Articles by: "Lisa Abourezk, SVP Marketing—DCN"

Inside DCN’s Next Conversation: Millennials

April 14, 2015 Lisa Abourezk, SVP Marketing—DCN

This is the second segment in our three-part series from the DCN The Next Conversation dinner — an event we hosted inside the Digiday Publishers Summit in Vail, CO on March 26th. This time we cover a topic that’s arguably over-analyzed and bordering on eye-roll inducing: Millennials. But this demographic is increasingly prevalent in our workforce and we need to make the most of them in our organizations as we seek to engage them as audiences. So we felt it was an important discussion to have with the folks gathered around our table — the media leaders who are hiring and managing the next generation of talent and are the cultivators of organizational culture.

Some highlights:

“I think there’s a great amount of discourse and discussion and openness that comes from employing people who say ‘why’”.

–Brendan Spain, US Commercial Director, FT.com

“…We’re not all like that. Treating us like everyone else is really important. BusinessInsider embraces Millennials but they don’t call us ‘Millennials’”

–Michelle Denhart, Sales Development Director, Business Insider

“Hire young people who are smart and do cool things around them and you’ll be fine. Let them shape the workplace.”

–Neil Vogel, CEO, About.com

“A Facebook audience is very different than a Twitter audience which is very different than a Snapchat audience. As a publisher I’m going to publish and promote content in each of those individual areas based on what I know about that audience in that area. So, I’m not doing it specifically for a Millennial.”

–Lauri Baker, VP, Brand Strategy, Huffington Post

Innovation | Perspectives

Inside DCN’s Next Conversation: Talent Talk

April 8, 2015 Lisa Abourezk, SVP Marketing—DCN

As busy media executives we often find ourselves heads down, getting the work done and facing each new challenge as it arises. But to really get somewhere, we need to save some time to think about what’s next and to find places and people that encourage that future focus. On March 26^th, DCN hosted The Next Conversation dinner – an event inside the Digiday Publishers Summit in Vail, CO.

Co-hosted by Digiday Editor-in-Chief Brian Morrissey and DCN CEO Jason Kint, the intimate dinner discussion included a mix of some of the most forward-thinking minds in the digital media industry – each of whom was hand-picked to attend this first-time DCN event. The talk ranged from finding and cultivating talent to how we create a sustainable future for this business that we love, even as we realize that it will look very different than it does today.

Our first segment in this three-part series covers culture and talent with dinner guests advising to look for smart people you like, who fit your brand and who have diverse experience.

Some highlights:

“We don’t necessarily need the absolute superstar rock star with the upside. We need people we like and people that give a shit and people that are competent. If you can get those three things…I’ll take those over the potential superstar 10 times out of 10.”

—Neil Vogel, CEO, About.com

“We prefer someone that understands and appreciates the curiosity of our editors even if we’re hiring them for the business side. It’s important that they feel the Atlantic. If they don’t, it’s not going to work. The Atlantic is a quirky publication…we can’t afford to have someone on board who doesn’t really get it.”

—David Minkin, Executive Director,
Revenue Operations, The Atlantic

“We need to have a diverse team…in my team alone we have a bunch of architects, a bunch of lawyers, a bunch of engineers, a bunch of marketers and a bunch of biologists, including myself. And that kind of spun off that kind of creativity and that innovation…and makes it even a better team.”

—Steve Suthiana, Global Head, Digital Media
& Operations, Mansueto Ventures

“We hire, basically, interns. We bring in 10 or 15 every semester. We hire the people who mesh with the organization…and who produce. Who produce a lot.”

—Brian Danza, CTO, Daily Caller

“In any of us, I think our job is always to hire and train and to build the best teams possible. And that usually means they’ll go off and get other great jobs.”

—Lauri Baker, VP, Brand Strategy, Huffington Post

“[Marketers] want to know how you fit in to their marketing plan and that you know the landscape very, very well. I think once you have someone who is very deeply knowledgeable in one thing they become a vendor and not a partner.”

—Brendan Spain, US Commercial Director, FT.com

Perspectives

Quoteworthy: Straight from the Masters of Marketing

December 2, 2014 Lisa Abourezk, SVP Marketing—DCN

What makes a “Master of Marketing”? One of the undisputed “masters” of the discipline, former P&G CEO Jim Stengel, singled out a few marketing stars in a recent Forbes article, selecting quotes from their presentations to the 3,000 attendees at the ANA’s annual conference in October. What rang true for him — and for me — were the statements reflecting “brand purpose” “innovation” and “standing out.” And, appropriately for those of us in the digital content business, that marketers are competing for attention in a wildly cluttered age of information and disruption:

“You are competing with every piece of content ever made for every person’s attention. You need to be entertaining. Don’t outsmart. Out entertain.”
Dolf van den Brink, President & CEO – Heineken USA

From Forbes:

Eight Top Quotes From Masters of Marketing

Nearly 3,000 marketers attended the ANA conference last week and left energized with many new insights from an all-star line-up of speakers. These are the best quotes of the week.