subscription agent that sells magazines door-to-door. There are two types of cash field agents. "Crew team" agents (so named because they utilize teenage salespeople transported in groups from town to town) are the least desirable type, with a reputation for deceiving and abusing the teenagers hired to sell magazines. Some crew team agents have also been accused of collecting payments for subscription orders that are never passed on to the publisher. The other type of cash field agent is a "mom and pop" operation that sells only in the local community and often successfully renews subscriptions for individuals, libraries, and reception rooms in the same community, year after year.
Because of the small volume they sell, cash field agents generally pass on their orders to a larger agent, such as a direct-mail agency, which deals directly with the publisher. The large agents take a 10% commission in addition to the cash field agent's commission. Cash field agencies usually sell subscriptions at the basic rate, unlike most other types of agencies, who sell at discounted rates.
Since cash field agents offer publishers only a small volume of orders at some risk of lost revenue and subscriber goodwill, most publishers will authorize only a few, if any, cash field agents to represent them. In any case, cash field agents are a very minor subscription order source.
