The List lines up BBC’s David Low as CEO to meet increasing tech and data demands
The List, a publication covering food, festivals, film for 34 years, has refreshed its senior leadership team and publisher model.
The List's database holds 613,000 future performances of 48,000 events at 80,000 UK venues
David Low, former executive product manager for voice, AI and the BBC Assistant at the BBC will replace longtime chief executive Simon Dessain in late January 2020.
Low has previous experience in senior technology roles in Amazon as European head of solutions architecture for Alexa, in addition to positions at Skyscanner and STV. He has been a non-exec director at The List since 2016, and will now help the title transition into a more data-savvy business, reflecting data partners' growing role in its bottom line.
Chair of The List, Peter Brown said: “The breadth of David’s technology skills, underpinned by commercial and financial expertise, and his knowledge of The List, of which he is already director, made him an outstanding candidate. It was exciting to speak to him during the course of our appointment process, undertaken over the last six months, about his plans for our rapidly growing data business and the opportunities identified.”
Low added: ‘I'm thrilled at the opportunity of leading The List into the future, after a short period serving on the board. [Founding publisher] Robin Hodge, Simon and the team have built solid foundations with a rich history in publishing and more than a decade of digital expansion.
“That background leaves the path clear for ambitious plans well into the future, and I very much look forward to joining the team to deliver on the company's obvious potential.”
Accompanying the magazine and website, the company has now launched a publishing division to be headed by Sheri Friers who joins the board and will report to Low. The List’s editor Arusa Qureshi will report into Friers.
Adding to this revenue stream, Brendan Miles has been promoted to director of its new data and content services operation as it looks to extract value from its live events data.
The List's database holds information on 613,000 future performances of 48,000 events at 80,000 UK venues. An exec at the firm previously told The Drum that advertisers could use its events data to account for demand and drive localized advertising during events. Hotel chains, for example, could learn when they can expect traffic from nearby gigs. Visit Aberdeenshire and Visit Southampton are two clients partnering to use this data. It said that accommodation, media and yield management partners number 63.
The List claims to reaches 10 million users a month.