Industry Moves: IPC Appoints Digital Execs From VMtv, News International

The UK publisher owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), has made a couple of appointments in digital marketing. Kevin Brown is now digital development director for IPC Connect (the division covering women’s magazines), and Darren Davidson is the new digital advertising director for IPC Weeklies, the advertising division serving both IPC Connect and IPC TX (the division covering TV magazines). Both appointments are for new roles that did not exist before.

Brown comes from Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) Television, where he was head of interactive, covering areas like broadband VOD, content syndication, user generated applications and mobile activity for Virgin’s channels LIVING, Bravo, Trouble, Challenge and FTN (being rebranded now as Virgin 1). A replacement for Brown has not yet been announced by Virgin Media. Davidson joins IPC from News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) News International, where he was involved in the online commercial development of newspapers like The Sun and News of the World — which like many other newspapers are trying to build up readership and advertising on the Internet to offset declines in print sales. He’s also been the head of digital agency sales for Sky, also owned by News Corp.

IPC is keen to forge ahead with developing its digital revenues, particularly after the departure of Rebecca Miskin to iVillage in September. In June, IPC announced that Nick Bradley would oversee digital ad sales across the whole company. IPC is a division of Time Inc., which has been scrambling to figure out the best way of capitalising on Internet developments, particularly for its older brands like Time Magazine. Brown’s remit will be “to deliver a comprehensive digital strategy building on successful Connect digital brands including celebrity gossip destination http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk and mainstream women’s portal GoodToKnow,” according to the company. Davidson will build up advertising for the women’s magazine sites, as well as online TV magazine brands such as WhatsOnTV.

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