Just weeks after representing News Corp Australia on a panel at Advertising Week APAC in Sydney, Suzie Cardwell has stepped away from the company.
Cardwell has worked at News Corp for the past nine years, first in roles at Foxtel and then Foxtel Media before moving across to News Corp in 2017.
News Corp Australia has announced that taking over as director commercial data, video and product is Paul Blackburn (above) who this year celebrates 10 years with the company.
Pippa Leary, managing director, client product at News Corp Australia, said in a statement that Blackburn’s new role has two key responsibilities.
“Paul will continue to oversee the commercial video strategy for News Corp Australia while also leading our commercial data and digital advertising product strategy. He will also work with the client product leadership team to develop new commercial products that will drive diversified and incremental revenues.
“Over the past 10 years at News Corp Australia, Paul has achieved outstanding results in every position he has held. His knowledge of this business, particularly our digital business is impressive. In this new role Paul gets to demonstrate not only his technical and functional expertise, but the innovative thinking required to stay ahead of the digital market to create unique client solutions.”
Pippa Leary, Managing Director, Client Product
Lou Barrett, Managing Director, National Sales
Suzie Cardwell, General Manager, Client Product & Strategy
Leary paid tribute to Cardwell for playing a critical role in the company’s successful digital transition since joining News Corp Australia in October 2017.
“Suzie has played a prominent role in our transformation from a successful publishing company to one of Australia’s leading providers of audience data and insights. In particular, Suzie’s strong vision in creating News Connect as an end-to-end audience data platform that collects upwards of two billion first-party data signals every month has turned News Corp Australia into a data powerhouse.
“During her time at News Suzie has shown the market how the company can not only collect audience data but use it to create measurable client outcomes including brand uplift, interaction rates, online purchase, and in-store footfall. This focus has made us an indispensable partner to our clients as they work with us to turn News Corp Australia’s audience into their customers.”
Cardwell said she enjoyed her time at News Corp Australia, which she said exposed her to a variety of career-defining challenges and opportunities.
Blackburn’s new position begins immediately and he will work with Cardwell during a handover period until she departs on December 2.
Just last month Cardwell told Mediaweek’s Tess Connery there are both short-term and long-term challenges for the industry to face.
“Very short term, we’ve got to navigate this period of uncertainty as marketers figure out where and how much they should be investing with consumer sentiment where it is.
“Longer term, what we all have to work towards as an ecosystem is measuring the effectiveness of advertising in all of our different environments – based on the business outcomes that a client is looking to drive, not based on a particular media metric. We’ve got to be focused on what a campaign across different channels drives in terms of brand uplift, consideration, and sales for a brand. We all talk about that, but we’ve got to get to the point where that’s how we’re measuring ourselves.”
See also: Opting in, web3, and holding attention: The future of digital marketing with Suzie Cardwell