Spark Media has announced that as from 1 March 2019, the company will be separating its digital and print sales divisions into two distinct entities.
The newspaper sales division will retain the Spark Media name, and will house booking, production, sales, marketing services, research (ROOTS etc.) and other market intelligence needed to build effective media strategies.
Gill Randall will lead Spark Media as CEO, along with industry veterans Olav Westphal as Sales Director, Debbie McIntyre as Marketing Services and Research Director, Diane Albertus heads up Advertising Operations Director and Celeste Blake as Finance Director.
The digital sales business will be rebranded as Spark-Hive Digital, and will continue to represent Caxton’s well-known and extensive online assets.
Current Spark Joint CEO, Marc du Plessis, will initially oversee Spark-Hive Digital’s leadership team, including Parmeshan Moodliar as GM Sales; Kristin Louw as GM Operations and Ashleigh Footit in the capacity of GM Programmatic and Data. Du Plessis will then be taking on further responsibilities within the Caxton-CTP group.
The media environment is deepening in its complexity, rendering the traditional separation of print and digital strategies artificial, at best. Consequently, media planners and strategists are expected to have a thorough grasp of all the channels within the media mix.
To help planners navigate this highly integrated landscape, the organisation believe that the onus lies with the media owner to offer specialised knowledge about how their channels can provide real value within a broader approach.
To state it succinctly, Spark Media strongly believes a more focused approach to the representation of its varied channels will best serve the interests of all stakeholders. It is excited to implement this next step in its evolution as a premier commercial channel provider, and looks forward to building on existing and new relationships with its valuable clients.
