Adam Burnham Talks About the Future of Multi-Media Publishing
How can publishers prepare their teams for this transition and train them to up-sell the additional services?
They need to take action. Stop talking about what you want to do and stop discussing what you can't do. Focus on what you CAN and WILL do. Hire specialists to work with the existing sales staff that also will cultivate new business on their own. Remove complacency from the current sales organization and look to serve the market as a whole. Stop constricting yourself by what you don't know.
In your experience helping Digital First Media turn the company around, did anything surprise you when working to drive digital growth and launch new platforms and services?
I would not call it a surprise, but more of a challenge. You walk a fine line of being aggressive and driving change versus taxing the bandwidth of the local sales organization. I think you can only fit so much on one plate and it takes time for things to really click. Make sure you have proper support functions in place so sales people can sell.
What's the best advice you could offer to publishers eager to offer digital services to their advertisers?
You can build the best solution, create the best marketing material, have the best training and sell the hell out of it. But if you cannot fulfill it, you will fail. Be overly-prepared to support the sales effort and partner with companies that are strong where you are weak. What questions would you want to ask Adam? Do you have any perspective on helping publishers transition from print-only to multi-channel? What tactics or approach have worked?
About Adam Burnham
As vice president of interactive for Affinity Express, Adam focuses on digital product mix, workflow and fulfillment solutions, helping drive both top and bottom line improvement. Previously, he led the digital first sales strategy at Journal Register Company and Digital First Media; driving industry leading growth rates since January 2010. Adam runs at a very aggressive pace to capture larger shares of marketing dollars with businesses of all sizes; local, regional and national. He specializes in growing revenue in both traditional and non-traditional ways, as well as in developing and integrating defined sales strategies.
