Bigshot Inbound
Getting out of the print news publishing game can be a good thing…
Such would appear to be the case with exiled, former Pitch publisher Joel Hornsbostel who has landed a gig with local marketing company Bigshot Inbound.
Hornbostle – who parted company rather abruptly with the Pitch in January – has been named Bigshot’s “chief business development officer.”
Meaning what exactly?
According to Wikipedia, that’s a person “expected to have a broad and comprehensive knowledge of all matters related to the business of the organization with an eye towards identifying new sales prospects and driving business growth and requirements for product development.”
In other words, sales.
Joel Hornbostel
Which is pretty much what Hornbostel was charged with during his tenure at the Pitch.
Unfortunately the Pitch has floundered in recent years during a difficult economy and an era when the all important print publishing profits have nosedived as more and more readers – especially younger ones – give those once bright red Pitch street boxes a wide berth in favor of its online pub.
When I first met Joel in the late 1980s he was an affable local bar band booker for a company that operated nightclubs in Kansas City, Columbia, Missouri and Nebraska.
After that company took a bullet, he caught on with the Pitch schlepping ad sales.
Over time, Hornbostel rose to the top of the Pitch’s ad sales slag heap and became its publisher, only to be replaced by the new ownership after it bought out former Pitch owner Hal Brody.
However, the big shot publisher dude and his wife that transferred in to KC didn’t seem to take to the town and left after something like a year, resulting in Hornbostle again being named publisher.
Back in those heady days it wasn’t unusual for the Pitch to choke out 100 page plus weekly issues, chocked full of advertising. That of course went away several years back as newspapers, magazines and tabloids lost ground to the Internet.
This past fall, for example – during the three month period where in years past the Pitch would have been raking it in – the alt weekly was lucky to put out 36 pages issues with barely 50 percent advertising.
Which would appear to explain Hornbostle’s departure, along with pop up ads online seeking advertising sales people.
C.J. Janovy
Will Hornbostle’s on-the-job training selling the Pitch enable him to sell new clients on hooking up with Bigshot ?
Time will tell.
Former Pitch editor C.J. Janovy landed a kickass gig with KU Med as its director of communications a few years back when she bailed from the ailing alt weekly.
Unfortunately Janovy – an English major – was massively under qualified for the heady, high salary position and today’s she’s got an on-the-job training gig with KCUR FM as a lowly “arts reporter.”
No two ways about it, it’s a jungle out there for former print journalists.
Joel is/was a client of mine and not a finer guy have I ever met. I have a great deal of admiration for him personally and professionally. Well played, my friend.
CJ had no effing business getting that gig at KUMC. It is unbelievable to me how many former newspaper and TV reporters have been getting high level PR/communications jobs in this town lately. I understand wanting to jump ship from their previous jobs, but CJ and others have no clue what they are in for in the PR biz when they get these jobs most are not qualified for — minus the writing skills they acquired.
CJ Janovy was a thorough professional in her role as Director of Communications at KUMC. As her peer on the hospital side, I can testify she was not only up for the job, but excelled at it. Both KUMC and The University of Kansas Hospital were sorry to see her go, even though her replacement is another excellent communications professional. She has my highest respect.