Vermont Life terminates ad agency's contract

State officials recently told Vermont Life magazine's advertising director that they were terminating her contract which still has more than two years to run. That move prompted allegations that the Douglas Administration may be retaliating against the contractor, Gerianne Smart, for her public criticisms of earlier cutbacks affecting the 63-year-old state-published quarterly.
Smart, who runs a marketing and advertising firm in Vergennes, said she doesn't know whether the state sought to punish her in response to comments she made in March at a State Legislature hearing.
I don't want to believe that people in positions of power act this way, she said in an interview.
I thought I had to speak out as a citizen because one of the treasures of our state was under siege, Smart explained. She said she was concerned about a decision to leave the posts of Vermont Life publisher and product manager unfilled.
I don't want to believe that people in positions of power act this way.
Smart said she was told subsequently that her duties for Vermont Life were being subsumed into a new and broader contractual arrangement that would include responsibilities for all state advertising sales. Christine Werneke, the state's chief marketing officer, justified the shift as an efficiency move that will produce an estimated $70,000 in annual savings at a time of austerity for Vermont's government. The state also expects to reap savings as a result of the staffing changes at the magazine.
The broader contract covering sales and marketing functions was put out for bid in July. Smart was invited to submit a bid, but she insisted that the state should honor her existing contract with Vermont Life, which was to have remained in effect until January 2012.
I felt as a Vermonter that the state would agree to honor my contract, Smart says. I asked the state to do so, but they decided to ignore it and to continue forward with this grander idea that is not in the best interests of Vermont Life.
Christine Werneke, the state's chief marketing officer, justified the shift as an efficiency move that will produce an estimated $70,000 in annual savings at a time of austerity for Vermont's government.
As a result of the contract's cancellation, Smart says she will be forced to lay off her firm's two employees late this month or early in November. Commissions earned through the contract with Vermont Life account for the large majority of Smart Communication's revenues, she says.
The state has decided to award the new contract to Harvest Limited, a Warren-based marketing firm headed by Judy MacIsaac. Werneke says she is confident that Harvest will help the state capitalize on new advertising opportunities while continuing to attract support for Vermont Life through advertising and product sales.
Smart noted that she was not alone last spring in expressing concerns to the Legislature about the direction of the magazine, which has a paid circulation of 66,000. She recalled that former editor Tom Slayton had also offered objections, as had a few members of the Vermont Life advisory board. But I was the only one who something could be done to, Smart says.
Slayton declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the termination of Smart's contract. He did describe her as a very valuable contract employee of the magazine, who, during her 18 years as advertising director, added millions of dollars to the bottom line.
Advisory board members Paul Bruhn and Laura Carlsmith also would not comment on the state's action in Smart's case. But advisor Jack Crowl, a former publisher of the Chronicle of Higher Education who lives in North Pomfret, said a desire to punish Smart for speaking out could be a contributing factor in the decision to terminate her contract. It's not a good move to cancel someone's contract, Crowl observed.
He said he knows that state officials were not pleased that some members of the Vermont Life advisory board complained to the Legislature about actions affecting the magazine. Officials are also not soliciting advice from the board but are instead presenting it with faits accomplis, Crowl added.
Werneke described the revamp of the advertising and marketing contract as completely and purely a business decision that was not aimed at Smart personally.
Vermont Life has been taking on a new look under the editorial leadership of Mary Hegarty Nolan as part of an effort to expand its readership by appealing to a younger audience. Slayton, who edited the magazine for 20 years, says he is pleased with those changes even as he expresses reservations about the decision not to appoint a fulltime publisher.
It's an unconventional route, he said.
That job is currently being carried out in an acting capacity by Steve Cook, deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. He oversees a staff of nine at the magazine.
Cook said the publisher position could eventually be filled by someone outside the department if and when state budgetary pressures subside.
Vermont Business Magazine reporter Kevin J Kelley is a freelance writer from Burlington.