Following the announcement of the Fairfax Media partnership with Google and the restructure of the publisher’s commercial division, Ross Blackam (main photo) has been appointed head of programmatic trading and partnerships.
Blackam joined Fairfax in 2015 as National Sales Director returning to Australia from London where he spent five years with AOL. Prior to that, he worked with MCN in Melbourne.
The new role will see Blackam become the single programmatic lead for Fairfax as he maintains responsibility for the programmatic sales team as well as overseeing the trading desk operations team.
Blackam said: “Fairfax’s programmatic services continue to expand and I’m looking forward to leading a unified offering during this exciting chapter.”
Matt Rowley, chief revenue officer, said, “Given his experience, Ross really is the perfect person for this position and his teams are playing a crucial role in realising our full programmatic revenue potential, particularly as we embed our newly-founded partnership with Google.”
In December, Fairfax announced its Australian Metro Publishing business had entered a partnership with Google across digital advertising, technology and product development. The relationship sees Google supporting Fairfax to sell and market programmatic advertising across The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Canberra Times, WAToday, Brisbane Times and the publisher’s lifestyle offerings.
Blackham’s appointment is effective immediately.