The newly established CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions Group has added to its senior sales staff, naming Heather Gordon as director of digital sales for Toronto and Western Canada.
The role had been vacant since December, when Nancy Bevilacqua departed CBC/Radio-Canada to become director of national digital sales at Rogers Media. Gordon started her new role on Monday, reporting to executive director of multiplatform media solutions Mary Kreuk.
“It’s very important to hire people who are going to fit into the culture of the organization,” said Kreuk. “She’s got terrific experience and great leadership skills. She’s there to build her own team, and she’s got the ability to do that.”
The public broadcaster’s programmatic advertising sales will also be part of Gordon’s purview.
CBC/Radio-Canada introduced its new digital-first strategy “A space for us all” last year, pledging to double its digital reach to 18 million Canadians per month by 2020. Monetizing that reach will be key to its success, said Kreuk.
Gordon has nearly 20 years of media sales experience, most recently at Bell Media, where she was digital group manager, entertainment specialty and VEVO Group. She began her career at CHUM Television, spending 12 years with CHUM Interactive before the company was absorbed by Bell.
Gordon is Kreuk’s second hire since taking over the CBC sales role in January. The company recently hired another ex-Bell Media employee, Karen Eckert, as director of multiplatform media solutions.
While CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions Group’s senior sales team is now in place, Kreuk said it still has two digital sales roles (one a maternity leave position) to fill.
CBC adopted a “single door” sales concept earlier this year. Kreuk said CBC & Radio-Canada Media Solutions Group has had some “great successes,” including a current partnership between Canada Post and Dragon’s Den. “We still have a lot of work to do,” she said. “The media environment is changing so quickly these days, and we need to be responsive to those changes.”
