The Guardian appoints marketing boss Anna Bateson as interim CEO
The Guardian has appointed chief customer officer Anna Bateson as interim chief executive.
Anna Bateman
She replaces the newspaper group’s former chief executive David Pemsel, who announced his resignation in October.
Pemsel was set to join the Premier League in the top job but the football body announced his decision to step down from the role today (29 November) following “media disclosures" earlier in the week that made allegations regarding his personal life.
Just hours after the Premier League confirmed Pemsel's resignation, The Guardian issued a statement on Bateson's appointment as interim chief executive.
“Since joining the Guardian in 2016 and taking responsibility for our brand and reader revenues in 2017, Anna has helped us achieve impressive revenue growth, while also working closely with editorial colleagues on marketing and brand activities,” it said.
“As previously announced David Pemsel has resigned as chief executive of GMG. We would like to express our gratitude to David for his leadership during an extremely important period for the organisation.”
As its first ever chief customer officer, Bateson had responsibility for the Guardian’s membership, subscription and contributions programmes, partnerships with technology businesses including Google and Facebook, syndication and licensing, and other consumer revenues including the Guardian’s live events.
She also oversaw all brand and marketing activity for the publisher.
Prior to the Guardian, Bateson spent seven years Google and YouTube, where she ran global consumer marketing from its San Francisco offices. Prior to that she led brand and viewer marketing at ITV and was VP of marketing at MTV Networks.
The Guardian said that the recruitment of a permanent chief executive continues and it hopes to make a formal announcement in the New Year.