CORDELE — The chances of you reading this story and others in the Cordele Dispatch would be slim if it were not for advertising representatives like Phyllis Keaton.

“Advertising is about 80 percent of the revenue that keeps the newspaper going,” Keaton said.

She added that new goals are set all the time for ad sales, and the expected profit from those benchmarks is what is budgeted to keep the newspaper alive.

Keaton, who has worked at the Dispatch for the past 10 years, also worked for the Sunbelt Shopper before the two publications merged in 1998.

When she worked for the Sunbelt Shopper, Keaton sold ads for a publication that ran once a week. Now she sells ads that run daily.

Keaton said, “It’s the same, but different. There are new deadlines and goals each day.” There are also different promotions that are offered to customers every month.

Her job can be quite stressful at times as she has to work with numerous customers. Each of these customers has different needs and each one of those needs has to be met on an indivdiual basis. That’s why her job is driven by customer service.

Keaton only works with locally-owned businesses and does not actually work with stores and restaurants that are part of a chain or franchise. Those are handled through an office in Valdosta.

The Cordele Dispatch is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., which is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., but it is part of the South Georgia Group that includes daily newspapers in Valdosta, Thomasville, Moultrie, Tifton, Americus and Cordele and several weeklies in North Florida.

Members of the South Georgia Group work very closely together, and there is someone in the Valdosta office who deals exclusively with chains and franchises that are located throughout the area.

That means that local reps like Keaton have more time to devote to businesses in the area that are one-of-a-kind.

To have a successful day at work, Keaton says that the most important part of her job is “learning my customers, knowing their needs, and gaining their confidence.”

It seems that most of her customers have gained confidence in her and her work. For example, one of the business owners that she visited last Wednesday allowed her to come up with ideas for his ad.

When Keaton visits the different businesses, she listens to the customer’s needs. Customers show her ads that have run in the newspaper before and tell Keaton what they want.

If text or pictures need to be changed, the customer can mark the necessary corrections. Keaton then carries the corrected copy back to the office and turns it over to the composing department. She won’t stay there long, though, before hitting the road again.

“I’m not an office person,” Keaton said. “I like my freedom.”

Her job allows her to work outside the office, and she is constantly on the go. Keaton sells advertising in an area that covers Crisp, Dooly, Turner and Wilcox Counties.

On an average day, she may drive 70 miles to meet with customers who wish to place ads in the newspaper.

She said the hardest part about her job is selling premium ad space. Those are the spaces you see on the front page of every edition of the Dispatch and in other sections of the paper. Keaton has to help sell those for each edition of the newspaper.

While Keaton is responsible for selling advertising in each day’s Dispatch, she is not responsible for the actual design of the ad that you see in the paper. Part of her job, however, involves making sure that the correct information is relayed to the composer and proofing the final product to make sure that the advertiser’s wishes have been met.

The composer uses information given to her by Keaton to create an ad that may include news copy, graphics, and/or photos.

“The best thing about my job is all the different people I get to meet,” Keaton said. “I make a lot of friends.”