Bauer Media has announced two executive team appointments and a number of advertising leadership roles as part of the new-look structure under new managing director Tanya Walshe.
Walshe took over from Brendon Hill in June after he was promoted to chief executive of Bauer’s Australia and New Zealand business and says the “major focus of her first month has been on finding the right people.”
“Bauer New Zealand has some of the best creative minds in the business and teaming that up with strong business skills and proven commercial and digital performance will drive innovation and ensure our strong brands maintain their influence and relevance,” Walshe says.
L-R: Anne Chen, Rachel McLean, Anna Magasiva and Stuart Dick.
Anne Chen has been hired as general manager digital and new ventures.
Chen has 15 years’ experience leading business transformation through a combination of expertise in customer experience design, driving new commercial models, monetisation of data, and excellence in technology and operational delivery through digital.
Chen has been head of digital experience at Vodafone NZ and head of digital at Spark, both large and complex organisations with significant digital priorities. She’s also led digital at Les Mills for both the New Zealand and international markets.
Prior to these roles, Chen was interactive product manager for NZ Lotteries, wireless product manager for Yellow and she started her career as channel content manager for Vodafone. She has both a Bachelor of Business and an MBA. She replaces Michael Fuyala who left to set up his own business.
“Not only does Anne bring heavyweight digital experience to Bauer, she’s also a strong strategic thinker, a great communicator and has a proven track record in delivering significant business outcomes with a collaborative style,” Walshe says.
“In my view she is ideally placed to join the executive team and continue to accelerate Bauer’s digital ambitions.”
Stuart Dick has been appointed general manager publishing.
Dick has 15 years’ experience working both client-side and with media owners in Auckland, London and New York. From 2005 he was with Air New Zealand, responsible for the customer experience of the domestic and short-haul airlines.
In media, he has been with Bauer since 2011, originally managing the commercial performance of the current affairs brands including Kia Ora, Metro, North & South and The Listener. He was appointed as global advertising director for Monocle in London in 2014 and returned to Bauer in late 2015 as sales director, where he oversaw advertising, sponsorships and custom content sales for the entire premium and specialist division, which encompassed 14 print and digital brands.
Dick’s mandate in the new role will be to drive commercial return from Bauer’s storytelling abilities, help monetise audiences in new ways, grow custom publishing work and provide the project management and business skills required to create strong, profitable 360 degree media brands.
“I truly believe we have the best content creators in the market and our audience love their work, whether it is in print, online or in person. It is this engagement across our platforms that perfectly positions us to deliver the meaningful attention that marketers are looking for,” Dick says.
Anna Magasaiva is now head of brand, commerical.
Magasiva joined Bauer in 2008 as the commercial brand manager on Metro and Home magazines before moving into the agency team as a senior account manager. She then joined the key accounts team, becoming key accounts director in 2013, overseeing the management of Bauer’s top advertising clients.
For the past three years she has been group sales director, responsible for commercial revenue across all of Bauer’s Women’s Mass and Lifestyle brands. She has also been responsible for providing the most commonly requested playlists at any Bauer get together.
Rachel McLean is now group sales director, direct and Australia. McLean has 11 years’ experience working in media and sales in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She’s been with Bauer since 2015 and has managed the entire Australian market for New Zealand sales, achieving significant and consistent growth year-on-year.
In 2017, Rachel also started managing the Women’s Lifestyle and Weeklies’ direct team, overseeing the direct sales for 12 print and digital brands. All direct account managers now report through to McLean and she will continue to oversee the Australian market.
In the insights division, Bauer has created two key areas of focus to drive deeper audience understanding and smart use of data and insights across the business. As insights director, commercial Julie Bramley will champion commercial insights and work with commercial director Kaylene Hurley and the advertising team to accelerate revenue growth, while Kate Terry, as insights director, publishing, will take the lead in providing audience and brand strategy support to publishing teams.
The new roles within the advertising senior team as well as Magasiva, McLean and Bramley report to Hurley, rounding out the commercial leadership team consisting of head of Media Collective, agency sales director Kelly Badland and digital sales manager Ryan Mudie.
