Capitol File Sales Executives Barred from Attending Parties

No fun zone? Greenspun president Michael T. Carr wants schmoozing, not boozing.

MIAMI—Jason Binn loves a good party—and chances are you’ve been to one. The company’s magazines throw some 300 a year, says Michael T. Carr, Binn's boss and president of Niche partner Greenspun Media. But that doesn’t mean his sales teams are invited.

Carr told a working group at the FOLIO: Publishing Summit today that Capitol File, Niche Media’s luxury D.C. glossy, recently thre a party hosted by Forest Whitaker. The magazine’s sales team, though, was not allowed in. “They don’t attend the party,” Carr says. “They stand in the lobby—and stay in the lobby.” The sales staffers are required to greet every attendee on their way inside, and thank them on the way out—a quasi-host role, he says.

The reason? Their job is to schmooze, not—as it often happens—booze. “They can give a five minute sales pitch in the lobby,” he says.

Reasonable, but I’d wonder about what a policy like that does for morale. File that under “no fun.”