Managing Director

B2B Media ( Print, digital and events )

Based in Manchester

Attractive package of base, bonus, benefits and equity opportunity

Owned and managed by its current management team, Newsco Insider Limited is the UK’s largest and most successful regional B2B media company. With a network of regional offices across England and Wales, we are a forward looking, increasingly profitable, award winning and growing business. We have a superb team of experienced and committed employees and boast an impressive portfolio of blue chip clients.

Our business has the UK’s number one regional B2B magazine in “Insider” with a strong reputation for high quality journalism, making them trusted sources of regional intelligence among the subscribing members who sign up to receive copies every month. The readership is made up of company owners, directors and senior managers.

The company also has a national network of daily email newsletters, produced by a dedicated digital news team which have experienced strong growth in advertising income in recent years and have over 100,000 subscribers. Combining this with our success at hosting over 180 established events a year across the UK which include B2B award dinners, breakfast seminars and other nationally recognised events all make for an exceptional business.

The shareholders have strong ambitions to continue to grow the business by continuing to expand and develop its profitable products and develop new complimentary products and services. The current MD is now planning retirement and is seeking a new Managing Director to take over the day to day running of the business and to continue its expansion and growth.

Clearly experience in the event, publishing or digital industry could be advantageous, however, a strong track record of managing the growth of a demanding sales orientated B2B, service sector,  type of business is also considered similarly attractive in order to build on the existing business base.

This really is an exceptional opportunity for an ambitious and accomplished individual to take over the leadership and commercial direction for the business in order to deliver the future growth expectations.

It is ideally suited to someone who now wants to increase their remuneration and rewards for being a successful MD who can demonstrate a proven track record of continually delivering results at this level. An equity participation opportunity is also included in the overall package.

The Role

• Full P & L responsibility for the business
• Working closely with the Board to achieve the 2023 plan
• Gather first-hand information on the activities of the business, its products, markets and teams so as to understand the opportunities and challenges
• Contribute to the roll out of a 3 year plan adding improvements, challenging existing practices and making considered, meaningful adjustments to accelerate current growth plans
• Take the lead in new idea generation and new sales initiatives to drive up sales income and profitability
• Overall management of the performance of the various teams within the business, including simplifying processes and setting the KPI’s & robust policies that a well-managed company must have across various disciplines i.e. finance, IT etc
• Overseeing staff recruitment is of critical importance for the business; ensure that the sales teams remain fully staffed, are of the right calibre, incentivised and motivated so they are capable of meeting performance targets
• Travelling to regional offices and attending events across the portfolio on a regular basis is an important aspect of this role in order to better understand local issues, competition and cultural differences between regions
• Oversee the legal, financial and compliance requirements of a business of this size
• Adopting a pro-active approach at board meetings on key operational issues as well as in discussions on shaping a clear strategic vision

The Candidate

• A proven Managing Director who can demonstrate success at running and growing a similar sized B2B media or B2B service sector business
• Whilst experience in the print, digital or event sectors could be beneficial it is the proven ability to lead and drive a business composed primarily of sales teams and the skills associated with doing so that are likely to provide the pre-requisite for success in this role
• Demonstrable track record - past results at driving up revenue and profit will be viewed as an indicator of likely future success
• Well-developed leadership skills with strong financial acumen and analytical abilities
• A strong work ethic and the ability to move about the estate of offices as and when required is essential
• Display a high level of self-motivation and tenacity
• A commercial thinker with the experience of generating high growth
• The ability to read, understand and keep appraised of all new direction in digital and other types of marketing and social media
• Able to balance the day to day “hands on” requirement to run the business with the strategic influencing skills required to formulate, execute and meet long term plans for the growth of the business

Please send your detailed CV quoting ref 23/2023 to our retained consultant David Smalley at Daniels Smalley Partnership, email  david@dspsearch.co.uk