In his new position, Jon will assume responsibility for global digital advertising revenues and the development of new business propositions for FT.com, howtospendit.com and the FT’s mobile products. His role will also involve sourcing key technology and creative partners for the FT as well as working with the FT’s own product development, editorial and operations teams to ensure the optimisation of digital advertising products.
Jon previously ran the FT’s global creative solutions unit – the Strategic Sales Team – which he created in 2007. The Strategic Sales Team will now be headed up by Patrick Collins as it plays an ever-increasing role in delivering client communication objectives to targeted audiences across different platforms.
Ben Hughes, global commercial director and deputy CEO, said: “With a reputation for developing unbeatable advertising solutions for clients, Jon has put the FT’s Strategic Sales Team at the forefront of multi-platform innovation. The FT’s unmatched insight into its audience, coupled with a growing number of digital products, requires investment and development, and Jon will be instrumental in implementing the overall strategic direction for our digital advertising business.”
Jon Slade said: “I am delighted to take on this role at a very exciting time for news publishers. More people than ever are reading the FT and we are seeing terrific growth in the number of digital subscribers and the cross-platform use of our products. This combined with our successful Web and Android apps offer terrific opportunities for our advertisers in mobile and data.”
The FT has an average daily global audience of 2.2m people with a 36% increase in online readers to 900,000 and more than 300,000 people using two or more platforms every day (ADGA, November 2011, PwC assured).
