Media companies have been impacted hugely by the ongoing Covid pandemic. Gavin Miller, MD of Ultima Media, looks at some of the business management imperatives that will help publishers navigate their way out of this crisis.

Says Sir Martin Sorrell and other experts. Data and tech are more integral than ever to how marketers and sales teams do their jobs. As a result, there is more pressure than ever to bring these groups together with IT — despite their historically icy relationships.

I got excited this week because our plan to overhaul how and what we measure and monitor in the business started to bear numerical fruit. My excitable state reached a new level because it didn't just involve the finance team but drew on other teams to provide data that started to establish a single (broadly) and integrated view of how we are performing as a business and the functions, channels and products across our portfolio.

Both the automotive industry and the media sector have changed dramatically in recent years and continue to evolve at a fast pace. This is the challenge facing Gavin Miller, the new managing director of Ultima Media, a UK based publisher providing news and insight to the global automotive industry, writes Ciar Byrne.

In the last few years I have found myself in new roles that required change, turnaround or transformation (or all three) in the marketing services space. I didn’t go seeking specific ‘change roles’ but interestingly that is what they became and so with it I’ve accumulated and experienced the highs and lows of managing change and transformation. Managing change is complex and hard and you certainly don’t get everything ‘right’, but the experience of leading and working with teams to shape change and transformation and operating a business on a day to day basis has prompted me to share some gentle observations on how to manage both.