Andrea King is about to be recognized for her hard work and diligence at State 23 Media, in Portland, Maine.
Born and raised in St. John’s, King will be honoured June 7 by Folio magazine as one of its Top Women in Media Award for 2018.
The recognition from Folio magazine comes as the latest milestone in a career spanning positions from Newfoundland to Ottawa to Britain and the United States.
King grew up in St. John’s, gained entrepreneurial experience through work at the Genesis Centre, overseen by her father David King from 1993-2015, and was a Dean’s List grad from Memorial. She earned her masters in international affairs from Carlton in 2003 and earned an executive master of business administration (MBA) from the London Business School in 2010.
She has held a host of jobs from starting as a research consultant at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa in 2002 to working for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as a senior advisor on the board of directors in London in 2011.
From there, things changed, and she needed to decide what came next.
“I left my job on the board of directors with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London in late 2010 when I was seven months pregnant and moved to Vermont,” she said.
“My husband had been living there and had children from a previous marriage who we wanted to be close to. We didn’t want to live in a big city with small children. As you can imagine there aren’t international organizations in Vermont, so I knew I was going to start my own business,’’ she added.
Enter Aristelle Luxury Retail into the picture. After conversations with her mother, Geraldine, who was working in a similar location in St. John’s, Aristelle was founded in 2012.
The shop has helped countless numbers of women find bras and lingerie to perfectly suit their shape, size and age. The company earned numerous awards for its diligence in the market. Its goal is to give lingerie shoppers extraordinary fit, comfort and style in a shopping experience enjoyable and satisfying.
She started with a store in Burlington, Vt., and added a second location in Portland, Me.
Then things started to change … and rapidly — in 2016 she joined Maine Media Collective as chief operating officer and associate published.
“I had been a client/advertiser of the media company for several years and appreciated how far-reaching it was,’’ King said of Maine Media Collective, which later became State 23 Media.
“In addition to several monthly publications, they had a radio show, produced the largest food and wine festivals, other well-attended events, had their own branding and marketing company as well as producing their own Ted talk-style events at which I spoke about body confidence and the power of positive marketing,’’ she added.
Somewhere into this venture it all changed and instead of moving onward and upward, it became a scramble to survive.
She said the former owner the company was facing a #metoo harassment case brought against him from eight years earlier, which led quickly to advertisers and partners distancing themselves from the company.
It was quickly recognized that the company needed to be sold. A group of investors stepped in, supported her vision for restructuring and King was named CEO to steer the company — now called 23 State Media — back to success.
Advertising woes
King said the turmoil caused more than half of the advertisers to pull out. This was problematic as more than 97 per cent of the revenue for the company came from there.
She set out to make sure it worked and for a host days, many of them 14-16-hour days, she worked to ensure the rebuild was successful.
The Maine Home + Design magazine is now back to 90 per cent in ad sales and Maine magazine is currently at 70 per cent and looks forward to continuing to build it up, she said.
“I am pleased with that. I wanted to ensure we are up to standards,’’ she said. “We changed the HR policies and practices, so we can take the company to a whole new professional level.”
The company went through layoffs and restructuring but with the turnaround phase now complete, the team is where it needs to be, King said.
“After a Me-Too scandal, companies like ours generally go under,’’ King said. “So to bounce back from that — overcome a host of challenges — this year has been pretty darn good.”
Those successes, the turnaround in fortunes and the fact the company survived, led King to be nominated for a Top Women in Media Award to be handed out at the Folio magazine dinner in New York June 7.
Her boss and co-managing investor in State 23 Media, Bruce Hallett — the former president of Sports Illustrated and Time magazines and publisher of Play Bill magazine — put her name forward.
King said the accolade is a boost for the whole company.
“This has been a hard year. Through entrepreneurial hustle, this was a nice affirmation to the team. We are being recognized for being good at what we do,’’ she said. “It makes it all worth it in the end.”
She credits her Newfoundland background with taking the situation in a head-on fashion and working through it.
“Turning challenges into opportunities and the ability to reinvent oneself,” she said
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