News Group Digital sales director quits

by James Livesley, Media Week 17-Oct-06

David Roddick, the digital sales director for News Group Digital, which includes The Sun and The News of the World, is leaving the company without a job to go to.

Roddick's departure follows the appointment two weeks ago of Jim Mullen
as News Groups' digital strategy director. Mullen was previously board
director for digital at marketing services firm Arc Worldwide, part of

creative agency network Leo Burnett. He now reports to Mike Gordon,

general manager of News Group Newspapers.

In August, News Group also appointed its first head of mobile strategy
when Andrew Bagguley, former head of international portal management at
T-Mobile, joined the publisher.

Roddick has worked for News International for 17 years and started in
press advertising with Today newspaper. In 2001, he took on joint press
and online responsibilities, and in 2004 became a digital-only sales
director.

Earlier this year, News Group Newspapers hired Mark Chippendale,
formerly Yahoo!'s vice-president of European sales, to head advertising
for The Sun and News of the World.

Former Sky boss Chippendale now oversees sales across the red-top
papers' multimedia portfolio, including newspapers, internet and mobile,
and reports to Mike Anderson, managing director of NGN. He replaced
David Emin, who left the group earlier this year to take up the role of
sales director at Mirror Group Newspapers.