Trinity's Baker to lead Friends Reunited

by Andrew McCormick, Media Week 21-May-08, 13:00

LONDON - Friends Reunited has hired Trinity Mirror's director of digital recruitment Andy Baker as managing director.

Baker's appointment comes as the three Friends Reunited founders all change roles. Current Friends Reunited chief executive Michael Murphy becomes a non-executive director on the Friends Reunited board. Tim Ward, currently marketing director, will move to a similar role at ITV Consumer. The third founder, Rob Mogford, will continue as financial director of the site until the end of the year.

The three founders sold Friends Reunited to ITV for £120m in December 2005. The broadcaster may also have to pay up to £55m next year, depending on Friends Reunited's future financial performance.

Baker will lead ITV's social network into a key phase where ad revenues will become paramount, following the broadcaster's decision earlier this month to stop charging subscription fees for the service.

The site will play a major role in ITV's bid to expand its online operation. In September 2007, it set a target of generating £150m in annual online revenues by 2010. The strategy, as outlined at the time, was to generate at least 75% of this from online display, video and local classified advertising. The remaining 25% was to come from subscription and transactional services.

But there are question marks over whether ITV is on track to successfully meet its online revenue target. In Q1 2008, ITV's online revenues were £9m, up by just £1m from Q1 2007 - suggesting it has some way to go to hit its £150m annual online revenue target.