Working Mother CEO Carol Evans Argues for Investment in Diversity Opportunities by Ad Community

By The Myers Report Archives
Cover image for  article: Working Mother CEO Carol Evans Argues for Investment in Diversity Opportunities by Ad Community

Working Mother Inc. personifies the media company of the future, a fully integrated media, marketing, multi-platform, events and public affairs company. Acquired by Carol Evans just days after September 11, 2001, Working Mother Magazine has been rapidly expanding its digital content and the Working Mother brand has evolved to one of the corporate world's most valued and respected resources on diversity issues. Today, a significant share of Working Mother revenues are generated from conferences and corporate events, the company's programs honoring the most successful companies for working mothers in various categories, and from international expansion.

"Working mothers are the number one users of the Internet for buying and information," Evans shared with Jack MyersMedia Business Report in an exclusive interview. "We know we have a valuable audience and we've transitioned from a small magazine company with a focus on events to understanding how to use the web in original and innovative ways," expanding beyond working moms' message boards and blogs to social networking, photo sharing, video blogs and e-commerce.

Working Mother has developed initiatives that expand on the successful Best Companies initiative, including diversity programs, best law firms for women, best green companies for America's children and best small companies, with additional initiatives planned. "With companies in the media and advertising world struggling with diversity issues, it's a hot topic for our business," Evans believes. "We've created a huge platform focused on diversity that changes corporate culture and can change the culture of a whole industry. We're looking at whole industries one at a time to tell the diversity story."

The next phase of growth is support for affinity groups that meet to support the advancement of specific groups, such as gay and lesbian, Asian women, Black women, Latinos, etc. "Affinity groups are internal advocates and they can be external advocates for community relations, talent recruitment, and marketing," Evans points out. "They gather together in person and online in the spirit of good will as well as to communicate complaints." Earlier this month, Working Mother hosted an Affinity Leadership Conference, bringing together 500 diversity officers and affinity group leaders with corporate CEOs and senior management.

"The media and advertising industry is just waking up to the idea that these affinity groups can really help with marketing," Evans believes. "We are learning how affinity groups can influence product development and marketing. Companies are using affinity groups as internal advisory boards. The ad industry doesn't yet know much about it but it is happening at their client companies. Major national advertisers are all are looking to how their affinity groups can contribute to product development, community relations, talent development. It's cutting edge stuff," says Evans.

Although Advertising Women of New York and Working Mother are hosting an Advertising Working Mothers of the Year event in January, Evans suggests the ad agency community is lagging in development of affinity groups. In the media community several TV network companies such as Turner Broadcasting and MTV Networks have established affinity groups. Jack MyersMedia Business Reportis planning to work with Working Mother to support initiatives in the media company and media agency communities and is now in discussions with possible sponsors.

Through the Best Companies for Working Mothers program, Evans has positioned www.WorkingMother.com as an online resource for corporate human resources executives on diversity best practices, offering access to available research and helpful information. "We are the only company that has actual data on the representation of women of color in corporate America," Evans says proudly. "We are the only company that knows everything companies are doing to support working women and women of color. As we build out the site, we will have representation figures on all minority groups and will expand our services for both working women and the companies they work for."

After acquiring the company she had once worked at as publisher, Evans focused on the 100 Best Companies franchise, realizing it offered a platform for shifting corporate culture. She invited a group of diversity officers from several companies to join her in New York to discuss their issues as part of the launch of a Best Companies for Women of Colorprogram "We thought we would have 200 women attend and 400 came. We were blown away," says Evans. "One of the attendees told me to 'go home and tell your daughter her mommy parted the waters today.' No one had looked at women as a double minority or dealt with corporate diversity issues in that context."

She continues, "our learning has exploded and we have uncovered the fact that white women don't think of themselves as having a race; they don't know that women who are not white don't trust them. They think of white women the same way we think of white men – helpful individually but not collectively. When we started our journey, white women in our groups started seeing women of color were talking honestly about their feelings, and the ability to talk across racial divides has impacted thousands of people. The perception is we are on their side."

When Evans realized how little was being offered to support diversity executives and working women of color, she began scheduling town hall meetings around the country. IBM asked the company to expand their program globally, even though there was no international version of the publication. "They liked work we were doing face to face and convinced us it was important for us to be global on their behalf. A multi-platform company can grab onto opportunities. With conferences we can extend the message and the brand globally." With underwriting support from IBM, J&J, Sun, Wal-Mart and HP, Working Mother has developed three –day diversity and best practices conferences to Canada and Brazil, with additional expansion planned in the next years to Europe, India, China and other locales. "There are strong brilliant women in emerging nation, but like 15 years ago in the U.S., they have to still cajole their husbands into understanding they have very sophisticated jobs. Their environment is 15 year ago socially but contemporary in terms of responsibilities," Evans comments.

With the acquisition last year of Diversity and Best Practices, a membership organization of chief diversity officers from 175 companies, Evans now has a platform to expand similar programs for minority men, people with disabilities, and other groups. Working Mother is also expanding its conference business to vertical industries, last year launching an event for 250 senior diversity executives in the pharmaceutical industry supported by fourteen leading companies.

The October issue of Working Motherwas the biggest in 28 years, demonstrating the value of cross platform initiatives to the core business.

For more information contact carolevans@workingmother.com

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