ITV axes commercial management team
The New Year has got off to an unhappy start for ITV’s commercial team after they found that their services were no longer required at a surprise Monday morning meeting.
Adam Crozier, the networks chief executive, delivered the bad news to Gary Digby, ITV’s commercial director and five of his senior sales colleagues in person. The shell shocked team were informed that the decision had been taken in order to broaden revenue streams beyond airtime spot sales to become a “marketing platform”.
The unfortunate five were trading director, Simon Lent; commercial director, Jeremy Lawrence; creative solutions director, Simon Orpin; ITV commercial breakfast director, Simon Poole; and director of regional sales, David Croft.
Crozier informed the outgoing team that they were being replaced by Channel 5’s former sales director, Kelly Williams, who would assume the role of director of TV sales. Fox Media UK’s commercial vice president, Simon Dalglish, was appointed as director of multiplatform and partnerships.
An unnamed departee said of the changes: "It's not often you lose your job after having your best ever trading year and trading season. It seems more to do with the type of people Hazlitt wants working for her than anything else."