The key to making a 30-year-old media company stay relevant? Flexibility. 

That’s the advice Nick Creed, co-founder of The Drum, gave at the INMA World Congress in London. The Drum started in the business magazine field, pivoting seven years ago to focus on the advertising marketing sector of business.

“That meant that we could really focus on being the best in the field,” Creed says. “That change has been quite successful for us, and we’re quite pleased with how things are going so far.”

How did the media company decide which direction to go?

“When we had to really kind of look at the business very closely and decide what we wanted to do, at that time there was a recession on, the marketing industry was going through quite difficult times, press/media sector going through some challenges as well. What we decided to do was  ... focus on building different products within our offering. Since then, we’ve developed around seven areas.”

The seven areas are include research, awards, a peer-to-peer learning network, branded content, and live events. 

Creed offers this advice: “The key is to be flexible to change, and when you see opportunities to really go for them. Try them out, experiment, be able to very quickly try new things, and move on if they don’t work as well as you’d hoped.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .