Jim McGlasson learned a life-changing lesson about himself while working at a small daily newspaper after returning from military duty in Vietnam.
It was 1969, the year of the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair, and he was a rookie photographer at the Bakersfield Californian, handling “all the assignments nobody else wanted” and sleeping near a chattering police scanner to catch late-night emergency calls. He was many years and many jobs away from becoming a key connection for gaming operators and suppliers to reach their customers, but the path was about to open.
After learning his wife had a child on the way, he noticed an in-house posting for an ad-sales position that paid an additional $25 a week, plus a possible $25-a-month bonus, a hefty boost for a low-paid newsperson. “I switched over from the thing I’ve loved my whole life – photography – to sales. The ad director gave me business cards, rate cards, a stack of newspapers every day, and a map of my territory. He told me, ‘Nobody’s ever had any luck out here. Go break your pick.’”
McGlasson immediately went digging. “I wound up building a big business in the territory. And I though, I can do this. This is basically talking to people.”
He talked to many more people and sold much more advertising over the next three or four decades, moving to larger newspapers and increased responsibilities. “I really liked it and the more I liked it, the more people wanted to hire me.”
After ad-director stints at various papers, he came to Las Vegas as general manager of the Las Vegas Sun in 1987 and later helped negotiate a Joint Operating Agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. McGlasson went on to lead ShowBiz Weekly and helped it become the top tourist publication in Las Vegas. Later, he was chosen to run What’s On Las Vegas, a 60-year-old visitor publication that folded in 2016 after its owner died.
He joined CDC Gaming in 2016 as a one-person ad department and it’s still that way by choice.
Publisher Cory Roberts described McGlasson as “an invaluable member” of the CDC team. “He’s averaged a 33 percent year-over-year increase in ad revenue since September 2018, including the year COVID shut down casinos around the world,” Roberts said. “That boost has enabled us to hire more writers and add new publications to better keep the industry informed.”
McGlasson’s route to CDC Gaming was a bit unconventional, founder and Publisher Emeritus Jeffrey Compton recalled. “Like Cory Roberts in 2012, I found Jim McGlasson by posting a Craigslist ad. Based on his experience, especially with the Greenspun organization at the Sun, I contacted him immediately to explain the project. He spent some time looking it over and said, ‘You have a great product, but it may be a year before we really see anything substantive.’ In reality, it took seven months. I knew I had the right person for the job.”
Adhering to his Bakersfield lesson, McGlasson still talks a lot with clients. “Just take care of the client first and the business will grow.”
While CDC is a business-to-business publication rather than the business-to-consumer model of newspapers and tourist magazines, McGlasson said his approach remains the same as it was in his first ad-sales job. “Customers just want you to be honest with them. A large percentage of success in sales is loving the product you’re representing. And I love CDC.”
