News America Marketing Creates Entertainment and Specialty Marketing Divsion
Entertainment Veteran Steve Ross to Head Advertising and Sales Efforts
New York, NY (May 1, 2006) – News America Marketing, a division of News Corporation (NYSE: NWSA), today named Steve Ross, long-time entertainment industry and studio veteran, to the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Entertainment & Specialty Marketing. He joins News America Marketing from Mattel, where he oversaw global entertainment and business development, including production, distribution and entertainment licensing, responsible for creating and implementing the entertainment brand extension strategies for all Mattel brands, most notably, Barbie and Hot Wheels, plus American Girl and Fisher-Price. Mr. Ross will direct the expanded reach of News America Marketing’s products beyond their well-established client base of consumer packaged goods companies.
“News America Marketing and our traditional clients have shared a rich history of success,” said Chairman and CEO Paul V. Carlucci. “Now, the Entertainment and Specialty Marketing Department will focus on expanding that success into the entertainment world, and we believe that Steve Ross is the ideal person to lead that effort.”
Mr. Ross will direct advertising sales efforts and custom publishing programs, developing new content integration opportunities within the entertainment industry and other similarly specialized consumer-based leisure sectors. He will work primarily with movie studios, video companies, television networks, music labels, theme parks, video game publishers and toy companies to incorporate News America’s new and existing brand equities and licenses - including the free-standing insert SmartSource Magazine, the in-store product portfolio, and the SmartSource Online Savings Network - with this important sector of national advertisers.
“This is an area that we have been interested in pursuing for some time, and now we have the advantage of an industry insider on our team,” said News America Marketing President Chris Mixson.
Mr. Ross has an impressive entertainment background that includes nearly 13 years at 20th Century Fox, another News Corporation division, where he was president of worldwide licensing & merchandising. At Fox, Mr. Ross earned a reputation as a savvy and expert brand builder. He managed the studio’s vast portfolio of intellectual properties and had P&L responsibility for the consumer products operating unit with nearly $1B in retail sales.
While at Fox, Mr. Ross oversaw all facets of the licensing & merchandising division, including strategic planning, sales and publishing, brand management, retail marketing, product development, creative services, promotions, product placement, publicity, advertising, e-commerce, animation art, legal and business affairs, finance and administration. Mr. Ross helped turn the top-rated, long running animated television show, The Simpsons, into a true global licensing phenomenon. Mr. Ross was named Brandweek “Marketer of the Year” and one of Ad Age’s top-100 marketers in 1998.
In addition, Mr. Ross developed integrated strategic alliance partnerships for venerable Fox properties such as Planet of The Apes, Titanic, Anastasia, X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with top-tier licensees, retailers and blue chip multi-national corporations and brands including McDonald’s, Burger King, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Frito Lay, Nestle, Reebok, General Foods, Intel, Nokia, Apple, American Airlines, Kellogg’s, Hershey’s, GM, Nissan, Quaker Oats, General Foods and Nabisco.
Commenting on his new position, Mr. Ross said, “The proliferation of entertainment content combined with the saturation of traditional advertising mediums calls for new and dynamic solution-based marketing models that resonate and generate cultural noise. So as we continue to create and strengthen the sales vehicles that will make an impact on the consumer, News America Marketing’s reach can effectively help define this new space for the entertainment industry as a whole and I’m pleased to be selected to lead this important new initiative for the company.”
Mr. Ross starts May 1 and will be based in News America Marketing’s Los Angeles office.
News America Marketing, a division of The News Corporation Limited, is the leading single-source provider of consumer advertising and promotional services. The company’s product portfolio, marketed under the SmartSource brand name, consists of the first branded free-standing insert, known as SmartSource Magazine®, various in-store advertising and promotional products, merchandising services, database marketing tools and online promotions. These products and services allow marketers to deliver a brand message to over 150 million consumers each month via a network of 1,161 newspapers and 34,500 supermarket, drug and mass merchandisers locations across the country, including Albertson’s, Kroger, Winn Dixie, CVS, Eckerd and Rite Aid.
News America Marketing’s diverse portfolio of consumer-marketing programs includes:
IN-STORE MEDIA
SmartSource® At-Shelf Sampling SmartSource ShelftalkSM
SmartSource Shelftake One® SmartSource® Bonus Box
SmartSource ShelftalkSM Banner SmartSource Shelftake One® RX
SmartSource CartsSM SmartSource Freezer ShelftalkSM
SmartSource Showcase® SmartSource Coupon Machine®
SmartSource Freezer ExtraSM SmartSource Showcase® Extra
SmartSource Floortalk® SmartSource Price Pop® Guaranteed
SmartSource Electronic Shelf ProgramsSM
HOME-DELIVERED MEDIA TRADE MARKETING
SmartSource Magazine® SmartSource Price Feature Plus®
Partnerships Themed Events
Direct Response Advertising
SmartSource Custom PublishingSM
ONLINE MEDIA
SmartSource Online Savings NetworkSM
DATABASE MARKETING MERCHANDISING SERVICES
SmartSource Direct
News America Marketing—International provides consumer-marketing services in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to a network of advertising and promotion partners in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Rim.
News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets as of June 30, 2005 of approximately US$55 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$24 billion. News Corporation is a diversified international media and entertainment company with operations in eight industry segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming; direct broadcast satellite television; magazines and inserts; newspapers; book publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and the Pacific Basin.
For more information about News Corporation, please visit www.newscorp.com.
Contact: News America Marketing
Laura Richards
212.782.8145
lrichards@newsamerica.com
Rubenstein Associates Public Relations
Robin Wagge
212.843.8006
rwagge@rubenstein.com
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