Sarah Thomson
CEO and Publisher of Women’s Post Media
Sarah (Whatmough) Thomson, CEO and Publisher of Women’s Post Media, has always had a passionate entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to make the world around her a better place.
Thomson left school at the age of 15 and traveled across North America to educate herself; she grew up quickly, and her first job pumping gas at 15 turned into her first business venture as franchisee of a service station at the age of 17. At 21 Thomson entered McMaster University and for 9 years (as a part-time student) to study philosophy. By the age of 24, Sarah was operating 4 service stations, she was awarded top Sunoco dealer for Canada two years running and ran another contracting business buying homes, renovating and selling them.
At 25 Thomson tried to change the zoning at one of her properties and although successful, she was angered by the incompetence of local Hamilton politicians. Believing she could do better, Thomson ran for council in the following election. When the local daily paper (Hamilton Spectator) ran an article the day before the election misquoting her, she watched as voters slipped away from her. Although she was defeated by only 200 hundred votes, her mission in life changed dramatically because she saw first-hand the power of influence the media held over public opinion. The power that one editorial could have over an entire community made Thomson decide that real change didn’t come from local politicians, but from thinkers and writers who could sway public opinion. To fix the city, Thomson decided that she would have more opportunity as the publisher of a newspaper.
Thomson set up and ran the Hamilton Examiner and it was there, with a lot of help from her friends and family, she learned every aspect of the publishing industry. “It was a huge learning experience,” she says. “From layout and design to distribution, editing, writing, and selling advertising. I had to do it all” After 5 years of learning and building the Hamilton Examiner Thomson sold it in order to launch and build a publication she believed would cater to a market that most newspapers were missing.
In 2002 Thomson became the first female publisher of a national newspaper designed for women with the launch of the Women’s Post. Her goal was to create a paper dedicated solely to the interest of professional women. She wanted to counterbalance the gender-biased communication prevalent in many newspapers. Thomson researched every aspect of her market and learned that the dry, factual data delivered by most of the daily newspapers was not appealing to women. They were missing out on a lot of information and knowledge simply because they couldn’t be bothered to struggle through dry, unappealing, articles. “The old facts-only journalistic style created a barrier for women, hindering their ability to collect knowledge effectively.” Thomson set out to create a newspaper that would deliver information to women in a format they could easily digest, using what she coins, “a first-person, intimate, narrative style.” Columns are written to tell a full story and cause an emotion. At the same time she wanted to “create a smarter alternative to all the crap that is out there for women.” And her strategy is working. Readership for the Women’s Post continued to grow and in Oct. 2009 the newspaper switched to a magazine format more suited to the highly educated businesswomen it caters to..
Thomson also launched the first online business community for women through the Women’s Post website at www.womenspost.ca .
Thomson is also president of the PSO, a strategy organization for CEO’s, Presidents and senior level executives (both men and women). Thomson saw the need for senior level executives to meet and discuss their challenges and business strategy with their peers. And thought that connecting executives in a roundtable type of atmosphere to discuss strategy could build long term relationships between them.
Sarah was one of the featured women in Patricia Lovett-Reid’s book Get Real: 26 Canadian Women share the Secret to Authentic Success. Patricia classified Sarah as the “Living definition of Success.” With encouragement from her husband and two young sons, Sarah is determined to inspire and motivate women to step up to the plate, take leadership positions and be all they can be.