Prime Publishing Reviews

This company preys on new college grads looking for a first job. It advertises the job title of "Editor" but I never did any editorial work at Prime. My job at Prime was to build newsletters and do email marketing, which I had no interest in, and I would not have applied for the job if I had known that's what I would be doing. The job description and the interviews are highly misleading--the company boasts that they produce high quality content, and I started the job excited at the chance to blog about recipes and crafts. But the content on this company's websites are just links to other sites. There's minimal original content on those sites. It's basically a knock-off Pinterest. I applied to this job because I wanted editorial experience, and I did not receive any. It was an embarrassment going to interviews after I left this job because I had to admit that I worked as an editor for a year and gained no experience. During interviews with HR reps at other companies, they actually questioned the business model used at Prime; they simply could not understand how Prime made any money, or why I worked as an editor when there was no editorial work to be done. The hours are long. While the CEO, Stuart, claims that his 8 hour workday (plus 1 hour lunch) is normal, he doesn't seem to realize that there simply is not enough work to do in that workday. The one hour lunch is unpaid, mandatory, and too long--especially given that this company does not have a real break room. There is a lunch room with a small table that seats about 8-10 people. They did expand their offices to another floor of the building and claimed that employees are free to use that break room, but often those spaces are used to film videos for the sites. Most employees eat lunch at their desk because there is simply nowhere else to go. By law, an employer is required to provide a paid lunch if employees are forced to eat at their desks and are not provided with an adequate lunch room. Stuart does not offer a paid lunch, perhaps because he "technically" has a lunch room--that is not big enough for the full office. Spending nine hours a day at this place is draining. Prime has an open office plan, which is becoming the norms these days, but it is cramped. My desk was maybe three feet long, and if I scooted my chair too far back, I would hit the person behind me. If you wanted to get up from your desk, you had to climb over the rows of people between you and the aisle. It's a claustrophobic place to work because it feels like someone is always behind you. On one occasion, the acting HR rep started walking up and down the aisles of desks for no reason, staring at everyone's screens. It was uncomfortable, and I have not experienced anything like it at another workplace since. As for the HR department, it consists only of that one employee. Stuart is correct in that a company as small as his doesn't always employee a full HR department. But Prime would improve by having an HR presence, since one year for Halloween, Stuart came to work dressed as a pimp. It's important to note that the vast majority of the editorial department (which is the majority of the employees there) are women. The work at this job is monotonous and draining. While you can gain some valuable SEO experience if you're put on the right team, for the most part the weeks at this job are more of the same. I consistently finished all of my work by Thursday, which left me coming into work on a Friday for 9 hours (plus my 1 hour commute) just to do absolutely nothing. I asked for additional work on several occasions, and sometimes it was granted, but there simply was nothing to do. I've heard that this has recently changed and that Prime is restructuring its editorial department. This restructuring has a lot to do with the recent layoffs in the department, both this year and last. Editors are being laid off without warning here. Stuart claims that his turnover rate is low for a digital media company, but it's definitely higher than other workplaces I've been at; sometimes three or four people would leave over the course of a month. I've seen several assistant managers leave all at once. For an office that small, there's an alarming amount of turnover. This is not a place that encourages achievement. Every performance review I had with Stuart was a joke. I was asked to fill out a Word document of short-answer questions, and then when I went to the actual review, Stuart barely mentioned my job performance at all. Instead he talked to me about whatever he wanted to talk about, including asking me where I lived. When I tried to ask what I could do to improve my performance, I was told that I was already doing a great job and to just keep it up. If Stuart is aware that his employees are unhappy or are not a good fit for the company, then he simply does not care. The managers are better, but they can only do so much under Stuart. All of the above issues aside, which are all own subjective experience, the actual websites you work on at this company are not great. The websites and newsletters prey on their intended audience, which is people who are interested in cooking and crafting. Often the target audience is older women. The ads on the site and the newsletters are offensive, and the actual site is difficult to navigate. There are a handful of sites that are actually helpful to the users--the rest only exist to generate clicks. It's hard to work at this company and feel good about what you do when your job is to trick people into clicking on your newsletters. The vast majority of the job is writing clickbait. Plus, micromanagement is rampant. During my first three months as an "apprentice" I had to fill out "EOD reports" where I described everything I did that day. After I became a full-fledged "Editor" (the only position higher than "Editor" is "Assistant Manager"), I had to fill out "EOW reports" where I described what I did that week. I have never encountered that level of scrutiny at a job before or since. Every major editorial decision you wanted to make needed to be checked off by a manager. I don't believe you get any vacation days the whole first year you work there. You can eventually earn the right to work from home--after you've already worked there for two years. This job does have some nice benefits, including good pay, but most people burn out and leave before they get that far.