No Country for Old Men (or Women)

In the past week alone I39ve met or talked with three senior media professionals who fall into this age category and are grappling with job displacementamp160 Two weeks ago I ran into a senior executive at a major media company who indicated she quothad maybe two years leftquotamp160 She is in her early 5039samp160On the horizon we have a slew of pending media mergers amp160The narrative surrounding these is always the sameamp160 quotWe expect there will be synergies and cost savingsquotamp160 Translationamp160 We39re going to rightsize a lot of people out of workamp160 Further translationamp160 Those people will likely be over 50amp160Then we have the ongoing financial health of media companies as monitored by the Wall Streetersamp160 In today39s volatile stock market which punishes companies for missing forecasts a company that can39t meet its topline revenue goals must reduce costs to meet earnings expectationsamp160 Every fourthamp160quarter we see a number of senior execs quotretiredquot as their companies prepare for the next fiscal yearamp160 The age of these folks is trending younger and youngerThere are other reasons for the forced exodus of the fiftysomethingsamp160 Many who grew up in the traditional media world have not embraced the digital transformationamp160 They didn39t recognize its growing importance and they have not reeducated themselves on the complexities or even the basics of digitalmedia transactionsamp160 With the massive shift in ad dollars to digital media the job and salary growth opportunities for media folks are in this sector not in the traditional media worldamp160The leaders of many media companies have also come to the conclusion that this is no longer a quotrelationship businessquotamp160 For decades both agencies and media companies paid top dollar to their key buyers and sellers because of their strong relationships with those whom they were negotiatingamp160amp160 Today in a world dominated by digital communication and migrating towards datainfused automated buying and selling those relationships and the high salaried talent become less valuableIronically an unintended byproduct of the fiftysomething purge is that the great majority of these personnel reductions are white malesamp160 They have held the most senior and certainly the highest paid positions in our undiverse media business for yearsamp160 As a consequence the comparisons on malefemale compensation begin to look better when they are eliminatedamp160 Also the diversity statistics begin to improve as new hires today are certainly more diverse than they have beenA notsogreat byproduct of the fiftysomething personnel rightsizing is the loss of people with realworld experience the perspective of history and understanding that ROI is a real thing and not an acronym that is given lipserviceamp160 They understand that advertising media is about helping clients build their businessamp160 Impressions big data hypertargeting native content programmatic buying AI AR and all else are unimportant unless you understand how they deliver business resultsWhen I began in the business most people worked for only three companies over the course of their careeramp160 Most worked until they were 65 or close to itamp160 You were only fired for malfeasance or complete incompetence although even many of those folks survivedamp160 All companies offered some form of pension or profit sharing that could carry retirees comfortably through to their quotexpiration datequot amp8230 usually their midtolate 70samp160amp160 Nowadays those in their early 50s will likely live well into their 80s or early 90samp160As the famous British statesman and twotime Prime Ministeramp160Benjamin Disraeli once said quotI plan for the worst but hope for the bestquotamp160 As more folksamp160approach age 50 in the media business they would be wise to do the same with their careers and futuresAnd now I leave it to Jack Myers to pursue this topic with his next bookClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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No Country for Old Men (or Women)

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Steve Grubbs

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

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No Country for Old Men (or Women)

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