Regalado hired as new advertising director of The Argus Observer

There was a time when Debbie Regalado thought the grass might be greener on the other side.It was April 2004. She’d spent the last 18 years working for the Idaho Press-Tribune, and Regalado was ready for a change.So she made one, trading her job in advertising at the newspaper for landscaping.It only took a year for Regalado to get back into the newspaper business. While she hasn’t given up sales, she has changed jobs, this time leaving her position with the Idaho Statesman to become The Argus Observer and Independent-Enterprise’s advertising director. Her first day on the job was Monday.Regalado got her start in newspapers in 1986, a year after graduating from Nampa High School. At age 19, she went to work selling classified ads for the Idaho Press-Tribune.It wasn’t long before Regalado became a retail sales assistant — including for Argus Publisher John Dillon, who was at the Press-Tribune at the time — and then moved into sales. As a sales assistant, she’d learned a great deal watching her co-workers work with clients.“It wasn’t a real hard transition for me,” she said.She spent 18 years working for the Press-Tribune, 14 of them in sales. Then, ready for a break, Regalado changed course and started landscaping with a friend.“It was the best summer I ever had,” she said. “It was awesome. There wasn’t the stress of deadlines. It was fun to be creative.”Ultimately, Regalado found she couldn’t rely on her business partner, so after six months, she changed course again. This time, she sold promotional products, such as pins, cups and magnets, for Darlene’s Printing-Copycenter in Nampa.Several months later, she was ready to return to the newspaper business. About a year, almost to the day, after leaving the Press-Tribune, Regalado was hired as the retail ad rep at the Idaho Statesman.“That’s what I knew,” she said of her decision to return to newspaper sales. “I knew how to make money at it. I knew how to support my family.”Regalado has three children, who are now grown or nearly so. Her daughter, Adrianna, 23, works for Mountain West Bank and is working on her nursing degree at College of Western Idaho. Jacoby, 18, just completed his first semester at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene. Seventeen-year-old Mikael is a high school junior.For her first three and a-half years at the Statesman, Regalado worked in outside sales as the newspaper’s Canyon County representative. The last six years or so, she spent in real estate advertising.When she took the latter position, there were three people selling real estate ads, Regalado said. By the time she left, she was the only person there.“I moved to the desk when the [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"][housing] market crashed,” she said. “They kept having layoffs, and they dispersed people out.”Regalado just dug in and sold more ads.“The last few years, I brought in more revenue than three of us used to make — and I sold more ads,” she said. “It was a crazy couple years.”With her youngest son nearly finished with high school, Regalado said she has been taking stock of what she might want to do with her own life. When she found out Dillon, with whom she’d been friends for nearly 30 years, was hiring an advertising director, Regalado thought the position might be a good fit.“It just kind of went from there,” Regalado said. “And I’m passionate about the business. … I just believe in the product.”Dillon said he is excited to have Regalado on board.“From the time she was my sales assistant, I knew she had potential in this business,” he said. “Her successful career in the newspaper business will make her a good addition to The Argus Observer.”[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]