Guardian joins digital and display print sales teams

by Olivia Solon, Media Week 09-Jan-07, 10:39

Guardian News and Media has restructured its advertisement department to combine the Guardian Unlimited and display print teams into a single department named GNM Commercial.

The company has also created three general manager roles with responsibility for controlling costs and profitability, with Stuart Taylor being appointed general manager of The Guardian.
Stella Beaumont becomes general manager of The Observer, in addition to her role as director of strategy and business development. Tom Turcan, head of digital media development, is now general manager of Guardian Unlimited.

Taylor will remain commercial director of Guardian News and Media. However, the new appointment gives him a development role, including working on an imminent acquisition. The restructure places the online and print teams together physically and puts more emphasis on cross-platform selling.

"Increasingly, revenue sources are combining and blurring," Taylor said. "If big clients are spending with us on all platforms, we need not only deep specialist expertise in the team, but also a strategic and trading overview, offering clients a platform-agnostic approach across all media."
The restructure involves a number of senior promotions, including Chris Pelekanou, currently deputy ad director, who becomes sales director for GNM, taking overall responsibility for the newly merged digital and display print sales operation.
Mark Finney, previously client sales manager, and Simon Kilby, previously agency sales manager, have been promoted to group head level with responsibility for both print and digital. Finney becomes ad manager, clients, while Kilby becomes advertisement manager, trading.
GNM has also established a new research and development team under Steve Wing, previously head of advertisement strategy.
Wing, who takes the title head of research and development, will lead a team to focus on all emerging revenue opportunities for GNM Commercial, Guardian Recruitment Solutions and Guardian Ventures.
Taylor described the R&D team as "a skunkworks outfit" that will focus on new ways of making money across all platforms.
The team will report to Adam Freeman, deputy commercial director, who reports to Taylor. GRS, GNM Commercial and Guardian Ventures also report directly to Freeman.