AHOSKIE – There’s no substitute for experience.

A veteran employee of Roanoke-Chowan Publications has been promoted to the position of Advertising Sales Coordinator, according to R-CP Publisher Tony Clark.

Judy Farmer begins her work in that new position immediately, but that does not mean the core of the satisfied ad customers she has built over the years will not see her smiling face.

“Judy will continue to manage her sales territory as she has done so successfully over the years,” said Clark. “Among her duties in this new position will include handling our major accounts, coordinating our special sections, and assisting our new sales representatives.

“With this promotion to a leadership position, Judy will have the opportunity to spend more time leading the sales department in a direction that will help facilitate growth in revenue for our company and the professional development of our sales staff,” Clark added.

Farmer has been on the R-CP staff since September of 1983. In those early stages of her career, the majority of newspaper production was performed by hand, a far cry from today’s digital age. Her first job was in the composing room, where ads and newspaper pages were produced.

Four years later, Farmer made the transition to advertising as a member of the Classifieds sales team. It was there she developed a knack of meeting and developing advertising customers.

Shortly thereafter, when an advertising position opened in R-CP’s former satellite office in Jackson, Farmer seized the opportunity to advance her skills as a salesperson to cover Northampton County and the Roanoke Rapids area. She remained there for 21 years. When the Jackson office closed eight years ago, Farmer transitioned back to the main office in Ahoskie to handle some accounts in Hertford and Bertie counties while maintaining her core base in Northampton and Roanoke Rapids.

Clark said his decision to promote Farmer was an easy one to make.

“Judy’s history with our company, her tremendous success as an advertising representative, and her natural leadership skills were more than enough to lead me in making this choice,” he said. “I congratulate her on a job well-earned.”

She will lead an advertising sales team that includes Cliff Forbes and Deborah Tayloe.

Farmer is a native and life-long resident of the Roanoke-Chowan area. She and her husband, Danny, reside in Millennium. She is the mother of one daughter, Kelsey, and step-mother to a son, Lee Farmer.