Advice for Rookies: Surviving (and Thriving) In Today’s Aud Dev Industry

Starting a career in audience development means taking advantage of silo breakdowns and looking for opportunities in new areas.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Monday, March 30, 2009

The world of magazine circulation as we know it is changing rapidly. Along with a new description of what it is exactly that circulators do everyday—the new term is, of course, “audience development”—comes a whole new list of opportunities for those fortunate enough to be hired into this sector of the publishing industry.

Circulation and audience development associates are starting their careers at a very exciting time: Department silos are being broken down—from print to digital and all points in between. Associates are being asked to add online and e-marketing, search engine marketing, and more to their portfolio of responsibilities.

So how should today’s younger audience developers take advantage of these new opportunities and navigate their way through the transition? Three of the industry’s younger movers and shakers share their best advice.

1. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DEPARTMENTAL CHANGES
When Anne Drobish first began her career in the creative services group at Scholastic in 2001, her responsibilities included production and art direction for various catalogs. But since she was more interested in marketing, she sought mentoring from the VP of that group and other colleagues on how to create marketing materials for trade shows and set up analysis reports. She eventually began learning about fulfillment, auditing and grassroots marketing.

Persistence and a willingness to learn, she says, can make the changes your circulation department goes through easier to handle. “If there is a restructuring, take advantage of the opportunity,” Drobish, now associate circulation director at NewBay Media, told AD. “You’re in the position of being young where you have enough time to put in the extra hours. And managers are more willing to spend time training you because they see value in you. They don’t want someone who just answers phones, so contribute and be proactive.”

Drobish, who was named an AD All-Star for her fulfillment expertise last year, suggests that associates turn to their supervisors to see what training may be available for whatever new responsibilities are being thrown at them. “I was the annoying little pest who asked anybody I came in contact with what they were working on and why they were doing it,” she says. “It helped me to get an overall sense of the business and got me to where I am today.”

2. PERFECT YOUR SKILLS
Like many circulators, Desiree Bennett, audience marketing manager at Bobit Business Media, sort of fell into her career. “My temp agency sent me to a publishing company by accident,” she says. “But I just took it from there and eventually learned distribution, circulation operations and marketing.”

Besides turning to trade publications, Webinars, seminars and conferences to learn all of the e-audience development skills she needed to stay on top, she also turned to an interesting, yet obvious, resource: She started her own blog.

“Creating and marketing your own blog is a free way to practice your skills,” she says. “You can get hands-on experience with SEO and SEM. You may not be in charge of SEO right now, but if you’re ever called upon to do so, you’ll already have the skills you need. And the blog can be about anything. Mine was about planning my wedding—it was my guinea pig.”

3. BUILD KEY RELATIONSHIPS
Stuart Bonner, audience development director, Satellite & Cable Groups, Access Intelligence, knows firsthand what it’s like to go through a departmental restructure. His department went from handling traditional circ to overseeing all e-audience development responsibilities. “One day, in a meeting, we were handed a new set of responsibilities,” he says. “We were told that this was the way the company was going, and we either had to adapt or leave. We were ready for a challenge, so we embraced it.”

Part of the challenge was to go from a department that was cut off from the rest of the company to building a relationship with the editorial, marketing and IT teams. “When we were in silos, we had a finite set of duties,” Bonner says. “We were never involved in editorial discussions or anything like that, so it was a whole new ballgame for us.”

Bonner advises that associates get involved (or even help to create) a task force where a person from each department comes together each week to discuss initiatives and find out what everyone else is working on. “That way, no one is surprised,” Bonner says. “Doing it this way is great because I’m able to contribute to what goes on the editorial calendar and what topics are chosen for the Webinars.”

The Four Indicators of a Successful Circ Associate

By Robert Cohn, consumer marketing director, Bonnier Corp.

When we hire a new “rookie,” I don’t expect them to know anything, but I do expect them to bring with them an inquiring mind and a willingness to learn. In turn, I consider it my responsibility to teach them about our business.

Over the years, I have observed a few behavioral predictors of which new employees are going to have a successful future in audience development and consumer marketing—as opposed to those whose contribution will be merely adequate or below expectations.

1. An innate curiosity about how and why we do things the way we do. Asking questions and learning from the answers is the best way to learn about our business—and the best questions sometimes catalyze their managers to re-think approaches or think “outside the box.”

2. An enthusiasm about the projects one is working on. A sense of pride in completing them well, helps too.

3. An ability to help establish priorities. Also, the ability to ask for guidance if the priorities are not clear.

4. A sense of urgency about getting things done. Employees who score highly on these criteria will not only become productive contributors to their employer, but will also experience the most job satisfaction—and be likely to move on to a successful career.