In September, INMA awarded 30 young professionals around the world with its fourth “30 Under 30” award as part of its Young Professionals Initiative. This is the fourth in a series of 30 features about the impressive rising media stars who are shaping our industry. 

Beginning as a social media editor, Elyse Popplewell quickly proved her talent for finding new audiences: She rolled out a paid and organic social media strategy that yielded a 123% increase in referrals from Facebook and 406% increase in Instagram followers. Not surprisingly, that led to a rapid rise through the ranks, and today, as the content strategy director, she has led the newsroom’s digital transformation.

Her vision included restructuring the existing teams and personally training more than 160 staff members in digital best practices. As a result, the newsroom has seen a 52% increase in Google referrals.

One of her favourite things to do is bring together the experience of different departments and create cross-functional teams that can work together toward a common goal. She believes the success of the industry depends on breaking down the silos and starting to work together:

“Regularly, marketing, editorial, and technology departments are not aligned on KPIs, and it allows too many disparate streams of work to occur, creating disharmony and inefficiencies,” she said, adding that, ideally, media companies must learn to operate in cross-functional teams. “This will allow for true collaboration.”

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