BBC World News’ digital content director James Montgomery, who joined from the FT in 2009, finds his role disappears, while Mike Cronk, the division’s controller for future media, technology and distribution, is leaving. That could leave Montgomery favourite in applying for a new role of digital and technology director for Global News.
]]>BBC World News’ digital content director James Montgomery, who joined from the FT in 2009, finds his role disappears, while Mike Cronk, the division’s controller for future media, technology and distribution, is leaving. That could leave Montgomery favourite in applying for a new role of digital and technology director for Global News.
The roles being eliminated…
—Director of BBC World Service
—BBC Global News’ controller Future Media, Technology & Distribution (Mike Cronk)
—Head of governance and public affairs (Hugh Saxby)
—Director of BBC World News (Sian Kevill)
—Director BBC World Service English (Gwyneth Williams)
—Director of digital content, BBC World News (James Montgomery)
—Commercial director, BBC World News (Colin Lawrence)
—Controller, strategy business and development for BBC Global News (Jim Egan)
New roles…
—Controller of digital and technology, Global News (replacing Montgomery’s role)
—A business director (combining the Lawrence and Egan roles)
—A controller of English (combining Kevill and Williams’ roles)
—Controller of languages
Global News is the division that operates outputs like the BBC News site outside the UK, the BBC World News TV channel, the World Service and the BBC World News America show.
]]>Both appointments are interesting since News International papers are, of course, customers of the text-and-video news wire agency. Most of PA Group’s 27 shareholders are the main UK news publishers, including News Corp.
]]>Both appointments are interesting since News International papers are, of course, customers of the text-and-video news wire agency. Most of PA Group’s 27 shareholders are the main UK news publishers, including News Corp.
PA CEO Clive Marshall, in the announcement: “Rebekah’s understanding of the news media and her extensive contacts throughout the industry will be of enormous value as we continue to establish ourselves in the evolving digital landscape and diversify into commercial markets.”
Brooks: “PA Group is a flagship multimedia organisation with a distinguished 140-year history as the UK’s national news agency. I am excited to be joining the board and look forward to working with its impressive team of industry figures.”
]]>—Adconion: The ad outfit is upping Matthew Hunt from its Aussie office to be its UK MD. Via MW.
—Ben Hammersley: After cutting his time at Wired UK to editor-at-large, Hammersley has become digital director at new design house Six Creative. He’s also launching a new publishing tool, Budding, under his own steam.
—Ilana Fox Having recently left as ASOS.com’s social media manager, the former Sun and Daily Mail (LSE: DMGT) community editor is launching her own social marketing training and consulting agency, Spoke Digital, says NMA.
]]>—Adconion: The ad outfit is upping Matthew Hunt from its Aussie office to be its UK MD. Via MW.
—Ben Hammersley: After cutting his time at Wired UK to editor-at-large, Hammersley has become digital director at new design house Six Creative. He’s also launching a new publishing tool, Budding, under his own steam.
—Ilana Fox Having recently left as ASOS.com’s social media manager, the former Sun and Daily Mail (LSE: DMGT) community editor is launching her own social marketing training and consulting agency, Spoke Digital, says NMA.
]]>Veteran investor Mikko Suonenlahti is joining as senior adviser, to focus on investments in B2B, consumer software, medical technology, bio-IT and energy efficiency.
Meanwhile, Encore Ventures, the wing created by VC house DFJ Esprit last year to buy some of 3i’s tech investment portfolio, is also adding new staff to manage the companies…
]]>Veteran investor Mikko Suonenlahti is joining as senior adviser, to focus on investments in B2B, consumer software, medical technology, bio-IT and energy efficiency.
Meanwhile, Encore Ventures, the wing created by VC house DFJ Esprit last year to buy some of 3i’s tech investment portfolio, is also adding new staff to manage the companies…
Oxford Capital Partners’ investment manager Richard Marsh is joining as partner. Jefferies International technology associate Jonathan Freuchet-Sibilia is joining as investment manager. Marsh will manage “certain assets” amongst those inherited from 3I, though which ones are not named.
In September, DFJ raised £170 million from Coller Capital and Harbourvest, creating Encore through which to buy 29 3i portfolio companies. It only named six - Icera Semiconductors, Light Blue Optics, ApaTech, The Cloud, CamSemi and FastBooking. Encore remains headed by Charles Cameron.
]]>She’s becoming CEO of AlertMe, which sells home energy and security monitor boxes to consumers and lets them review the data through Google PowerMeter from anywhere via a monthly web subscription.
]]>She’s becoming CEO of AlertMe, which sells home energy and security monitor boxes to consumers and lets them review the data through Google PowerMeter from anywhere via a monthly web subscription.
Turner had been Tiscali’s long-time UK chief, but its acquisition by Carphone Warehouse last year “silenced” Turner, Times Online reckons. The AlertMe announcement says Turner had only “remained in an advisory capacity to the TalkTalk Group since the sale”. Carphone CEO Charles Dunstone, in the announcement, gives Turner a glowing exit review.
The £236 million sale price had to be renegotiated because Turners ISP had 160,000 fewer customers than originally advised, Carphone said earlier this year.
Cambridge-based AlertMe was founded in 2006 and is amongst the companies to try using technology to reduce homes’ carbon footprint. It’s funded by Good Energies, Index Ventures, SET Venture Partners, and VantagePoint Venture Partners. But, with electricity providers themselves already starting to issue electricity monitors to customers, AlertMe’s future may be in partnering with utilities rather than as a standalone service - it’s seeking partnerships.
]]>Shepherd held senior directorial positions at Guardian Unlimited and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) News in the late 90s and early noughties, tried his own blog publishing enterprise Messy Media in 2007, joined Channel 4 as future media solutions head in 2008, but left for the BBC in June 2009.
]]>Shepherd held senior directorial positions at Guardian Unlimited and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) News in the late 90s and early noughties, tried his own blog publishing enterprise Messy Media in 2007, joined Channel 4 as future media solutions head in 2008, but left for the BBC in June 2009.
]]>The latest: Kelly Sweeney, who- as Bebo’s head of original video productions - commissioned shows like The Gap Year and Sofia’s Diary for the site, is now becoming director of video for AOL Europe.
]]>The latest: Kelly Sweeney, who- as Bebo’s head of original video productions - commissioned shows like The Gap Year and Sofia’s Diary for the site, is now becoming director of video for AOL Europe.
Bebo’s European VP and MD Kate Burns was upped to run AOL’s European ad sales ops in July, replacing AOL UK MD Michael Steckler as well as Platform-A international head Brendan Condon.
Bebo froze original web TV commissions last year amid AOL’s cutbacks. Bebo itself has been de-emphasised in AOL’s portfolio, following its $850 million acquisition, and now sits in an AOL Ventures unit.
AOL’s media and marketing president David Shing, in the announcement says: “Video is a key focus for AOL this year.” But it’s unclear what that means. AOL is making a big play now of being a vertical content publisher. AOL Video UK is pretty low-profile so far - running clips from a small number of outside video publishers; but it can’t be that popular; front-page ads are all for AOL’s own properties.
Sweeney will manage these third party partnerships, and looks like she will also get to do original productions again. AOL tells paidContent:UK: “AOL has always been involved in original video productions (especially in the music space, with AOL Sessions and Live Events), however we are definitely looking to strengthen our involvement in this area throughout 2010.”
]]>So now executive chairman Elio Leoni-Sceti is on his way out; he’s being replaced by Charles Allen, the former CEO of the UK’s top commercial broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV), on March 31. Allen has chaired the board since January 2009.
]]>So now executive chairman Elio Leoni-Sceti is on his way out; he’s being replaced by Charles Allen, the former CEO of the UK’s top commercial broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV), on March 31. Allen has chaired the board since January 2009.
EMI, in its announcement, says Leoni-Sceti, who had been CEO of household goods maker Reckitt Benckiser, “has successfully led EMI Music through the first phase of its operational turnaround” - but there’s no explanation for the change, nor what phase two involves. “My job here is now done and it is time for me to move on,” says Leoni-Sceti, who has the cover interview in Management Today.
Indeed, within EMI Group itself, fortunes are looking up - 2008/09 earnings rose 7.4 percent to £1.56 billion, with recorded music (EMI Music) sales up 4.6 percent and music publishing (EMI Music Publishing) up 14.6 percent). The 2009/10 performance is likely to be better, benefitting from Beatles reissues including that Rock Band game.
But Terra Firma last year wrote off 90 percent of the $4.7 billion it spent on EMI in 2007 - ultimately, the label will be on high alert for yet more, wider changes. If Terra Firma loses control of EMI to its financier Citigroup, the bank may yet decide to break up or sell the label.
Leoni-Sceti undid some of the digital moves put in motion prior to his arrival - EMI hired high-profile Cory Ondrejka (Linden Labs) and Doug Merrill (Google) as digital strategy SVP and digital VP, before he bid them goodbye, wiping out digital as a standalone unit, replacing them instead with eight, more junior marketing execs.
]]>With this promotion, the 17-year Rhino vet takes responsibility for physical and digital sales, along with developing the global digital sales and promotion strategy for the company’s U.S. catalog. He’ll also be working with Warner Music International affiliates on their digital strategies and catalog efforts. He had been in charge of e-commerce activities in the U.S. and operating the international department. Dorn remains based in LA. “How do we globalize our efforts? It’s easier said than done. We trying to get everybody to row in the same direction.”
Not just for fans: As much as people may enjoy the retrospectives or fan compilations, “We don’t make products to sell to people who were there the first time. Every day there is some kid that discovers Led Zeppelin or The Doors or The Ramones and as far as they’re concerned, that’s new music.”
Expansion potential: “We have repertoires around the world that, because of the physical nature of the business up to now, we haven’t been able to sell everywhere. Now that digital has brought us the opportunity to have the never-ending opportunity of shelf space, it’s a great opportunity.”
New formats: Rhino was first with digital EPs and offered two of the first seven extended LPs for iTunes, How have the LPs worked out? “I’m going to qualify this. The initial launch was very successful. We sold thousands and were very happy.” But the way iTunes is set up, the extended LPs don’t always show ahead of standard, which can cost sales. Rhino has talked about the situation with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and it sounds like a fix is in the works. Dorn added, “I think that the LP is a really important next step in digital product packaging.”
Subscription music friend or foe?: “I think subscription music for us right now is a friend; I don’t look at most things and think foe.” Later he added, “My feeling is that there are a lot of consumers out there who are going to choose various paths. Some are going to spend money or take ownership of things. When they buy and take ownership of it, they’re really satisfied, like the handmade collectibles. They are also going to be people who say ownership is not for me. Our job to figure out how do we monetize these experiences. There are so many different kinds of consumers now.”
Related
]]>That follows the exit of digital EVP Gideon Bierer to be new media VP at International Game Technology. This gives O’Ferrall control of digital specifically, as well as leadership of regional country ops overall. He will have two masters - MTVNI president Robert Bakish in NY and MTVN UK TV EVP Heather Jones in London.
—Epiphany: The search marketing agency is following the arrival of MD Rob Shaw by luring its second Latitude exec - Andy Heaps is joining as search director.
—Specific Media: The ad company is adding Göran Eklöf as Sweden country manager as it enters the country following openings in Norway and Denmark last year.
]]>That follows the exit of digital EVP Gideon Bierer to be new media VP at International Game Technology. This gives O’Ferrall control of digital specifically, as well as leadership of regional country ops overall. He will have two masters - MTVNI president Robert Bakish in NY and MTVN UK TV EVP Heather Jones in London.
—Epiphany: The search marketing agency is following the arrival of MD Rob Shaw by luring its second Latitude exec - Andy Heaps is joining as search director.
—Specific Media: The ad company is adding Göran Eklöf as Sweden country manager as it enters the country following openings in Norway and Denmark last year.
]]>His new job sees him become the company’s director of marketing, strategy and communications. He will be relocating from London to headquarters in Paris.
]]>His new job sees him become the company’s director of marketing, strategy and communications. He will be relocating from London to headquarters in Paris.
The company’s chief executive, who recruited him, is Ben Verwayen, the former head of BT.
Carter was the founding chief executive of the communications regulator Ofcom between 2002-2006, and in that position led tense negotiations with BT (NYSE: BT), over local loop unbundling, accelerating the spread of broadband through competition.
After leaving Ofcom Carter worked briefly for the financial PR company, Brunswick. He then moved, again briefly, to assist Gordon Brown at Number Ten, which proved an uncomfortable brief.
He was then granted a peerage, and put in charge of the Digital Britain project, with offices at the Department of Business & Regulatory Reform, under Lord Mandelson, and the Department of Culture Media & Sport. He was tasked to create the framework for a fast broadband and networked British economy and society of the future. But he is widely judged to have damaged his standing by resigning as soon as the controversial report was delivered, rather than seeing it through the testing legislative process.
The digital economy bill is currently mired by disputes at the House of Lords committee stage, with opponents lined up against a number of its proposals, including an annual £6 levy on phone lines to pay for the extension of broadband to rural areas; concerns over copyright protection, including powers to cut off broadband to serial offenders; severe Conservative opposition to three publicly funded regional news pilots, and their additional belief that BT needs to be forced to open up its ducts to rivals, so they can lay superfast fibre.
]]>Lazar marks one of many recent departures from Yahoo’s mobile group. Over the past year-or-so, departures range from all the way at the top, like Marco Boerries, Yahoo’s EVP of the Connected Life Division, to its Chief Scientist Marc Davis to Steve Boom, SVP of Connected Life. And, only ten months after being promoted to global head of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Mobile, David Ko gained the additional responsibility for all of Yahoo’s content sites in North America.
]]>Lazar marks one of many recent departures from Yahoo’s mobile group. Over the past year-or-so, departures range from all the way at the top, like Marco Boerries, Yahoo’s EVP of the Connected Life Division, to its Chief Scientist Marc Davis to Steve Boom, SVP of Connected Life. And, only ten months after being promoted to global head of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Mobile, David Ko gained the additional responsibility for all of Yahoo’s content sites in North America.
Yahoo continues to operate its mobile search technology on its own despite the company’s search partnership with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). However, Yahoo has the ability to tap Microsoft for mobile if it decides that makes sense in the future.
In a letter sent to friends and colleagues, Lazar says he does not know what he will do next, but is taking time off and is considering moving back to the U.S. Lazar credits Yahoo for accomplishing a lot while he was there: “We didn’t have much of a business when I joined, but we now have over 100 mobile search and ad deals around the globe with the genesis of those beginning right here in the UK. Between those and the distribution deals with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and the OEMs we really created an exciting leadership position for the company.”
Related
]]>—EMI: Terra Firma chief Guy Hands is appointing turnaround specialist Peter Williams to the board of Maltby, the company used to finance the purchase of the label, which is seeking £120 million to avoid breaching loan covenants. The recorded-music division is prepping another new business plan, FT.com says.
—T-Mobile CMO: Ahead of the Orange merger, UK chief marketer Srini Gopalan is moving to rival Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) UK as consumer business director, replacing Ian Shepherd. Via DMEurope.
—FT’s MGA ed: Financial Times has named managing editor Dan Bogler president and editor of Medley Global Advisors (MGA), the investment bank info service it bought this month. He’s charged with expanding the service outside its native U.S.
—Archant: The regional news publisher is adding Ogilvy & Maher’s Africa director Mike Walsh to its board as a non-exec director. Archant says Walsh raised over £100 million in aid as chair of the UK Disasters Emergency Committee - so no jokes about newspapers being a charity case, please.
]]>—EMI: Terra Firma chief Guy Hands is appointing turnaround specialist Peter Williams to the board of Maltby, the company used to finance the purchase of the label, which is seeking £120 million to avoid breaching loan covenants. The recorded-music division is prepping another new business plan, FT.com says.
—T-Mobile CMO: Ahead of the Orange merger, UK chief marketer Srini Gopalan is moving to rival Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) UK as consumer business director, replacing Ian Shepherd. Via DMEurope.
—FT’s MGA ed: Financial Times has named managing editor Dan Bogler president and editor of Medley Global Advisors (MGA), the investment bank info service it bought this month. He’s charged with expanding the service outside its native U.S.
—Archant: The regional news publisher is adding Ogilvy & Maher’s Africa director Mike Walsh to its board as a non-exec director. Archant says Walsh raised over £100 million in aid as chair of the UK Disasters Emergency Committee - so no jokes about newspapers being a charity case, please.
]]>Stark has been with Channel 4 since April 2008; before that he was a business development executive at Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED), overseeing VOD strategy among his remit.
]]>Stark has been with Channel 4 since April 2008; before that he was a business development executive at Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED), overseeing VOD strategy among his remit.
Channel 4, like other broadcasters, has been extending its footprint through third-party syndication deals, and Stark is credited with playing a big role here. Channel 4 says he led negotiations for Channel 4 when it joined Project Canvas in December.
He also helped secure deals to put 4oD long-form content on the recently-launched SeeSaw, as well as YouTube and Virgin Media. And he helped move 4OD content onto mobile, in a deal with Orange in the UK.
The broadcaster in January announced a new chief executive, David Abraham.
Channel 4 has not yet announced a replacement for Stark.
]]>Wheeler’s departure comes amid a restructuring at ITN that included 15 job cuts and a salary freeze for 2010. At the time, ITN also reorganised into three divisions: ITN Productions, ITN Source and ITN Consulting and Ventures. ITN On’s production arm is now part of the production division.
]]>Wheeler’s departure comes amid a restructuring at ITN that included 15 job cuts and a salary freeze for 2010. At the time, ITN also reorganised into three divisions: ITN Productions, ITN Source and ITN Consulting and Ventures. ITN On’s production arm is now part of the production division.
Wheeler has headed the multimedia division since 2002 and has been responsible for a number of groundbreaking deals to syndicate ITN’s news, entertainment and lifestyle content to new platforms.
He was one of the earliest advocates in the UK for mobile content among media companies. “Mobile is at the heart of our developing business,” he told me back in 2004. “We’re not going to grow a long running contract with established clients. This is our new business, and among all our new business opportunities it’s up there as number one or two of what we’re doing.”
ITN On provides content to portals like MSN, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), blinkx, as well as YouTube, Bebo, The Telegraph, 3, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), T-Mobile and Orange, among others.
But new business with new clients hasn’t been enough to offset declines elsewhere: the November announcement on restructuring came after a £3 million pre-tax loss for the first half of the financial year.
The broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV) owns 40 percent of ITN; Daily Mail (LSE: DMGT), United Business Media (LSE: UBM) and Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) each have a 20 percent stake.
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]]>Tim Morgan moved out of Mint’s Vauxhall HQ in to new Clerkenwell offices and will now concentrate on Football3s, together with the site’s developer, designer and marketer.
]]>Tim Morgan moved out of Mint’s Vauxhall HQ in to new Clerkenwell offices and will now concentrate on Football3s, together with the site’s developer, designer and marketer.
Mint builds social-centric websites mostly for clients in broadcasting, including Channel 4 and the BBC. In 2008, it developed Football3s, a web game that sees players compete to pick the best-performing three players during live televised football matches.
The service could provide application to potential third-party partners during this World Cup year; the technology could theoretically be re-deployed on sports other than football and involve betting elements.
]]>It’s shifting its Total Film, SFX and DVD Review publishing director Simon Maxwell to the role, which is responsible for 11 print titles, online sides like gamesradar.com and computerandvideogames.com, Future’s debut on-console mag FirstPlay and the group’s Golden Joystick Awards.
]]>It’s shifting its Total Film, SFX and DVD Review publishing director Simon Maxwell to the role, which is responsible for 11 print titles, online sides like gamesradar.com and computerandvideogames.com, Future’s debut on-console mag FirstPlay and the group’s Golden Joystick Awards.
Future has always had a strong games magazine portfolio but last week it said the portfolio was hurt from 40 percent fewer AAA and “A” games being released last year, as it announced October-to-December revenue fell 12 percent from the prior year.
At the same time, Future is moving its games portfolio publishing director James Binns to take its Edge magazine global, as head of Edge International.
Both will report to Future UK CEO Robert Price.
]]>—BBCWW: Sharon Baylay has joined the board of BBC Worldwide. She is currently the marketing director for the BBC, and had previously been the general manager for Microsoft’s Online Services Division in the UK.
—Audience Science: One of the ex-Yahoos has landed. Roger Williams is joining ad targeting specialist AudienceScience as its director of international marketing. He had held the same role at Yahoo-owned Right Media, but left at the beginning of January as part of the company restructuring. (Via NMA.)
]]>—BBCWW: Sharon Baylay has joined the board of BBC Worldwide. She is currently the marketing director for the BBC, and had previously been the general manager for Microsoft’s Online Services Division in the UK.
—Audience Science: One of the ex-Yahoos has landed. Roger Williams is joining ad targeting specialist AudienceScience as its director of international marketing. He had held the same role at Yahoo-owned Right Media, but left at the beginning of January as part of the company restructuring. (Via NMA.)
]]>Shing is replacing AOL Europe’s previous head of media and marketing, Rohit Agarwal, who took voluntary redundancy and is expected to leave sometime this summer, according to a spokesperson AOL Europe. AOL has been offering redundancy to employees as part of its restructuring. Shing is assuming the role immediately, and is understood to be working with Argawal.
]]>Shing is replacing AOL Europe’s previous head of media and marketing, Rohit Agarwal, who took voluntary redundancy and is expected to leave sometime this summer, according to a spokesperson AOL Europe. AOL has been offering redundancy to employees as part of its restructuring. Shing is assuming the role immediately, and is understood to be working with Argawal.
Shing’s brief includes online, offline, social and viral partnerships for AOL, as well as its brand and product range.
Eugenia Makhlin is taking over as the new European marketing director, Shing’s old role. She had been a marketing director at AOL’s NY office, and had worked for Google (NSDQ: GOOG) before that.
AOL Media in the U.S. recently saw a big management change too: earlier this month, David Eun joined as division’s president. He is responsible for more than 80 content sites, SEED.com, recent acquisition StudioNow as well as AOL’s NYC and LA studios. Eun had been in charge of content partnerships for YouTube and Google.
Last week, AOL announced three changes in its sales team in the UK: Toby Morris, Andrew Moore and Rob Blake are now respectively head Premium Sales, Agency Relationships and Performance Sales, all reporting directly to Kate Burns.
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]]>Now it’s taking on James Cridland, a former audio and music head with the BBC’s online wing, as a part-time adviser to try to drive business custom from radio broadcasters.
]]>Now it’s taking on James Cridland, a former audio and music head with the BBC’s online wing, as a part-time adviser to try to drive business custom from radio broadcasters.
AudioBoo wants to be a classic freemium service, with the majority of uploads contributed by users of its free service and industry clients paying for extra features.
The service already claims dozens of professional media users and has been courting premium users for some months but, so far, only the Royal Opera House, Open University, co-investor UBC Media and an unnamed fourth client are paying for the extra features, which include pre-moderated audio uploads. But Mark Rock, CEO of AudioBoo parent BestBefore Media, reckons Cridland might help change that…
“We have a feeling that it could prove immensely useful to radio stations in terms of user-generated content,” he tells paidContent:UK. “That’s where the whole idea came from whilst working with Channel 4 Radio (AudioBoo was conceived on C4’s aborted DAB effort). However, we haven’t got a clue how the radio industry works, its challenges and workflows, as well as what kinda devices are going to pop up in the next few years. That’s where James comes in, since he’s been thinking about all these things for years.”
Cridland is a radio geek who, prior to joining the BBC, was the online director running Virgin Radio’s pioneering and well-respected digital efforts. Since leaving Auntie in August, he appears to have been having a whale of a time touring radio stations around the world, whilst knuckling down on his own MediaUK.com side project.
]]>