It’s B&T’s Celebration Of Adland’s Over 50s! Meet Story 54’s Jane Waterhouse

It’s B&T’s Celebration Of Adland’s Over 50s! Meet Story 54’s Jane Waterhouse
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



Did you miss the latest print edition of B&T? Well, if you did, you need to urgently subscribe here.

And undoubtedly one of the standout features in the bumper new print edition is B&T’s ’15 Over 50′ feature that shines a light on some of the mature, wiser sages of Australia’s advertising, marketing and media industries.

With ageism an ongoing issue throughout adland, ’15 Over 50′ highlights the importance of having a few “grey hairs” about the place and the huge loss of experience, expertise and knowledge that exits when industry veterans quit for greener pastures.

Next in our ’15 Over 50′ profiles is none other than general manager of Bauer Media’s Studio 54, Jane Waterhouse. She is the former CEO of We Magazines, publisher of The Hoopla, and managing director of marketing and publishing company Sister. Here’s her experience in her own words:

Speaking for women, the drop off in media is around 35 when women start to have families. Generally, the media industry has not been supportive of working mums and their demand for more flexible working hours and environments, and it has been met with some deafness. So many women, like myself, use that time to go and start their own businesses or consultancies that work around their family, but oddly they can’t find work when they are in their career prime after children. Some parts of the industry are recognising the need to adapt, they see the incredible benefits of having older, wiser women in their workforce. Women also can’t be what they can’t see. They’re wanting to see more 50-plus women – as long as they have stayed relevant to an ever-changing industry.

In all my 25 years of marketing and publishing to women I have never seen a change like the last 18 months and the emergence of what we call the “redefined woman”. It is the biggest pendulum swing I have seen. I also think that overall there has been a shift, not always for the better, around humour. Comedy seemed to lose its way for a while as we readjusted to the new norm of acceptance and open-mindedness in all communications. Finally, the rise of what I call “agent anxiety” in generation Y and Z and the EQ required to deal with it as a manager is profound.

What’s a random fact about you?

When I was young I started my own clothes label in the 80’s that was very rock n’ roll; lots of leather, vinyl, heavy zippers, religious iconography. Michael Hutchence and Elton John were some of my customers.

 




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