NewsLifeMedia has shaken up its sales team, with the business eyeing off a content led position as brands up their focus on earned media.
To capitalise on the content creation trend, from today, its group sales and commercial integration teams will merge to form a specialised content-focused sales model across three core lifestyle genres – food and family, premium living and style.
The moves sees four roles being named with Paul Blackburn assending to the role of director of sales and strategy, Nicole Bencehas will be sales and strategy director for food and family, Milena Hopkins has been named sales and strategy director for premium living and Nicole Waudby will become sales and strategy director, style.
The hires will work across specific areas and titles with Blackburn telling AdNews that the specialty will bring a new edge to what the team will be able to do in market.
“What seems to be happening more and more is people want to work with native content and custom content, so to have our frontline sales people specialise means we can have more meaningful conversations with those clients,” he said.
When discussing the new structure Blackburn explained that Condé Nast's branded content arm 23 Stories, that the publisher launched early this year is an example of what NewsLifeMedia hopes to explore down the track. He also said that this move by the NewsLifeMedia is simply about embracing the trends that the business is seeing.
“You see programmatic trading, it's been talked about and talked about and it's coming and we think it's coming with a vengeance. We want to allow this trading to happen that way, but then we see our role as specialists and being able to interpret the data that we're getting around lifestyle and lead that insight for clients so they can have that deeper connection.
“That's the role that our sales and strategy team, with the approach we're taking, will be able to do. Telling a brand story is going to happen if we have an element of specialisation around the audience with the brand that we're working with, rather than being generalists – jack of all trades but masters of none.”
CEO of the business, Nicole Sheffield, said it became very clear that a specialist content sales network was “paramount” for the business to provide solutions and innovations to connect with audiences both inside and outside our networks.
“NewsLifeMedia is a content connection business that is always innovating, through our brands, editorial and the way we connect with consumers. We wanted to ensure that is reflected through our sales structure.”
The NewsLifeMedia sales operation remains under the leadership of commercial director Sev Celik.
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