CHICAGO: Greentarget Global Group has hired veteran journalist Brandon Copple to lead the b-to-b focused firm’s content and publishing practice.
Copple joined Greentarget on October 1 as director of content and editorial strategy, a newly created role. Based in the firm’s Chicago office, he is reporting to Greentarget president and founding partner John Corey. The agency has not yet determined the number of staffers he will oversee.
Copple is charged with developing and implementing communications campaigns built around what Greentarget refers to as "corporate journalism." He will work with the firm’s team and connect with a broad network of journalists to create content-based campaigns.
He will specifically work with clients to develop strategies and advise them on how original content can help them achieve business goals. Copple will also support clients that are creating and publishing content on owned media channels.
Copple added that the firm has the capabilities to help clients build platforms from scratch, such as digital newsrooms.
"Greentarget understands the power of contributing to a smarter conversation by using the techniques of traditional journalism, such as storytelling, credibility, reporting, and clear, clean, lively writing," he explained.
This summer, Greentarget appointed Kevin Iredell as director of research. Iredell and Copple will work closely together.
For the past year and a half, Greentarget worked with content provider FitchInk, where Copple served as Chicago managing editor. The relationship required Copple to be embedded in Greentarget’s Chicago office. He told PRWeek he looks at his new position as a continuation of the work he has already done with the firm, only now he is a full-time staffer.
Greentarget’s relationship with FitchInk will remain a key part of Greentarget’s proprietary offering, the firm said.
FitchInk editor-in-chief Stephane Fitch said the firm is aiming to have a new Chicago managing editor in place by early 2016.
"I don’t see [Copple’s] move as a profound change for us, rather, it is just an evolution that made a ton of sense for Brandon, FitchInk, and Greentarget," said Fitch. "We think he can be a lot more effective for Greentarget’s clients in the new arrangement, and he will remain as important if not more important to us as an asset now that he is a client of our firm."
Prior to FitchInk, Copple was a staff writer at Forbes, managing editor of Crain’s Chicago Business, and editor of Grid, a business magazine published by the Chicago Sun-Times. He also built the content team at Groupon, managing more than 200 writers, editors, and designers.
Headquartered in Chicago, Greentarget has offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London.
