Calgary's venerable advertising powerhouse Highwood Communications is in receivership, owing over $5 Million to radio & TV stations, print media, printers and probably some freelancers. Before the terminally disgruntled PSR members start chuckling about the amount of money owed to stations or corporations they dislike - stuff rolls downhill and this is going to cost everyone on every staff in every company. It's a sad story all around. http://www.moneyhelp.ca/pdfs/HighwoodNoticeofIntention-Creditor%20Package.pdf

well, there goes my paycheck.

Why so long for this to come out?  How does one spend 5 million all by himself?  Perhaps he didn't?  Who else is in on it is the question....

Wow.. this even effects the company I work for... Looks like a lot of companies going to take a big hit from this...

This affects companys big and small... how did it ever get to this point without some sort of warning?

Interesting $20K to Facebook

This link is only indicating the "Account Payable" They are in receivership at this time. A trustee will take over the company liquidate the assets. Then creditors may or may not get so much on the dollar as a settlement. Looks like they are in a proposal stage and this link does not provide the back up info as to what they are proposing. 775k owed to AWNA. "Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association"

I'm sure most creditors on this list have been aware of there cash flow issues due to non payment of arrears or excuses of non payment over time. Good Accounts Receivable people catch this early and cut them off. How one could let receivables owed reach $775k without warning bells is scary. It may effect some cash flow for current budgets but at the end of the day it's a write off for the company. Don't feel to sorry for those that are owed.

Well said Gotobreak, but write-offs don't mean much until tax time. Highwood has been around so long with such high profile clients that their credit is considered AAA (or whatever). My guess is most of the payables are in the 180-day range and relate to the 2008 Stampede. The people that will get hurt are the media suits on commission.

25 years in the industry. Would be interesting to see why the company nose dived. They are an open book. http://www.highwoodcommunications.com/home.html

It may not the companies to feel bad for... it's the reps who will get screwed on lost commissions.

I cannot even imagine the impact this is going to have on all forms of media right across the country.  You would think they must have clients that are paying for all the campaigns and some of them must either owe money or are in trouble themselves.

I know the normal type of thinking on this site is "to hell with the media corporations" but this is bad for everyone.  The major corporate companies have lost a lot of money and they will have to explain the losses to their shareholders.  That means they will start to cut expenses to make their quarters look better.

Guess who will take the brunt of that?  

The sales staff are going to take the first hit, as they get their commissions clawed back.  I would imagine some of them will get fired over this, like the sales person from Pattison who let his receivables get up to 628 thousand dollars.  After that they will look for ways to cut more and your guess is as good as mine as to where or who they will cut.

A lot of the smaller companies that they owe money to will also be in big trouble, they will have to lay off staff or even go bankrupt as well.

What about the other media buyers across Canada, what impact is this going to have on them.

And then there are the employees of Highwood Communications, they must be having a rough week....

OK it could be worse, right... what if this had been someone like Palmer Jarvis??

Wow...I am stunned over how many stations lost money in this.  How the hell do you let it get to 100k+ (in some cases)?????????????  Even our little indie apparently got dinged for a good chunk of change.  That is most certainly going to affect EVERYONE across the prairies......yeeeeeeeeesh!

Rumours about Highwood's demise are greatly exaggerated. The media buying division of the company is no longer operating, and creditors are working with the receiver and Highwood to map out a plan for recovery of accounts receivable. Highwood is still in the creative services business and will be, hopefully, for a long time to come. I'm sure this has been a rough time for Highwood, as well as a lot of media outlets. But, let's face it, a LOT of media outlets have made a ton of money from their dealings with Highwood over the years and most of them are sucking it up and taking their lumps on this one. Barry Styles has been around too long to simply turn tail and run on this one, so you can expect him to step up to the plate and show everyone he's still a class act.

Highwood's proposal: http://www.moneyhelp.ca/pdfs/HighwoodCreditorPackage-Aug13-08.pdf

What did agency do with ad money? And is province responsible to unpaid media outlets that ran advertisements?
Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal Published: Tuesday, September 23

http://www.canada.com/edmonton.....0f-bb9f-678d7a473252

oldnewsguy............. Barry Styles and class act in the same sentence - give me a break.  One should consider a class act to be someone who knows where 5.3 MILLION dollars of his clients money went.  Even better, pay it all back at 100 cent to the dollar not the $38 he proposed to the creditors.

Quoted from oldnewsguy

Rumours about Highwood's demise are greatly exaggerated. The media buying division of the company is no longer operating, and creditors are working with the receiver and Highwood to map out a plan for recovery of accounts receivable. Highwood is still in the creative services business and will be, hopefully, for a long time to come. I'm sure this has been a rough time for Highwood, as well as a lot of media outlets. But, let's face it, a LOT of media outlets have made a ton of money from their dealings with Highwood over the years and most of them are sucking it up and taking their lumps on this one. Barry Styles has been around too long to simply turn tail and run on this one, so you can expect him to step up to the plate and show everyone he's still a class act.

so if what Oldnewsguy is saying... those that are being taken to the cleaners are getting their just desserts now after overcharging the gov't for the previous 9 years with highwood at the helm... Give Me a break... and give your head a shake... 5.3 Million missing and Stiles offers 38 cents on the dollar in compensation... with no criminal recourse... it's theft pure and simple...

Wow, you really gotta feel for all the little guys on that list. The big guys not so much. Anyone who keeps selling to a company...ANY company who owes $100,000 or more and they have the Alberta Gov't for a client deserves what they get. What excuses were the falling for? Oh, the gov't having a bad week and didn't pay us? A sane person might fall for that ONCE, maybe.

For the little guys it was wishful thinking, but for the big guys, it was greed and now it's coming home to roost and the working stiff is gonna feel it hard.

The suits will still get their bonuses and charge accounts, it's only the workers who will suffer...always is.

I wonder where the $5 million went?

To a layman it sure looks like fraud.

Here's the bottom line guys....you can chirp all you want to about media outlets getting short changed, but the way I'm hearing it they all (except for one) voted in favour of the offer on the table at the meeting with the receiver. Nobody shoved the deal down their throats, and they could have turned it down if they figured they had a shot at getting a bigger chunk of cash. But they didn't. They voted to accept the offer. End of story.

Good for the media outlets, anything back is better then nothing.  But there is no hiding for Mr. Styles if the opposition votes for a full fledged investigation as to the whereabouts of the 5.3 million.  Last time I checked - if you steal the governments money - you end up in the clinker.