NEWS: Hughes revamps FT ad department for new-business push

Ben Hughes, the new advertisement sales director of the Financial Times,

has restructured the ad department in a bid to introduce a more

aggressive sales strategy.

Hughes, who replaced Tony Blin-Stoyle last month (Campaign, 27 October),

has merged the agency and client sales groups and created a special

sales unit to chase new business.

Corporate advertisers are the main target of the push, which will be

marked in January by a series of in-paper ads through Delaney Fletcher

Bozell and 20/20 Media.

The changes come after a period in which the FT’s core sector of

financial advertisers has been struggling to emerge from the recession.

The paper also suffered a blow to its reputation earlier this year, when

the biennial British Business Survey suggested that the number of top

decision-makers reading the FT had fallen.

Hughes, who was previously the FT’s sales and marketing director for

Continental Europe, dismissed the survey as flawed, but said: ‘We are

operating in extremely competitive conditions. We have to win business

for the FT.’

The paper, which usually adheres to its ratecard, will offer new

opportunities for deals for long-term bookings, Hughes said. But he

stressed that the FT’s ratecard would remain ‘very firm’.

The newly merged department will be headed by Stephen Dunbar-Johnson,

vice-president for FT Publications in the US, who will return to the UK

as display advertisement sales director.

Headliner, page 20

This article was first published on Campaign