Fairfax Media has appointed Ben Gunn to the newly created role of head of business development and commercial partnerships.
Gunn has been promoted from the position of national trading director at Fairfax. In his new role, Gunn will lead a team responsible for Fairfax Media’s commercial partnerships, agency trading and developing new ad sales business opportunities across all platforms.
Fairfax Media Agency group director Paul Bates has also been promoted to national trading director, reporting to Gunn. Bates will be responsible for agency trading and will work closely with Gunn to drive new opportunities for agency groups.
Fairfax Media commercial director for Australian Publishing Media Tom Armstrong said: “We need to focus on understanding our advertising partners better. The media landscape is changing enormously and we need to build even stronger relationships with our agency partners and become experts in their business Having the right people in the agency roles to help deliver this will be invaluable. The depth of our talent has allowed us to fill these important roles internally, which is very pleasing.
“Ben’s focus will be to find new directions for ad sales growth together with managing and growing our agency trading business, working together with Paul. Their efforts will result in Fairfax being better positioned to create stronger partnerships with our advertisers.”
Gunn has been with Fairfax Media for almost eight years, working across a variety of senior positions in sales and in a business development role on Domain. Gunn spent his earlier years in the United Kingdom, where he developed his digital expertise.
Bates has an extensive media career, spanning almost 20 years, in the UK and Australia at Pacific Magazines, Fox Interactive Media, Time Inc and Emap. He joined Fairfax Media in 2010, most recently working as an Agency Group Director for Group M where he was responsible for all Fairfax Media channels and all major partnerships.
The appointments are effective immediately. Lead image is Paul Bates.
