Anna takes on global responsibility for the Guardian’s membership, subscription and contributions programmes, partnerships with technology businesses including Google and Facebook, syndication and licensing, and other consumer revenues including the Guardian’s live events. She will also oversee the Guardian brand and all Guardian marketing.
The introduction of the role of chief customer officer brings together all these areas of the business together for the same time and marks a significant step in the Guardian’s reader-first strategy, says the company.
The Guardian claims to have more than 230,000 members, and 185,000 digital and print subscribers.
Anna was appointed VP for Platforms and Partnerships for GNM in December 2016 - managing global relationships with digital technology partners including Google and Facebook, and pioneering the Guardian’s commercial video strategy in partnership with editorial and digital teams.
Prior to the Guardian, Anna has worked extensively in digital media and marketing - including seven years at Google and YouTube, where she ran global consumer marketing from their San Francisco offices for three years. Previous to this, she led brand and viewer marketing at the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, ITV, and was VP of Marketing at MTV Networks.
On her appointment Anna Bateson said: “There’s never been a more exciting time to be at the Guardian - the reader-first strategy is ahead of the curve for news organisations. Our bold move to create a membership proposition is already paying off. I’m excited to be spearheading our customer focused teams to forge deeper relationships and help the Guardian grow new areas of revenue”.
Guardian Media Group chief executive David Pemsel said: “Anna is the perfect fit for our first chief customer officer. We have made readers and customers absolutely central to the success of the Guardian’s strategy and Anna’s skills and experience have so far brought cohesion and vision to our portfolio of digital partnerships and revenue drivers. She’ll bring her vast customer-centric know-how to this crucial new role.”
