Katie Mills, the former head of brand and marketing at MediaWorks, has followed some of her previous crew to private tertiary education conglomerate Aspire2.
Changes at ASB, Starcom/ZO, TVNZ, Ambient Group, MediaWorks and Fonterra.
The industry has been buzzing with speculation as to who would replace outgoing MediaWorks group chief executive Sussan Turner, following the announcement of her resignation at the beginning of July. The rumour mill has however been brought to a halt by a MediaWorks release, which has confirmed that Mark Weldon would step into Turner’s role on 11 August.
Sussan Turner has brought her 30-year career at MediaWorks to a close by announcing her resignation from the group chief executive role.
MediaWorks TV has confirmed it will be not be renewing its output deal with CBS and is instead shifting the funds into the creation of local content. And Sky’s free-to-air channel Prime has taken over the rights and signed up for its first ever output deal.
Following in the footsteps of Jason Paris, who shifted from TVNZ to take up the role of MediaWorks TV chief executive, TVNZ’s director of sales and marketing Paul Maher has switched sides after almost two years to become the new chief executive of television at MediaWorks. But that’s not all he’ll have on his plate, because as well as leading TV3, TV3+1, FOUR and C4, he will also assume the responsibilities of the outgoing director of sales for MediaWorks TV, Linda Farrelly.
MediaWorks TV is recruiting for a director of sales to replace Linda Farrelly, who has resigned and is taking complete time out for six months. She will rejoin the company in a consultancy capacity later in the year.
Local comedy 7 Days, and 3 News’ election coverage highlight a strong month of growth for TV3, which saw significant gains in the key 25-54 demographic, while TV One continued to lose ground.
MediaWorks has been in the news a bit recently, with the unexpected departure of its TV wunderkind Jason Paris and continuing discussion about the sizable debts of its owner Ironbridge. But it’s not all bad: its two-channel strategy appears to be paying off in terms of share, ad revenue is up and general manager of integration Melanie Reece says the “sleeping giant” of branded content and product placement is starting to wake up, as evidenced by the success of New Zealand’s Next Top Model and the inclusion of new sponsors like 2degrees into the show.
MediaWorks has announced that television chief executive Jason Paris, who has been in the role for just over a year after shifting across from TVNZ, has resigned.
…as Kerry Smith is farewelled; Tequila finds its new general manager after a lengthy search; Mango adds three new fruits; and one of The Sweet Shop’s directors gets the nod for his film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.