Following a cash infusion from Discovery and others, Group Nine Media has tapped an ad industry veteran as its new president

pulse

December 1, 2017 5:56 PM

Christa Carone joins the digital media company after stings at WPP Group SJR and Colloquial.

Group Nine Media has named marketing industry veteran Christa Carone as its first-ever president.
The digital media company, which encompasses a portfolio of publications including Thrillist and The Dodo, just received a new round of investment.
Group Nine appears to be ramping up its marketing chops just as the digital publishing world experiences major growing pains.

Fresh off a new round of investment, Group Nine Media has tapped ad industry veteran Christa Carone as its first president.

Carone has logged stints in the ad agency and marketing worlds. Most recently she was chief operating officer of the WPP-owned Group SJR as well as managing director of Colloquial. Both Group SJR and Colloquial are specialist ad agencies that focus on making content for marketers.

She previously served as the chief marketing officer for Boston 2024 Partnership, the organization promoting Boston's Olympic bid. Before that, she had the same role at Xerox, where she spent 17 years.

Group Nine is a digital media rollup of the web publishers Thrillist, The Dodo, Seeker and NowThis. It was formed in 2016, backed by a $100 million investment from Discovery Communications, which birthed the science-centric video brand Seeker.

Earlier this week Discovery, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and Axel Springer, which owns Business Insider, agreed to pump $40 million more into the venture, reported Variety. Now Group Nine appears to be building up its management suite and advertising cache, at a time when publishers including Mashable are selling for disappointing values and others, such as BuzzFeed, are enduring revenue shortfalls and laying off workers.

In October, Group Nine brought on digital ad veteran Adam Shlachter as its first chief marketing officer for advertising and creative services. Carone is now another high ranking staffer with deep roots in the marketing world.

In this new role, Carone will oversee the company's sales and marketing and data operations. She'll report directly to Group Nine CEO Ben Lerer.

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