Great stepping stone, but not a long term career
Pros
With outside sales, you get lots of freedom. Developing ad campaigns can be fun, if the client is easy to work with. Most of all GAINING SALES EXPERIENCE is the the best part about this job. This a great place develop sales skills and get a few years experience under your belt. This is definitely just a stepping stone kind of job, I think there are difficult times ahead for newspapers and I wouldn't want to be a sales rep for the next 5 or 10 years.
Cons
There are many incompetent managers in Lee. However, the paper I worked for replaced the management with a very good staff. Although they try, they still do not embrace technology to the extent they should. Obviously, the industry is in a major transitional phase to online, so there is no guarantee how long you might have a job. At times, the sales goals are unrealistic.