News Corp Australia’s newly formed free news & lifestyle business unit has unveiled its publishing team to spearhead the next stage of growth.
Led by managing director and publisher, Pippa Leary, the free news & lifestyle division encompasses Australia’s number one news site, news.com.au, as well as lifestyle sites such as Escape, Taste, and Body+Soul among others.
“Our new team brings together the leading experts in the Australian publishing, video, and e-commerce space and reflects our strategic focus to drive both user engagement at scale and strong client outcomes across our suite of properties,” said Leary.
General manager, group strategy, Nitin Goel, takes on the newly created role of general manager, audience, product, and marketing. He will lead the strategy to convert audience engagement into client outcomes, optimising the audience experience through data-led insights and digital product management.
Head of ad product & strategy, Ryan Hedditch, has been promoted to general manager, commercial video & audio. He will define ad client product strategies to continue driving profitable growth for video, native, display, and audio.
General manager, partnerships, Georgi Pell, has been appointed to the new position of general manager, client commercial. She will drive optimisation across the suite of free news & lifestyle brands, planning and prioritising client revenue growth. Director, commercial data, video & product, Paul Blackburn, takes on the new role of director, commercial data & e-commerce. He will work on the strategic commercialisation of data assets through products and partnerships as well as drive the e-commerce strategy.
Rounding out the leadership team is Meagan Gray, who has accepted the newly established role of head of commercial product. She will lead the prioritisation, roadmap development, and delivery of portfolio initiatives and lead client product delivery.
