Executive Editor, Report On Business
Toronto, Canada Area
As growth in digital advertising flattened in 2012, The Globe needed new digital revenues and believed that its journalism was worth paying for online. I was the lead writer of the business case to sell subscriptions to Globeandmail.com. After the business case was approved, I was one of the senior members of the team from across departments that implemented the project through 2012. This new product was the company’s top priority in 2012 and involved many millions of dollars in capital… Show more As growth in digital advertising flattened in 2012, The Globe needed new digital revenues and believed that its journalism was worth paying for online. I was the lead writer of the business case to sell subscriptions to Globeandmail.com. After the business case was approved, I was one of the senior members of the team from across departments that implemented the project through 2012. This new product was the company’s top priority in 2012 and involved many millions of dollars in capital spending in new content and systems. It involved significant internal change management in every department as the company was previously centered more towards the newsprint business. The Globe was the first major Canadian media company to launch a digital subscription product at that time. Prospective customers were used to receiving online content for free, so the project involved considerable external communications and marketing. Since launch, The Globe now has more than 140,000 digital subscribers, while other Canadian media companies have abandoned digital subscription efforts or have had limited success. During this period, I also managed The Globe’s business and investing websites and up to 15 business journalists. From 2009 to 2012, the number of unique visitors grew more than 50%, ranking The Globe as one of the top three visited financial news sites in the country. My team developed external partnerships, studied audience reports and delivered on business cases to expand our audience in areas such as small business, careers, international business, economics and personal finance and others. My team won several awards such as best international business blog by SABEW (Society of American Business Editors and Writers) two years in a row. Show less