Laas Turnbull has joined ZoomerMedia as the company’s “First Audience Officer.”
According to a release, Turnbull will lead the IT and digital content team and be tasked with growing the “commercial success” of the company’s various platforms, which includes the print and online title Zoomer.
The new role marks Turnbull’s first since The Grid (the free Torstar-owned magazine where he was the publisher and editor-in-chief) shut down last July.
Turnbull will tap into his Grid publisher’s experience, having also been named co-publisher of Zoomer, serving alongside Gord Poland.
Turnbull has a strong track record on the business side of the industry, including a four-year tenure as director of development at The Globe and Mail‘s Report on Business magazine, during which he doubled readership.
Prior to joining Star Media Group, where he served as an member of the executive committee in addition to his role at The Grid, Turnbull was executive vice-president of Brunico Communications, overseeing Boards, Strategy, Media in Canada and Stimulant.
Before The Grid went under, it was considered a critical success, pulling in 15 National Magazine Awards and being named one of the best designed newspapers in the world by the International Society for News Design.
