Hire your multiplatform management team to lead revenue and avoid getting caught in the hamster wheel of trying to reach revenue goals before growing
Building a multiplatform publishing business is never easy, but it is practically impossible without the right personnel. Having the right people in the right jobs of multiplatform management has been an endless source of deliberation and discussion for organizations of all types, and publishers have struggled just like everyone else.
While there are many functional teams that exist in every publishing organization, in smaller companies, people are usually part of more than one team, so to operate a successful and profitable multiplatform media business, you don’t have to hire an army of new employees. You do have to know how to organize the ones you have to effectively execute a Mequoda multiplatform publishing plan.
The driving force for organizational change is the executive team. Leading the executive team is the CEO, who is involved in many of the teams at various levels based on the type of organization.
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For example, a smaller publisher may have a CEO who is a content expert. In those cases, the CEO is often deeply involved with the content team, with a lesser amount of involvement in things like revenue or marketing. In many cases, the CEO is forced to take a more active role on teams out of necessity. We’ve all seen CEOs who are not experts take a role leading a marketing team or technology team – essentially acting as a CMO or CTO – because they don’t have the revenue to hire an expert.
As mentioned above, not every publisher needs to hire an army to run an organization. They do, however, need to structure their organization to maximize talents for an efficient multiplatform operation.
How multiplatform management works for Green Gardens Network
If you’re new to Mequoda, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with Green Gardens Network (GGN), our composite case study, and CEO Rose Harper, the embodiment of all our clients whose “example” we use as a teaching tool without revealing real publishers’ names or data.
To visualize how this team might operate and expand to fit the business, let’s talk about GGN. As is often the case these days, for Rose Harper, what got her to where she is, won’t get her to where she wants to go.
To organize GGN for future growth and success, Rose leads the executive team. In that role, she leads the strategic thinking that drives the organization and works with the other members of the team to determine tactics and plan execution across all divisions.
She also works to ensure that the other seven teams work across disciplines. So, for example, she ensures that the content, marketing, and revenue teams work together to meet the shared goals of the organization.
In addition, she works with each of the team members individually as a coach for effective organizational dynamics.
How to structure your multiplatform management team
People who are in jobs where they’re a good fit tend to be happy. They are also more productive. Just as there is no “ideal” team profile, there are only examples of very effective executive team combinations. We’ve created a base model that you’re welcome to emulate in your hiring that’s similar to many effective leadership teams we’ve coached over the past 20 years since we started using the MBTI as a team building tool.
In the past, we’ve talked about how using the MBTI can impact the development of your multiplatform publishing team. We’ve also discussed how different personality types can work better together in the workplace.
We’ve established that every effective multiplatform publishing company should have eight executive positions. If you’re a small niche publishing company with revenues less than $1 million per year and you’re the only employee, then you’re doing the job of all eight. But, for example, if you have one executive plus yourself, then you will have one or more of those jobs taken off your plate. The goal is to fill all of the positions, in the order below.
- CEO – Chief Executive Officer
- COO – Chief Operating Officer
- CMO – Chief Marketing Officer
- CCO – Chief Content Officer
- CDO – Chief Development Officer
- CTO – Chief Technology Officer
- CSO – Chief Strategy Officer
- CAO – Chief Analytics Officer
Some of these roles combine naturally. For example, the CAO could be the COO doubled up. The CSO is often doubled up with the CEO or your CMO. One point of discussion that we come across is the difference between a manager and an executive officer:
- An executive officer takes responsibility for the whole organization, not just the department they oversee.
- A manager focuses on their department and does not take responsibility for outside issues.
Knowing the difference will help you build a team with the right tools for the task.
When hiring this multiplatform management team, hire to lead revenue – don’t attempt to reach your revenue goals and then hire. You will get to that level having hired the right officers.
