Business News
Executive Appointments Emphasize Integrated Sales and Marketing Strategy at The Dallas Morning News
Thursday 04. June 2009 - SVP roles of Cyndy Carr and Fran Wills expand
The Dallas Morning News announced today that Cyndy Carr has been named senior vice president, sales. In this position, she will oversee consolidated sales activities for The Dallas Morning News and all its print and digital products and services. She reports to John McKeon, president and general manager of the News. The appointment of Carr to this new position signals the News’ increased focus on delivering topline revenue through an integrated sales and marketing organization that better serves its advertising customers.
Carr joined The Dallas Morning News in 2004 as director of business development. Since then, she has been named successively to vice president, advertising marketing and vice president, strategy, and she will transition from her role of senior vice president, niche products. Under her leadership, the company successfully launched FD Luxe in 2004 and Briefing in 2008. She has also executed the strategic repositioning for the News’ portfolio of niche products, including neighborsgo in 2006, Quick in 2008 and Al Dia in 2009. Her accomplishments have been recognized by the industry, with a “40 under 40” award from Editor & Publisher in 2007.
“Cyndy has been vital to the successful implementation of our portfolio strategy, which today positions us well to meet the integrated, multi-media marketing needs of advertisers,” said McKeon. “Her demonstrated ability to drive strategic growth in every area she has overseen over the past five years, makes her particularly well-suited to take on this new role of crafting effective solutions across all of our products and services.”
Previously, Carr served as a consultant with McKinsey & Company for four years, where she focused on helping companies drive strategic change. A graduate of Texas Christian University, Carr received her master’s and doctorate degrees from Rice University.
The Dallas Morning News also announced that Fran Wills will expand her role to become senior vice president, interactive and marketing. In this new role, she will add responsibility for B2B and B2C marketing and will oversee the restructuring of the department to support solutions-based selling. She will continue to oversee interactive strategy and sales operations, and she will add marketing analytics and research, communication, branding and training, with particular emphasis on changing the way the News goes to market. She will continue to report to John McKeon for marketing and sales operations, and to publisher and CEO Jim Moroney for online strategy.
Since joining the News in 2006 as senior vice president, interactive, Wills has added responsibility for classified sales. She has executed specific strategies to help advertising customers drive improved results, including: a re-launch of the classified call center; the optimization of dallasnews.com that led to over 100% growth in local traffic; the introduction of HSGametime; a revision of Guidelive.com to significantly improve the consumer and advertiser experience; and the launch of a multi-product partnership with Yahoo. Wills is currently leading a company-wide project to implement an integrated advertising system.
“Fran’s deep experience in sales and marketing will help us to realize our vision of a solutions-based sales approach. We will have more marketing resources than ever dedicated to serving our advertisers. Fran’s track record of creating partnerships that work will be invaluable in helping us transform our sales organization to be more customer-focused,” said McKeon.
Prior to joining the News, Wills served as vice president of interactive and product development with the Denver Newspaper Agency. Previously, she served as vice president of marketing for Zapotech.com, a business-to-business software company servicing the retail advertising market; vice president of marketing for Gart Sports Company; and advertising director for May Department Stores in the Denver area. Wills holds a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.