Nine has created two new leadership roles within its product division, which will further grow and differentiate the digital experiences and products across its diverse range of media assets, spanning TV, Radio, Publishing, Data and Commercial.
Lewis Evans, head of product for 9Now, has been promoted to the new role of director of product, streaming; responsible for the product strategy for Total TV and Total Radio across Nine, which includes product execution across platforms and audience, identity, UX and design.
Stuart Fagg will join Nine from News Corp in the new role of director of product, publishing; responsible for the digital product strategy, execution and management for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Australian Financial Review, and nine.com.au, including product ownership, design, authoring, and subscriptions.
Prior to his role as director of product, streaming, Evans spent more than eight years leading high performing product teams and executing streaming experiences for audiences at some of Australia’s largest media companies including Telstra, Freeview (where he is a member of the Board of Directors) and SBS where, as head of product and UX, he was instrumental in the transformation of SBS On Demand’s consumer experience.
In recent years he’s championed a step-change in Nine’s Total TV product strategy and, with recent enhancements across Live Streaming, laid the foundation for Nine’s ‘streaming first’ future.
Evans said: “It's an incredibly exciting time to be at the coal face of media innovation in Australia.
"I find it a real privilege to continue to lead the 9Now team through their phase of radical growth, while working closer with Nine’s radio and podcasting businesses to develop new and engaging digital experiences as the audio industry undergoes its own ‘streaming first’ transformation.”
Fagg brings 23 years’ experience in the media industry. He started out as a journalist and editor in London and Sydney, and for the past 16 years, has worked in digital product strategy and development across some of Australia’s best-known media brands.
Fagg was most recently GM of product at News Corp Australia, leading product strategy and development across The Australian, news.com.au, Vogue, GQ, Kidspot and Body & Soul, and the mobile apps portfolio.
Prior to this, he spent five years as GM of digital at The Australian, where he was instrumental in the transformation of product in the newsroom and helped to drive both sustainable profitability and annual double digit percentage growth in digital subscribers.
Fagg said: "I'm delighted to be joining Nine's product team. Nine's publishing brands are iconic, and the opportunity to drive the next phase of digital growth and delight customers is one I am genuinely excited by. Nine has a compelling strategy and vision and I'm looking forward to working with Bec and the team to bring it to life."
Nine’s chief product officer, Bec Haagsma said: “Every customer touchpoint is crucial to the delivery of Nine’s strategic plan and I’m so excited to welcome Lewis and Stu into these newly created roles within the Product team.
"Under their leadership, and with their deep product and audience experience, we’ll be in an even stronger position to roll out the next set of products, features and capabilities to support our business and delight our customers in 2023. Our digital distribution is a key part of the success of Nine’s strategy and product and technology is at the core of everything we do.”
Evans has already commenced in his role and Fagg will start in February 2023. Both roles report to Haagsma.
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