MediaLife's media buyer survey quantified what most already suspected: media buyers think that about only half of media reps know what the heck they're doing (via MediaBuyerPlanner). A significant minority of the buyers - about one in six - have such a low opinion of reps that they said only ten or twenty percent are useful. Complaints centered, unsurprisingly, on time wasting, both in the form of over-contacting and proving ill prepared when conversations do take place. Another big complaint proved to be overly hard selling, with some reps seeming to believe that repetition or browbeating may succeed in getting a property on the buy where the numbers won't.

Half of the buyers said they agree with the statement that the rep problem was "no big deal. Sure, they're annoying sometimes, but I'm sure they find me equally so. It's how the industry is set up." About 45 percent agreed instead that they are "a necessary evil. Most are okay, but there are a few really obnoxious ones I hate doing business with."