The Albany Newspaper Guild

Christina Sidoti and Stacey Uzzo

When Stacey Uzzo received maternity clothes from Christina Sidoti during her pregnancy, no one realized that it would lead to a fast friendship not only for the two Times Union employees, but also for their families.

Your friendship began in 2003. How close are you now?

Stacey: We go together to lunch most days, sometimes to eat and other times to shop. The two of us have even gone shopping to New York City.

And your families get along well too. What activities have you done together?

Christina: The kids all love each other so we have taken trips together. We travel in a herd. We have enjoyed trips together to amusement parks like Hershey Park and Six Flags, and have camped at Schroon River.

How would you describe your work?

Christina: I deal with sales managers to process orders and make sure solicitation orders and invoices are correct. Also, I pay commissions for customer service reps and process carrier commissions.

Stacey: I am a senior accounting representative in the Business office. I apply cash into systems, which includes payments from advertising. I track bad debts to see if they are paying collection agencies. I also have a lock box.

What does the Guild mean to you?

Stacey: The union to me represents unity and solidarity. I am proud to say I am a Guild member.

Christina: The union means to me a sense of solidarity and belonging.

Story by Azra Haqqie; photo by Lori Van Buren

For 12 years, she has been a marketing sales assistant at the Times Union.

Q: What do you do at your job?

A: Along with Sharon Powell, I design print mail and do list management for outside clients businesses and not for profits mostly in the Capital Region. We have an internal database of addresses of residences in the eight-county area (Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren). We can target by gender, income, age, even education, for marketing purposes. If a client wants to mail postcards to clients in Albany who have a certain income, we can do that. We do single sheet full color advertising inserts, like Hoffman's.

Q: How did you get to where you are?

A: After graduating from college, I worked at the weekly Spotlight. I started at the Times Union in the Circulation department as a service rep, moved to office manager in marketing under Bob Provost, worked for a while with an NIE (Newspapers in Education) program. Bob started the database department, which was transfered to Advertising. I have been with database marketing for 8 years.

Personal: Jennifer grew up in Feura Bush and graduated from Ravena Coeymans Selkirk High School. She graduated from Siena College with a marketing major. Jennifer and her husband Bill live in Glenville with their two daughters: Marina and Aubrey, and their pets: a dog, two cats and a rat named Annabelle.

Interests/hobbies: I enjoy soccer and play in a moms league at Afrim's on Albany Shaker Road, Colonie. I also enjoy photography.

Quote: “The Guild to me means many things, but mostly it provides me with a sense of job security and solidarity. It’s always nice to know that others are looking out for your best interests.”

Story by Azra Haqqie; photo by Lori Van Buren

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