First Digital to go as Private Media and AIBM split ad sales
Sales house First Digital,which works across Private Media and AIBM, is to be disbanded with both organisations selling their own ads.
Private Media publishes Crikey, SmartCompany, StartupSmart, The Power Index and Property Observer, while AIBM’s titles include Business Spectator, Eureka Report, Climate Spectator and Technology Spectator.
Both organisations have a common shareholder in Eric Beecher and work out of the same building. The two companies will continue to cooperate in areas including staff training, content sharing and marketing.
Private Media CEO Amanda Gome said that the split made sense because both publishers have been growing. She said: “It’s a good news story. Private Media intends to launch at least two new publications next year and is growing rapidly.”
One of the publications – to be called Leading Company – will focus on the big end of town. The other title has not yet been revealed.
First Digital CEO Tim Johnson, who joined the company five months ago after working at Telstra, will leave after the transition process has been completed.
Business Spectator and Eureka Report is currently advertising for a commercial director.
Nicholas Gray, publisher of Business Spectator said: “We work very closely with advertisers to provide highly targeted solutions that result in excellent ROIs. So it makes sense to have our own sales teams.”
“We have invested in a platform which delivers customised content and audience targeting for advertisers, and the market expects our sales team to deeply understand our products.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Hi. Thanks for the calls. I’m going to Google! Tim J
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Nice press release. I’ll be working solely for Private Media from January onwards.
Also – Tim Johnson has been great and we’re all sad to see him go to the Republic of Google.
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