PBL Media director of sales and marketing Joe Pollard has been tipped as the most likely internal candidate to take the helm of Ninemsn in the wake of the sudden exit of CEO Tony Faure on Tuesday.
The exodus at the online portal is expected to continue as its struggles through its most difficult phase since launching in 1997, with insiders speculating that CFO and strategy director Nicholas Gray and mobile sales director Matthew Costello may be the next high profile losses.
Ninemsn called talk of Gray’s departure a “ridiculous rumour” but confirmed Costello, co-founder of 5th Finger and its international US-based arm, will be leaving for the US in June. 5th Finger was acquired by Ninemsn in late 2005.
Costello has been in the US in recent weeks. It is understood he has been trying to move to the US to assume a more hands-on role with the global operations for some months. A spokesperson for 5th Finger’s US operation said while he is “closely engaged with our colleagues at Ninemsn, our current plans are for Matt to continue from the Sydney base for the short term. We would expect Matt to continue with a market facing role in addition to strategic direction setting”.
A Ninemsn spokesperson added that Costello’s role would not be filled but decisions over head count in those areas would be part of Pollard’s sales structure review. While Costello was not a member of the executive team, he was viewed as the most experienced and strategic mobile player left at the portal, particularly in the wake of the departure of Ninemsn head of mobile Chris Noone.
Noone will be replaced by Dean Capobianco, GM at Platform Nine, the company’s online advertising syndication network. Noone, like Faure, has been described by insiders as “strong on strategy but lacking execution” a sentiment that underpins the story of Ninemsn’s impetuous mobile acquisition spree, which included HWW, and its lack of integration of the platform across its overall strategy.
Speculation was rife this week that Noone was heading to Network Ten to assume the role held by Damian Smith, Ten’s GM of digital media, a rumour that was quickly extinguished by the network which said: “Damian is absolutely not leaving Ten.”
Ninemsn’s executive ranks have been depleted by months of destabilising staff attrition led by the departure of the head of innovation Jennifer Wilson, head of marketing Tony Thomas, head of content and network innovation Jane O’Connell and last week the loss of commercial director Jason Scott and Sydney based sales manager Esther Carlsen. The wave of management instability did not reflect well on Faure who also recently suffered the dissolution of the lucrative content deal with Optus.
“I have simply decided that I am not the right person to take the business to the next level,” Faure said. “I think we have achieved a great deal at Ninemsn. It is a good business, in great shape,” he added.
Faure, who is also on the board of iSelect, will leave in August and intimated that he may go back to start-up technology ventures.
Pollard, who has been on secondment from PBL to Ninemsn for the last few months has been “shaking things up” in a broad review and restructure of the portal’s underperforming sales operations in an attempt to rebound from a dilutive value approach to inventory and yield, insiders claim. The watchful presence of the resolutely focused CVC, the 75% owner of PBL Media, has also placing extreme pressure on senior management, who will not meet revenue targets, sources claim. One former Ninemsn executive added that the positioning of PBL Media CEO Ian Law as the JV’s chairman was problematic claiming that his “affinity with online is negligible”.
It is understood that under Pollard’s directives there will be a freeze on new hires and a crackdown on expenditure. Insiders claim that this will add to the portal’s woes as its CMS system alone requires a massive overhaul. In April the company created the new position of director technology and development appointing experienced technology consultant Ed Butler to the role. At the time COO Nick Spooner said the new role signified the ongoing investment Ninemsn were making in its technology team.
Pollard’s strong sales and marketing background has put her at the top of the internal candidacy list yet some sources suggest that Microsoft may exert pressure and attempt to appoint an MSN operative.
Pollard is a former media buyer and director for J. Walter Thompson and prior to joining PBL worked for Nike Inc in the US and Japan holding the positions of global director of media, digital and content, establishing its branded content division.
According to BRW’s recent Digital Generation Report for 2007, Ninemsn made
$99 million in online display ad revenue with 16% growth compared to rivals such as Fairfax Digital with revenues of $61 million and growth of 39%.
One former executive said that Ninemsn’s “golden age” of stellar online revenue and market share performance under Steve Vamos’ reign of 1998-2003 would not be repeated.
“In those early days of the online experience what Ninemsn delivered and what the consumers wanted went hand in hand. But consumers have moved on as has the web, they are demanding rich deep content not broad shallow portals,” the former executive said.
