I'm sure the marketing people at Upside Media are very professional and businesslike - they're certainly smart enough - but they give off a slightly subversive air, as if they're actually having fun as they go about their business. It's the same irreverent attitude you find on the editorial side of the company's 8-year-old magazine, Upside, which authoritatively staked out the technology business beat ahead of larger outfits like Forbes, Business Week, Wired, or the trades.
Never aiming to be a mass-circ magazine, Upside targeted the venture capital community in its early days. Now the 150,000 subscriber list is heavy on CEOs and new media mavens. But despite its high-end insider readers, Upside comes across as surprisingly unstuffy - a recent candid-photo spread on the Internet Explorer launch, for example, was headlined "Pissing Contest."
Ponytailed publisher David Bunnell - the creative renegade who founded PC World, MacWorld, and PC Magazine - says he's delighted with the print magazine: "At last," he cracks, "I'm working at a magazine I'm interested in reading." But David is also pushing Upside to become a full-fledged media company, with a much more serious online presence and higher visibility for its industry conferences and events. The company, rumored to be moving to larger offices in San Francisco next month, is "growing faster than hangers in a closet," according to a job posting on its site, and is planning expansions for every department.
Which means, says executive publisher Nicholas Baker, that Upside needs a marketing manager now. Nicholas is a high-speed talker, with a British accent and a quick laugh and apparently he expects his new hire to be just as fast. "The primary task," Nicholas begins, "is to come to me every hour and a half with some amazing idea. Run free, think hard, come up with whatever you can that sales can go out to the world with and use."
Of course, the free spirit who Nicholas seeks will also "know the publishing business backwards" and have extensive marketing experience. But it's a small department - just eight people - and Nicholas values initiative above all. "I've talked to a lot of people who think marketing jobs are about taking orders and going to Kinko's, and that's it," he says. "Well, no."
If it weren't for Nicholas' obvious enjoyment of it, you might start to balk as he continues to describe the scope of the work ahead. The marketing manager, he says, will report directly to him and "help build the brand" while firing up the ad sales, online sales, and special events departments.
"You'll be like a quartermaster," muses Nicholas, pausing for a second, "or an arms dealer - giving ammunition to the troops."
Nicholas can't quite sustain the martial metaphor, but jumps ahead to the next battlefront: beefing up special events like Upside's annual Internet Showcase, hosted by David Coursey; its Digital Living Room focusing on consumer products; and the Upside Summit - "that's our executive schmoozefest," he explains - and perhaps developing a few new events. "We all have to go to a lot of industry bashes, and we're all pretty tired of it," says Nicholas cheerfully. "You'll be in charge of making our events the ones you can't miss." Next: Did he mention direct mail? Research?
Positioning and strategic alliances? Oh, you'll also be needing "excellent copywriting and communication skills," he adds, before signing off and promising to call back with a "more complete" job description.
Some facts about Upside Media:
Location: San Mateo, CA
Salary: US$40,000 to $80,000 - depending on experience and talent
Skills: A college degree (preferably with a marketing major), extensive experience in marketing for both media and high-tech events, and strong analytical, strategic planning, research, copywriting, and communications skills.
For more information about this dream job, email sales.jobs@upside.com.
This article originally appeared in HotWired.
