Reprinted from the WSJournal Online, 5/2/05:
It's Deja Vu as Dot-coms Grab for Senior Managers
News Story by Perri Capell
MAY 02, 2005 (CAREERJOURNAL) - Publishers are back in a hiring mode, and online executives are in greatest demand.
Dot-com jobs are the hot category in publishing-industry recruitment, say recruiters. Pure dot-coms and online arms of large media companies are hiring new executives to run their sites or generate revenue for them. What's not hot on the hiring scene are mature segments of the industry, such as newspapers and business-magazine publishers, say recruiters.
Large traditional publishers seek business-development and general-management executives to manage online and off-line publishing products. Especially active are major media companies with "vertical" business groups that aim an array of products -- magazines, newsletters, Web sites, cable, radio and other media -- at a single industry or functional area.
"The more vertical and the more intimate you are with your customers, the better off you are," says Harry Somerdyk, head of the publishing practice at recruiter Spencer Stuart.
'Explosive' Hiring
Gary Klein, managing director of the media and entertainment practice at recruiter Cook Associates Inc., notes that about 30% of his assignments are to fill openings at Internet or broadband businesses. Hiring at dot-coms with proven revenue-generating power is "explosive," he says.
The majority of demand is for vice presidents of business development, heads of new ventures, senior sales, marketing or relationship managers and chief technology officers, says Klein. Typical positions Somerdyk fills are CEOs and chief financial, information, sales and marketing officers.
Klein just completed a search for a vice president of business development at an Internet interactive advertising services company that helps advertisers find good online sites and connect with online ad agencies. The new hire's salary will be about $150,000 annually, with a bonus equal to about 30% to 40% of base salary.
"We are at 'Round 2' of Web-based businesses," says Somerdyk. "We've proven you can have quality Web businesses, from transactional to content-based sites."
The Experience Factor
As Web publishing spreads, online experience has become a plus for industry executives looking to rise through the ranks or seeking new jobs. "You can't be a senior executive [in publishing] unless you have some online experience," says Lance Ford, who was recently hired as president of advertising and publishing at American Media Inc., a large New York-based publisher.
A good candidate for a general-management position for both online and traditional products should have about 10 years of publishing experience, including some time overseeing an online product. Candidates also should have been responsible for the profit-and-loss of a division or product and have a successful magazine start-up or two to brag about. "People want the strongest managers they can find," says Karen Danziger, executive vice president at The Howard Sloan Koller Group, a media-recruiting firm in New York.
Danziger recently helped find two general managers to run online media groups at a large New York business-to-business publisher. The executives will oversee all business activities, including strategy, business development and content. Pay for general managers can range from $150,000 to $350,000 depending on the company's size, Danziger says.
Media companies are paying competitive rates to attract recruited candidates. At online ventures, "there's a more rational approach to compensation these days," says Somerdyk. "The overheated artificial demand of the late 1990s is out, and candidates are being more circumspect about the opportunities they'll look at."
Recruiter Marilyn Byrd, president of Sunny Bates Associates in New York, says 80% of her searches since early 2004 have been for online ventures. Sales, business-development and marketing talent are particularly sought. "As people tightened their belts and tried to raise profits, they held back on hiring certain positions, and marketing was most likely the job they held back on," she says.
Ford says at AMI, which publishes Star, the National Enquirer, Men's Fitness, Shape and other publications, he would readily hire talented sales and marketing professionals, even if no openings existed. "Good marketers can absolutely affect revenues if they have creative ideas to put behind advertising schedules," he says. "We are always looking for talent like that."
Print Publications
In the print arena, weekly celebrity magazines have been recruiting particularly aggressively, says Danziger. "Anything that's related to celebrity, shopping, home and lifestyles is hot right now," she says. Danziger recently helped find a senior editor and managing director for a celebrity weekly. She's now seeking an executive editor and design director for another weekly.
Klein also reports demand for publishing executives to work at Spanish- or Asian-language editions of popular magazines and new publications as these ethnic populations boom. Filling jobs in this category is more difficult because fewer publishing executives are bilingual and knowledgeable of other cultures, he says.
Meanwhile, there's also a "ton of activity" at large business-to-business publishing companies, says Somerdyk. Positions being filled include openings for marketing, finance, general-management and global sales executives.
Many business-to-business publishers are posting jobs at MediaBistro.com, a Web site for media professionals, says Kyle Crafton, publisher of the New York-based site. The bulk of MediaBistro job postings now are for sales professionals, such as sales managers, account executives, marketing and publicity professionals. Postings are up about 125%, with the site receiving about 800 to 900 job monthly, compared with 400 to 500 a month at this point in 2004, says Crafton.
"Everything is definitely up compared to last year," he says. "The first three months of 2005 were gangbusters, but it seems to be plateauing a bit in April." About two-thirds of MediaBistro's advertised jobs are at New York-based companies, with the rest located elsewhere in the U.S.
Capell is a senior correspondent for CareerJournal.com. She can be reached at [email protected].
Reprinted with permission from
This article is reprinted by permission from CareerJournal.com,
Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Co. Inc. All rights reserved.
|
