Emap Advertising Creates Commercial Director Role
David Hipkiss has been appointed to the newly created role of commercial director at Emap Advertising, taking up the six-month position to assess the size and scale of commercial opportunities within the group.
Hipkiss, who will report to director of finance operations at Emap, Jimmy Weir, moves to the job from his current role as Emap Advertising’s trading director – a position he has occupied since 2003, overseeing agency and client deal negotiations.
As commercial director, he will focus on the implementation of Emap’s new group procurement strategy, leveraging the scale of the group. He will target high expenditure areas to deliver cost reductions by consolidating spend. Hipkiss will also work on new business acquisitions and bring his negotiations skills to bear on a range of major contracts across the group.
He will continue to be involved with Emap Advertising, acting as negotiations advisor on key trading deals. John Judge, head of radio trading and Mark Hassall, agency director, will now report through to Karen Stacey, broadcast sales director, with Richard Hayes, head of magazine trading, and his team reporting to Jason Trout, magazines sales director.
“I’m delighted to take up this new position and am looking forward to the challenges and commercial opportunities ahead as we continue to develop Emap as a business,” said Hipkiss.
Hipkiss joined Emap in 1998 as part of the ‘On Air’ radio sales team, and has been on the board of Emap Advertising since launch in 2000. Prior to Emap he held roles at Vizeum (then BBJ Media), WCRS and at ITV sales.
At the end of May, Emap announced that its pre-tax profits were down 13% for the year ending March 31, to £193 million (see Media In The City: Emap Sees Pre-Tax Profits Fall).
The results, which also revealed that revenues at the company’s digital division increased by 32%, followed the departure of CEO Tom Maloney (see Emap Chief Executive Quits).
Last week rumours were circulating that the company had approached Future chief executive, Stevie Spring, about the vacant role (see Spring Could Be New Emap Chief Exec).
Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk