Wilcox and Willson
News UK has appointed David Wilcox as sales director for The Sun and Tammy Willson as sales director for The Times and The Sunday Times, it has been announced. The two new roles will report into chief commercial officer Dominic Carter.
The roles replace Karin Seymour, who has been sales director for all three titles since 2012 and are part of a wider restructure that formally ended this week. Seymour is now client strategy director, also reporting to Carter.
The restructure, however, has seen around 30 staff lose their jobs, Newsline understands.
News UK said the creation of title-specific sales roles is part of a broader strategic shift, recognising the “increasingly differentiated sales propositions” between the titles.
In November 2015 The Sun abandoned its paywall and is now operating under a free-to-access and mass audience strategy, unlike The Times and The Sunday Times, which both sit behind a paywall and focus on a smaller but more engaged subscriber-base.
The split means News UK will be able to promote more “bespoke” advertising packages.
Tammy Willson is currently News UK Commercial’s head of Lifestyle, a position she has held since 2013, and was previously head of advertising at Grazia magazine. Wilcox is currently News UK Commercial’s head of sales development. Prior to joining News UK David was agency group head at Telegraph Media Group.
“Creating title-specific Sales Director roles will help our customers to more effectively connect with their audiences through our individual title brands,” said Carter.
“With The Sun and The Times and The Sunday Times taking a different approach to connecting with their audiences online it makes sense to create more brand-focused roles and propositions.
“These new positions will give our titles the freedom to build differentiated and bespoke offerings, helping our customers to engage with their audiences through the channels and titles that speak most effectively to them.”
