Dow Jones publications and Web sites are some of the best known and most respected brands. Its flagship print publication, The Wall Street Journal is the largest national daily newspaper in the U.S.
Needs
When The Executive Search Group’s CEO Tim McIntyre learned that Dow Jones needed to identify a new Vice President of The Wall Street Journal (now owned by News Corp), he immediately began the executive recruiting process.
Working closely with Dow Jones’ executive human resources staff, he began information gathering to profile the top executive his client needed.
“We liked the fact that they were willing to get started immediately under a contingency search arrangement,” said the Dow Jones executive leading the search. "The bottom line is that they can bring the right executives to the table - quickly and for a reasonable fee."
Challenges
Dow Jones is a broad organization. The WSJ alone employs more than 2,000 journalists reporting in 58 countries.
“They spoke with pretty much everyone the new VP would be engaging with and managing… it was very thorough," said The Executive Search Group's contact. "They took the time to understand our competitive positioning and this specific division’s culture.”
"Answering all of their questions about our needs was time well spent, because they’d recruited other top executives in the media industry," he added.
“Dow Jones has a reputation for independence and integrity," said The Executive Search Group CEO Tim McIntyre.
"They needed a high-performance leader with intimate knowledge of the publishing industry; someone who is creative and a consensus builder, yet who can drive change across the enterprise. They needed to be someone who could work effectively with colleagues, and thrive in an extraordinarily competitive, and diverse market."
McIntyre identified several professionals worth interviewing, some already had great jobs, and were considering.
Results
The Executive Search Group (formerly “Infonet”) recruited and placed a former top executive in charge of the New York Times print publication’s Information Technology division. She had graduated with distinction from Dartmouth College, and had earned numerous awards over the course of her career.
Her intensive experience in the news and preproduction arena of newspaper technology allowed Dow Jones to seamlessly move major initiatives forward including the company’s most successful multi-million dollar pagination project.