Editor In Chief
U.S. Financial News

Executive Search Editor in Chief / EIC
Client Global News Organization
Based New York, NY - USA
Search Firm  Filcro Media Staffing.
Search Group(s)  News | Technology
Officer in Charge  Tony Filson
Reporting to  President

Client Situation The executive search committee that retained Filcro Media Staffing consisted of the Corporate President, the head of TV News Programming and the Executive Vice president of Digital and Print Publications.

The goal of the search was to integrate TV, Print, Digital, Radio, Podcasts and Social Media with enhanced production values and monetization channels for U.S. and international English language distribution.

Executive Search Committee Media Industry Sector Inclusion

• Television Broadcasting
• Radio Broadcasting
• Newspaper & Magazine Publishing
• Digital Publishing
• Podcast Production
• Global Financial News & Information

Filcro Media Staffing is Retained

Filcro Media Staffing with Tony Filson as Officer in Charge of Search (OIC), met with the ESC and commenced by reestablishing consensus in areas critical to the search coming to fruition at the cadence proposed for a new TV show and host who would also write for print and digital publications as well as host podcasts.

Filcro Media Staffing’s experience recruiting for similar News organizations and EIC’s as well as TV and Digital Executive Producers in the Financial News genre, allowed the firm to hit the ground running to meet an aggressive deadline to commence production.  The search was conducted internally and externally by the President and Human Resources, after not finding suitable candidates, the firm retained FIlcro Media Staffing and asked Tony Filson to conduct the search personally

The search document was signed on a Friday and the search commenced the following Monday, in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Boston.

Some of the challenges facing the new Editor in Chief / EIC

• Establishing cross-functional teams with executive producers, technology, writers and ad sales to optimize product quality and revenue.
• Set production schedules with marketing and sales for retail and institutional financial markets that coincide with industry events
• Revamp social media to to include consumer activation for interaction with sponsors, content partners and advertisers.
• Establish editorial schedules for daily financial news briefings
• Have writers and market analysts work with guest producers to get noted industry executives to participate in TV, Online, Podcast and Radio platforms on timely topics for retail and institutional markets.
• Hire writers, editors, producers and creative services staff as needed in each group to keep the products cutting edge and engaging to audiences.
• Set budgets and personnel for new print / digital group working on 6 publications consolidating from the prior 10 but enhancing podcasts.  Determine which relationships benefit the firm most and optimize revenue.     

Filcro Media Staffing’s Recruitment Solution

Recruitment started from New York and Los Angeles with Atlanta, Boston and Texas as secondary targets based on the executives identified as ideals with the compilation of experience required.

A clear focus on genre acumen, TV, Digital, Radio and Print narrowed the pool to 53 targets in New York and 32 in Los Angeles.  Once NY & LA were profiled it left 16 candidates based on compensation, mobility, contract restraints, scope of qualifications and possible cultural fits in the organization.

Moving to Atlanta, Boston and Texas we compiled a pool of 6 candidates.

The 22 candidates from the initial pool of 101 were placed in a search universe and comparable revenue / budgets, production values, mentoring / direct reports, stability, team building, technology acumen, were all queried.

4 candidates were first tiered and two candidates were 2nd tiered.

The 6 remaining candidates were all profiled and analyzed from seven different perspectives leaving 3 1st tier candidates to begin the internal vetting process with the President, Head of Programming and the EVP of Print & Digital Publications.

Initial video conferences were setup to avoid unnecessary travel expenses for two of the candidates outside of New York until it was determined if the team wanted to meet them in person as a second round.

Jointly and unanimously the executive search committee determined that two of candidate were not only perfectly qualified to grow the business but were cultural fits for corporate and the individual groups they would be managing. 

The internal process started with the President, EVP and Head of Broadcasting meeting with each candidate individuality and as a group over a period of three days.   The CMO, CRO, CCO and CIO also met with the two candidates and each was given brief tours of the Broadcast, Creative Services, Sales and Marketing departments.  On the final evening for each candidate the President hosted an informal dinner to garner each candidate's impression of the people they met and how they would function.  

It took three days for everyone internally to compare notes and it was determined that both candidates were perfect fits from an experience and capacity perspective to grow the division.  It came down to one candidate's capacity to bond quickly with others and a history of growing multinational teams that finally swayed the President.

The Editor in Chief Hired

The EIC chosen was a noted broadcast, digital and print executive with one the world’s largest producers of financial news and information.  Prior to his financial news broadcast career he managed newsrooms in New York, London and Frankfort.  With over 20 years of increased achievement this executive clearly had capacity and their best years were in front of them.

Having won numerous award in the industry for broadcast and print excellence, this executive had a history of building teams and mentoring young executives who also were successful once under his tutelage.

With a history of increased revenue for each division under his management, he also was exceptionally astute with technology with the capacity to build audiences and new revenue channels in an innovative manner.

His history of attracting talent in business, technical and creative environments enabled him to spin-off a new sub-co for one employer and staff every function required without any loss to the parent company’s operations before, during or after the formation of the new company.

The writers and editors that have reported to him are some of the most respected in the industry.  He has led on campus recruitment in two prior companies and both have under grad and graduate school alumni organizations where he has consistently attracted “top of the class” from two of the most respected journalism schools in the world where he also graduate with outstanding academics.

His relationships within the financial industries were solid.  Heads of brokerage firms, banks, insurance, hedge funds and noted Wall Street analysts were all part of the positive professional relationships he would brining to to the firm.

The new EIC received a written offer on a Friday and returned the signed document over the weekend.  This was a perfect match for the EIC and the company.  There was genuine enthusiasm by everyone that the single best executive for this role had been identified and hired.

This search was conducted by Tony Filson of Filcro Media Staffing.

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