As media companies move into new areas in search of profit, executive recruiting has become increasingly tumultuous. Brad Marks, chairman and CEO of the Los Angeles executive search firm, Brad Marks International, describes the situation this way: "I’d use the word churn."
     "It’s a positive churn that’s going on right now," he explains. "A lot of executives are being crosspollinated. They’re transitioning their skills into new technology areas. With the digital universe opening up, once again the opportunities about for many more jobs."
     Marks notes that the media companies have been in an increasing state of flux since the early 1980s, when cable and direct-broadcast satellite first became available. This has meant opportunities, not just risks for media executives. "A lot of companies today, under the pressure of their shareholders, are forced to be more profitable, to expand into new areas," he says. "As a result, executives in those companies are in areas that are new to them."
     Entertainment firms have benefited form this development, he maintains, "because it brings a broader perspective to those companies and makes them more competitive."
     While media executives now confront the prospect of abruptly getting the hook if they do not meet shareholders’ expectations, Marks believes the executive who takes risks will most successfully adapt to the changes. He offers two examples from his own files:

• In the late 1980s Marks was given the assignment of finding a new leader for Prime Ticket, the regional sports network subsequently known as Prime Sports and now as Fox Sports. He recruited John Severino, the general manager of KABC and former president of ABC. Severino was initially skeptical about leaving his twenty-year career with a major broadcast network. But after taking over Prime Ticket, Severino helped to boost its book value from between $50 million and $60 million to almost a quarter of a billion dollars.
• In 1994 when KNBC was looking for a general manager, Marks recruited Carole Black, who had never managed a broadcast station. Marks recommended her on the basis of her background in marketing. He felt that branding, a station’s ability to distinguish itself from its competitors, would become increasingly important in local broadcasting, which has proven to be the case. (Black has since moved on to become president and CEO of Lifetime).

    When Marks talks about executives who have made the transition from one area of the entertainment industry to another, he could also use himself as a case in point: he was president and CEO of his own production company, specializing in musical variety shows, and he created the Laker Girls for Los Angeles Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss.
     "I moved into recruiting because the market for musical variety shows fell off in the early 1980s," Marks says. His transition was sparked when he was interviewed for a job as head of television production at one of the major studios. The representatives from the search firm who interviewed him had no background in the entertainment business, he noted; their expertise was banking.
     Some time later he was talking with a friend, the head of a chain of broadcast stations, and commented on his interviewers’ cluelessness. "If you ever decided to do that, I’d use you to do all of my recruiting," his friend said.
     Once he determined that his friend wasn’t joking, Marks set about building a recruiting business, which quickly grew. In addition to broadcast television, he has branched out into cable, home video, motion pictures, music, and even Internet service providers. His company has a professional staff of six, plus researchers and support staff.
     Having been a recruiter since 1982, Marks notes one of the changes in the field is the different values companies now seek in their executive candidates. "When I started recruiting, we used to look for a long career track with one company, because it indicated loyalty and consistency," he says. "In today’s world we’re almost suspicious of someone who stays with a firm for too long, because we’re worried that their backgrounds are not electric enough."