service
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VP of Advertising, USA Today
After having been a vendor for the largest newspaper in the country for
years, Tony Hill became acquainted with USA Today’s philosophy of
diversity. That helped him make the decision to stop selling Xerox
machines to USA Today and become their vice president of advertising.
“In the good old days, they wouldn’t put the paper out
unless they had a woman and a minority on the front page. It was all
about being inclusive … the leadership was about ‘Hey, we
want folks that will work out and build this business,’ ”
says Hill.
Hill unabashedly says that his tenure at USA Today has been the ride of
a lifetime. “I tell you, man, it’s been fun. It’s
been a nice ride for me,” he says. That still applies even though
the advent of the Internet has radically altered the way newspapers
bring in revenue. “For us, we had to change our thought processes
of what business we are in. We aren’t in the newspaper business.
We’re in the audience business,” Hill adds.
“Some days you are the windshield and some days you are the bug,
you know? It’s like what you do — you have to listen to
your clients and build solutions for them that work and deliver for
them. And if you can do that, you are competitive. We try to focus on
what we can do for our clients and what can we build that’s new
and that’s gonna make things happen for our clients. That’s
it. I don’t try to make it too complicated,” says Hill. – terry shropshire
