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Movings/shakings: 25 November

New faces at Fairfax

Fairfax Sundays has announced a string of editorial changes to its team.

Bevan Hurley, chief reporter of the Herald on Sunday, will join Fairfax as deputy editor of the Sunday Star-Times. Among Hurley’s more notable recent pieces of journalism are his investigation into the Battle of Baghak, New Zealand’s most lethal firefight since the Vietnam War, and his break on the Malaysian diplomat allowed to skip the country despite having a charge of sexual assault. Despite moving into a leadership role, Hurley says that intends to continue reporting.

Hurley replaces Michale Donaldson, who is now working as a sport production editor for Fairfax Editorial Services (FES). 

StopPress contacted NZME regarding a replacement for Hurley, but we are yet to receive a reply. [Update: A spokesperson from NZME says that the recruiting process has already started and that there has been a high level of interest from candidates.]   

Julie Dann will move to take the newly created role of production editor, a position that will require her to ensure that the Sunday Star-Times and Sunday News are published on time. Dann has experience working on all three of New Zealand’s Sunday papers.

David Eames, who has been working with Fairfax on Fridays and Saturdays, has been appointed full-time news editor, a new role, which will see him working across two Sunday papers. Earnes is a former NZ Herald deputy chief reporter, Waikato Times news editor and AFR sub. According to a statement from Fairfax, he will work closely with news leaders, including David Gadd, Andrew Beach, Simon Bradwell, Keith Lynch, Tracy Watkins and Patrick Crewdson, to ensure the Sunday papers have the best stories for their national audience, and work seamlessly with Stuff and other Fairfax publications across the weekend.

Also, following on from the news that Unlimited magazine will be discontinued from December, editor Maria Slade (pictured here) will join the Auckland reporting bureau on 8 December in the new, senior role of Auckland issues editor. 

The Fairfax team has also been strengthened by the appointment of former Dominion Post reporter Paul Easton as a reporter (replacing Robb Kidd), the imminent return of journalist Marika Hill from maternity leave, as well as the arrival of Elesha Edmonds, a recent AUT graduate, on a two-month contract.

Taking the reins

PHD Group has announced the appointment of Robin Wilson to general manager of Spark PR & Activate.

Wilson joins the leadership team at PHD Group, bringing with him experience of running businesses specialising in content, social media, PR and experiential in both the UK and New Zealand. His current role is general manager of Fuse, another Omnicom Media agency, and he will transition to Spark PR & Activate from 1 February 2015. 

Chief executive Louise Bond said: “Robin’s significant leadership experience across all facets of PR and activation and years spearheading strategy and client work across retail, FMCG, technology made him the ideal candidate for our business, but his specific expertise within the digital landscape made him a clear standout for this role and we’re absolutely thrilled to be bringing him on board.”

During his career, Wilson has been behind several high profile campaigns, such as launching the iPhone in the UK, directing the corporate comms for Facebook’s European roll out and creating the European social media strategy for Holiday Inn.  He devised the Durex campaign ‘Things That Make You Go O!’ that won several awards, including the UK CIPR’s Best Digital Campaign and the Marketing Society’s Best Social Media Campaign.

At McCann Erickson, Wilson set up an award winning social media division before going on to create the agency’s content marketing business unit.

Wilson described the move into the new position as a “fantastic opportunity” and commended the quality of Spark PR & Activate’s work.  

“The guys there do excellent work and I can’t wait to build on what they’ve achieved and help drive some new thinking, particularly around social media and content marketing.”

Wilson will continue to advise Fuse clients and the Fuse team on strategy in the short term. 

Penny Harvie, who stepped in to run Spark PR & Activate during the general manager recruitment phase, will transition back into her operations role across PHD Group.

On the move again

Jo Jalfon is on the move again, having left her role as the project manager of World Cups Media at Tourism New Zealand to join TVNZ as brand marketing manager from next week (Tourism New Zealand is currently on the hunt for a replacement for Jalfon).

“[Jo] starts on 1 December,” says a TVNZ spokesperson. “It’s a newly created position [and she will be] responsible for our B2B strategy and communications, including developing trade and channel public relations. Our publicists will report to her as will the trade and events and brand manager roles.”

Jalfon has extensive industry experience in both managerial and communications roles, having previously served as the group communications manager for Foodstuffs, the communications manager for DB Breweries and as the senior experiential manager at Spark.  

Expanding the empire

Brendan Muller has been appointed Vevo’s country manager in New Zealand, and this will see him represent platform exclusively in Australia and New Zealand.

Acting as country manager for Vevo on behalf of Authentic Entertainment, Muller will oversee Vevo’s growth in the New Zealand market and drive innovation across its client base. 

Muller joins the team with extensive marketing and advertising experience, having worked as country manager for digital advertising company Exponential Interactive, and previously having held senior positions at Yahoo!Xtra and APN NZ.

Read more about Vevo’s expansion into New Zealand here.  

Filling the gap

In response to Muller’s move to Vevo, Exponential has promoted its New Zealand senior sales manager Sophie Radford to the position of sales director, New Zealand.

In her new role, Radford will be responsible for driving revenue and managing the sales team and budgets across New Zealand, as well as deepening and extending local brand, publisher and agency relationships.

“Sophie has been instrumental in building out the go to market sales strategies in New Zealand and her promotion reflects the pivotal role she has assumed within the local sales team” said Ben Maudsley, managing director APAC and South Africa at Exponential. “We are confident that under Sophie’s leadership, our sales operation in New Zealand will continue to expand and out-perform the market.”

A media executive with nine years’ experience, Radford has worked across both sides of the Tasman. Beginning her career in two Sydney based boutique media agencies, she moved to Auckland in 2010 to a media planning role at Zenith Optimedia, with a focus on digital. After two years working across a range of clients including Nestle, Panasonic and Reckitt Benckiser, Radford joined APN News and Media (now NZME) as a senior account manager working across key agency groups throughout New Zealand. While at APN she was responsible for a number of industry firsts including the first cross device campaign that ran across app, newspaper and digital. She joined Exponential as a senior sales manager in 2013 and will continue to be based in Auckland.

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