Previous Speakers | Digital Media Europe 2021
Digital Media Europe 2021
SVP Consumer Marketing and Revenue, Schibsted Media, Norway
Tor is now SVP Consumer Marketing and Revenue at Schibsted Media, with responsibility for subscription revenue across Schibsted´s publishing brands. Tor has previosly had different positions at VG, VG Mobile, Aftenposten, and Schibsted Norway´s 4 subscriptions newspapers. Tor also has experience from Telenor, Deloitte and Nielsen.
Managing Director, Mediapart, France
Marie-Hélène Smiejan-Wanneroy is a founding shareholder of Mediapart, the eleven-year old French internet native daily news site, with today over 160,000 paying members and 4.7 million unique monthly users. Steadily growing since launch, Mediapart broke even eight years ago and generates today > 15% profit margin — without advertising. A group of stable shareholders co-founders and journalists own 62% of equity for 11 years, just transferred to a foundation.
Managing director since day one, Marie-Hélène Smiejan-Wanneroy oversees shareholding, administration, finance, marketing, technology, communications and customer relations. Over ten years her team has grown from three to 43.
Marie-Hélène graduated from the ESSEC business school and holds a degree of Chinese from INALCO (she spent 1975-76 in China). Prior to Mediapart she had a long career in information technologies. She created her first company in 1981 and sold it in 1989. Subsequently she held management positions in a number of European IT groups. In 2003 she created a consultancy to advise investors in China. In 2007 she joined Edwy Plenel to launch Mediapart.
Distribution Director, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany
Stefan Buhr studied business administration and has worked in commercial functions at Gruner+Jahr and SPIEGEL-Verlag. Since 2018, Stefan heads the reader market at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and thus is responsible for the sales business and its digital transformation.
Director of News Ecosystem Development, Google, UK
In his role, Madhav Chinnappa works on partnerships and collaboration between Google and the news industry. Most recently, he launched the Digital News Initiative which in March 2018 evolved to become part of the Google News Initiative, Google's overarching global framework for engagement with the news ecosystem.
Madhav joined Google in 2010 to focus on Google News & Magazines in the EMEA region. He has worked in the news industry since 1994 - first in the launch team of Associated Press Television (APTV), a year in M&A at United News & Media and spent over 9 years at BBC News, latterly as Head of Development & Rights.
Sales and Customer Marketing Director, L'EQUIPE, France
Fleur joined L’Equipe in 2016, and she was appointed Director of Sales and Customer Marketing in 2018. Her missions are to define and implement the strategy of digital and print subscription of L’Equipe. She is also in charge of new projects among which the expansion of the brand L’Equipe. Fleur graduated in engineering from Telecom Paris Tech and in Business Administration from Sciences Po Paris. Prior to joining L’Equipe, she held various positions in the Sport and the Finance division of French pay-TV group Canal +.
Project Lead Bergens Tidende, Norway
Jan Stian Vold is a Norwegian journalist with more than 20 years of experience in the online news business. He was the news editor in Bergens Tidende from 2014 to 2020 and is currently working as a project lead in the same media house. Amongst his recent responsibilities is the so-called Boligrobot - a new and sophisticated way of presenting automated text from the real estate market in and nearby Norway's second-largest city.
Chief Marketing Officer, United Robots, Sweden
Cecilia Campbell is a Swedish media journalist with over 20 years experience reporting on the news publishing industry internationally. She is the CMO of Swedish tech start-up United Robots, based in Malmö. Her work at United Robots includes advising publishers on how to free up reporter time and drive revenue through newsroom automation. Previously she worked for WAN-IFRA, co-leading the reader revenue group and authoring the 2018 report Engaged Readers Don’t Churn – Retention Lessons for Digital Subcriptions.
Digital editor, Decât o Revistă (DoR), Romania
Catalina is a journalist with an interest in the latest developments at the intersection of media and technology. She joined DoR in 2018 to find ways to build a stronger community around narrative journalism and to work on the transition to a membership model. Prior to this, she was international editor at Journalism.co.uk, where she covered media innovation and technology, and organised digital journalism events. In 2017, she traveled around Europe visiting newsrooms and meeting journalists and freelancers to find out more about the challenges they face and the opportunities they see in this rapidly changing media ecosystem.
Director of Subscription Strategy, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
Danuta Breguła is Director of Subscription Strategy at Gazeta Wyborcza, the largest Polish opinion-making newspaper.
She is responsible for Gazeta Wyborcza’s digital subscribers' growth and revenue as well as the publication's performance marketing in digital and its paying audience engagement. Under her supervision, the number of digital-only subscribers of Gazeta Wyborcza has just reached 240,000 in 2020.
Publisher, pv digest (paid content newsletter)
Markus is editor&publisher of pv digest, a paid-for trade publication on the reader revenue side of journalism. Before starting as self-publishing expert for paid content and press distribution, Markus was C-level exec at a national press distribution service provider and a subscription marketing company, both subsidiaries of Axel Springer. He started his career as direct marketing manager at world’s (then) biggest distance retailing company Otto Versand (times are changing!).
(Photo by Hanseshot)
Head of Newspapers, DC Thomson Media, UK
Director Reader Revenue, Mediahuis, Belgium
Koen Meeusen is director reader revenue at Mediahuis Belgium since 2017. In this position, he’s responsible for the sales of subscriptions, products, and services to the readers of the four Belgian news brands. Previously Koen worked in different marketing departments of the Belgium publisher. Koen is a marketeer with particular interests in acquisition, retention, e-commerce, brand & content promotion.
Global Strategy Lead, Google News Initiative, USA
Arun is a Google News Initiative Global Strategy & Operations Lead. Over the past couple of years, he's overseen the GNI's portfolio in Latin America and led many of the reader revenue labs across the world. He is a global co-lead of the recently launched Digital Growth Program and primary author of the GNI Reader Revenue Playbook. Before working on the Google News Initiative, Arun spent time as a member of the Google News Lab and on the Google Chief Marketing Officer's strategy team.
Director of Innovation & Leadership, Craig Newmark J-School/CUNY, USA
Anita Zielina is leading a new programme at CUNY to train the next generation of news executives to address the demand for innovation and leadership in the industry. Previous roles include visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, researching the role of leadership in times of transition and Chief Product Officer and member of the executive management team at NZZ media group in Switzerland, leading their digital operations.
Before joining NZZ Anita held roles as digital editor and deputy Editor-in-Chief at Stern, the German weekly news magazine published by Gruner + Jahr in Hamburg, and the newspaper Der Standard in Vienna, Austria. In 2012, Anita was the first Austrian journalist selected for the one-year Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, dedicated to entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership in journalism. There her research focused on innovation management in the media and on audience engagement. Anita holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and a Master in Law from Vienna University.
Head of Digital Subscriptions, Der Standard, Austria
Florian leads an interdisciplinary team dedicated to developing new revenue streams from digital products at Austria’s largest quality newspaper DER STANDARD. In this role, Florian is responsible for DER STANDARD PUR the ad-free and tracking free subscription as well as the implementation of DER STANDARD’s contributions model. He previously worked for Neue Zürcher Zeitung Austrian branch NZZ.at as Head of Development and founded the online magazine Paroli.
Head of Digital, Denník N, Slovakia
Tomas Bella is web director and executive board member at Denník N, an independent Slovak daily paper that also develops open-source software for publishers Remp2020.com. Previously he was editor-in-chief of the most popular Slovak news site and CEO of Piano Media.
Group Chief Commercial Officer, News UK, UK
Dominic joined News International in 1991 and held various roles across The Sun and Times Newspapers Limited before leaving in 2000 to join Mirror Group Newspapers as Group Advertising Director.
In 2006 he returned to News International as Trading Director across The Times & Sunday Times and expanded his role in 2008 to include The Sun. Dominic was appointed Commercial Director of News UK in September 2011 following a restructuring of the Commercial team. He stepped up to become Managing Director in July 2015 and was named Chief Commercial Officer in January 2016.
In 2018 Dominic was appointed Group Chief Commercial Officer for News UK and Wireless Group’s operations in the UK and Ireland, overseeing all national commercial operations across print, digital, video, and audio. Dominic is a keen motorcyclist and is married with three children.
Consultant at The Ozone Project, UK and Mentor at Media For All
Dora is currently consulting for The Ozone Project, the digital advertising venture from The Telegraph, The Guardian, Reach plc & News UK. Prior to this Dora was Managing Director of Digital and a member of The Telegraph Executive team, responsible for turning the company vision of serving 1m subscribers into opportunities for monetisation and revenue growth. Under Dora’s leadership, The Telegraph became a founding partner of The Ozone Project.
Before joining The Telegraph, Dora worked for Yahoo, where she was responsible for running EMEA programmatic ad sales and commercial operations. Dora lives in North London with her wife and daughter.
CEO, The Ozone Project, U.K
As CEO of The Ozone Project, Damon Reeve leads a company building the digital advertising environment of the future - designed to bring advertisers and premium publishers closer together through the delivery of real-world, brand-led results. Damon is incredibly passionate about championing fairness, transparency, open discourse and quality journalism in a digital world.
He has previously worked with many data, media and technology companies - OpenX, Snowplow Analytics, Hereford Technologies, Authenticated Digital, Unanimis - as founder, investor and advisor to promote change and better business in advertising through technology innovation.
Managing Director, styria digital one, Austria
Founder of Crazy Creatives, Sweden
Anna Arvidsson started in the music industry as Brand Manager at Sweden’s biggest radio station and launched Hoffmaestro, the most touring band in Scandinavia. After transitioning into media, she started Metro’s Creative Sales Department in Sweden, which became a key factor for the global media company. In 2013 Anna was former Head of Bonnier News Brand Studio, where she built a creative team for the future.
Director Content & Creative Strategy, Axel Springer, Germany
Head of Brand Studio: 24.com, News24, South Africa
Jerusha Raath is the head of BrandStudio24, 24.com’s in-house native advertising agency. Jerusha leads an award-winning, talented team of editors, designers, writers, videographers and strategists – all with a mission to tell stories with journalistic excellence and commercial impact. She was of 28 women selected internationally for the Poynter Institute’s 2018 Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Jerusha holds an MBA from Wits Business School in Johannesburg, and has a particular interest in sustainable commercial solutions for the future of digital journalism.
Senior Marketing Manager, Belo Media Group, USA
Rachel Watkins, senior marketing lead, at Belo + Company represents multiple channels within the media company including FWD>DFW and The Dallas Morning News while leading B2B strategy, brand aesthetics and integration, and sponsorships for a sales team of about 100. One of her projects of focus is cause marketing-related branded content, partnerships, and revenue, specifically related to FWD>DFW.
Rachel has been with Belo for more than seven years, starting off as marketing manager of the luxury lifestyle publication of The Dallas Morning News before spending four years leading content, experiential sponsorships and strategic partnerships for the live events division of Belo.
VP Commercial Strategy, Technology and R&D, The Washington Post, USA
Jarrod Dicker is an entrepreneurial technology and media executive. He oversees the commercial strategy, operations, technology and R&D at the Washington Post. Until January 2019, Dicker was Chief Executive Officer of Po.et, a platform for a new decentralized media economy.
Prior to Po.et, Dicker served as innovation chief at the Washington Post and founded RED, the Post's research experimentation and development team. There he oversaw the companies technology, product, operations and strategy across the entire business.
Before the Washington Post, Dicker lead strategy, product and technology teams at RebelMouse, Time Inc. and the Huffington Post. He also sits on the Board of Advisors for Rutgers University School of Innovation and Mogul Inc., a technology platform that enables women worldwide to share ideas and access content based on personal interests.
Dicker's writing and work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, AdAge, AdWeek, Digiday, Axios, AdExchanger, Poynter and more.
Ingrid Ihasz is the CEO of the Hungarian publisher alliance, HOPPex. She is responsible for developing and supporting publisher programmatic monetization strategies and execution both on HOPPex and publisher level. She has more than 14 years of experience in the advertising industry, working for market leader publishers and agencies (Isobar, Arcus Media, Central European Media & Publishing, Wavemaker, GroupM). Analytical and systematic thinker with a track record of building organizational structures and launching new products and services. Rolled out extended programs to facilitate digital shift within organizations. Recognized professional blogger, influencer and conference speaker since 2006.
Executive Vice President, COO, JP/Politikens Hus, Denmark
Dorthe Bjerregaard-Knudsen is COO at JP/Politikens Hus, one of Denmark's leading media companies in printed and digital publications. JP/Politikens Hus publishes three of Denmark’s leading national news brands; Ekstra Bladet, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken. The group’s activities also include local newspapers in Denmark and Sweden, a publishing house, operation and development of a range of digital activities and news services as well as other business areas.
Prior to joining JP/Politikens Hus Dorthe Bjerregaard-Knudsen was Managing Director at OMD Denmark. Before that, Dorthe held a number different positions at Omnicom Media Group; amongst others she was Managing Director of Insight Group.
Dorthe holds a master’s degree in Economics & Business Administration Economic Marketing from Copenhagen Business School.
VP Consumer Market, Amedia, Norway
Haakon is responsible for subscription and revenue growth for all Amedia news brands. His work is at the intersection between business and technology. He was part of the executive leadership team that developed Amedia corporate strategy in 2015.
Chief Digital Officer, Vocento, Spain
CDO of Vocento, one of the main Media Publishing companies in Spain. In charge of Digital Products, march tech, ad tech, data and analytics, customer strategy/paywalls and innovation. IAB Spain and Wemass alliance Board Member. Curious about tech business impact, willing to learn and help my colleagues. I have two wonderful children, ages 24 and 19, who teach how to be better. Every day I am more convinced of the news media important mission in today's society.
Business consultant, Star K, Sweden
Ola Henriksson left Svenska Dagbladet last August to start helping other media companies with their digital subscription business. His last position at SvD was Customer experience manager. He spent the last 15 years managing the product development of digital news platforms at Svenska Dagbladet, from business and innovation perspective. He has a long experience of leading complex and strategic projects from editorial, customer-centric to advertising, digital subscriptions and pricing.
Paywall and Product consultant, former Director of Product at the Financial Times, UK
Gadi Lahav was head of Product for
FT.com. He led the development of the new FT website, the fastest publisher website worldwide, winner of Best Website of The Year by British Press Awards and Newsawards, and Best Use of Technology by Digiday and INMA. In the last year, he is working in a Product role at TransferWise, and consulting to publishers. Prior to that, he was in a Product role at Amazon, and VP Digital of Haaretz, Israel's leading quality publisher.
Head of IT Solutions at Ring Publishing, Ringier Axel Springer, Poland
Wojciech Ehrenfeld is Head of IT Solutions at Ring Publishing. He has been building large scale cloud solutions to fit the needs of a changing market and an expert in building adapting business models for IT solutions for media. Now he is responsible for implementing IT services and platforms at Ringier Axel Springer Media AG in Europe and delivering platform-based media solutions to external clients. Whenever he is not working, he is somewhere where only snow and wind can be found.
Project Manager Digital, Data & Insights, Erdee Media Groep, The Netherlands
Dick works as project manager digital, data and insights at Erdee Media Group. In that role, he is responsible for the project to grow online revenue through editorial and marketing digitisation, based on customer insights. Over the past 15 years, Dick has held various key positions within Erdee Media Group at the interface between business, innovation and technology.
