Southeast Missourian hires ad director from St. Charles County

When Adam Burnham first considered the advertising field as a profession, he imagined he'd get a job at an advertising agency developing campaigns for businesses.

But while he was still a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, he took a job in retail sales at Circuit City to help make ends meet. He still figured he'd get a job at an ad firm when he graduated, but he saw that working in retail sales could be rewarding.

"I liked talking to the actual customers and getting to know their needs," Burnham said. "I saw that it was something that I could do and enjoy."

When he did graduate, he was interviewed by several advertising agencies, but he was intrigued by a position with the St. Louis Suburban Journals.

He took it, loved it and thrived in it -- a move that has never taken him far from newspaper advertising and has culminated with Burnham, 31, being named the new advertising director for the Southeast Missourian. Burnham was most recently the advertising director of the Suburban Journals in St. Charles County.

Co-president and publisher Jon Rust said the process to locate an excellent advertising director for the Southeast Missourian was an extensive one and included interviews with more than a dozen candidates.

Burnham was responsible for launching several new publications with the Suburban Journals and managed advertising sales in St. Charles County with his staff for all the Suburban Journals, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, StlToday.com and Local Values, Rust said.

Burnham's first job at the Journals was over a "poor territory" in north St. Louis County by Lambert International Airport. Burnham quickly doubled the monthly revenue for his territory.

He said it came naturally.

"I knew how to market and build a relationship with the customer," he said.

He moved up to major accounts, largely auto dealerships in St. Charles County. He took a brief 14-month hiatus, working in Internet sales.

Burnham returned to the Journals, but he said his career had stalled because the next step up would have been to become a publisher, and there just weren't any openings.

So when a recruiter called him about the Missourian job, he was interested.

"I'd heard nothing but great things about the Southeast Missourian and the Rusts," he said.

Burnham sees his job as promoting the newspaper to businesses as well as helping customers grow their customer base. Burnham said he expects to see double-digit growth in his department within the next three years.