Pacific CEO Gereurd Roberts named Seven’s chief digital officer
Seven has named its new chief digital officer. Pacific Magazines CEO Gereurd Roberts will step into the position, meaning he won’t leave the business in the event the Bauer Media buyout of Pacific is approved.
The sale is still being considered by regulators and Roberts will stay in the role of CEO until it is approved.
Roberts was appointed as the CEO of Pacific in 2016 after several leadership roles with the publisher, including as general manager, commercial director and publisher.
His movement to CDO of Seven West Media is part of a management team restructure, which will see eight positions – chief content officer (yet to be appointed), chief digital officer, chief marketing officer, chief revenue officer, commercial director, chief financial officer, chief people and culture officer, and the CEO of Seven West Media in Western Australia – report into CEO James Warburton.
In the new role, Roberts will be responsible for broadcast operations, digital product and technology, and information technology.
Warburton said Roberts would take an important leadership role over the company’s digital assets.
“I’m delighted to appoint Gereurd to this key role. Our online assets have never been more important, as digital platforms transform media and present us new opportunities. Through our BVOD service 7Plus, which has grown 51% year on year, and 7News.com.au, we’re well positioned for future. Gereurd will build on the digital growth he delivered at Pacific, where he grew its digital footprint by 70%, in his new role,” said Warburton.
“We’re already delivering innovative new digital propositions to the market, including CODE 7 and contextual ad placement service, 7CAP. Plus, we’re gearing up to measure our combined broadcast and BVOD audience with VOZ from early next year, which will provide the first holistic view of the reach and power of TV across all screens. I look forward to the results I know Gereurd will deliver from our digital properties into the future, particularly as we approach Tokyo 2020.”
Roberts brings over two decades of experience in the media space, having held prior roles with the Guardian and ACP (now Bauer Media).
Speaking about his appointment, Roberts said he looked forward to furthering the reach of Seven’s digital assets.
“I’m thrilled to take on this vital role in the business. We are clear about the importance of our digital assets in driving our content led growth strategy and I look forward to leading that charge, capturing the attention of audiences across all Seven touchpoints by delivering engaging content through our online platforms.
“With 7Plus and 7News.com.au, which has established itself as one of Australia’s top five news website in just seven months, we are in an enviable position. I can’t wait to take our digital assets to the next level, and to work with the entire SWM team to build Australia’s most innovative, digitally-led media organisation.”
Earlier this year, Charlotte Valente was named chief marketing officer of Seven. The media company still has to announce its chief content officer. That role will join existing positions including chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette, commercial director Bruce McWilliam, chief financial officer Warwick Lynch, chief people and culture officer Katie McGrath and CEO of Western Australia for Seven West Media Maryna Fewster.
Seven’s on screen diversity mirrored at the executive level.
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That’s a nice reward for him. Some seriously great PacMags people are unemployed this Christmas and every single person going to the inevitable gallows at Bauer knows exactly what happened, and how it happened, and will never, EVER forget.
Congrats on the appointment.
Go white males. Seven is as Seven does.
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Capitalism doesn’t care about skin colour, it only cares about the ‘green’ $
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Mags CEO for CDO? not sure that’s the best choice. they should look outside old school media.
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When’s the new content boss coming?
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I don’t think anyone could argue that the Pac Mags digital offering is anything to write home about. And Roberts appears to have spent his media career running/selling print assets. Strange choice for CDO.
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I think Pacific Mags was valued at $400 mill at one stage and now it’s been sold to Bauer for $40 mill. They are also less digital than their competitors News, Bauer, MamaMia et al.
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Depends exactly what (former) Pac assets you are talking about. Plenty are unimpressive but New Idea alone destroys the entire Bauer network in traffic.
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quite possibly – I don’t have access to most recent Neilson numbers. But given Bauer’s highly unimpressive traffic numbers (that “to love” network Bauer created to house most of its digital assets has been an abject failure) , that’s not exactly a stellar result.
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