Taylor hired as new advertising director of The Daily Herald

Baretta Taylor joined The Daily Herald as its new advertising director on Monday, and with him, he brings more than a decade of valuable experience.Taylor has been in the newspaper business for 16 years, and was previously an advertising director with Gatehouse Media and a marketing/sales director with Womack Publishing.The Daily Herald Publisher Titus Workman said he is excited to have Taylor on board and looks forward to where Taylor will take the advertising department.“I expect he will immediately provide strong leadership and innovation to our advertising operations,” Workman said. “We’re blessed to already have a successful advertising team of veteran account executives and support staff, and the addition of Taylor will make it even better.”Taylor said he has roots in the Roanoke Valley, noting his grandfather worked on the development of Lake Gaston and close relatives who live in Roanoke Rapids. He said he wanted to put his skills to work here to better the community.“I have a love for community, and I like our role of helping it grow,” Taylor said. “I feel a sense of pride within businesses here. They seem to work toward a common goal, which is developing commerce in the area. I’m looking forward to helping local businesses thrive through this 100-year-old product (the newspaper).”He added he plans to make this a permanent career home and one day retire here with his wife, Rachel, of 16 years. They have two children together, son Damien and daughter Kaitlyn.As far as his management style, he said he gives people the leeway to do things their own way and if that doesn’t work he gets involved and helps find new ways to accomplish goals and solve problems.“People that are happy and having a good time doing their job work better, “ Taylor said.