Media Company news South Africa

A new dawn at Spark Media

Spark Media is excited to announce the appointment of a new group executive, and changes in the management team. Rob Fedder, a Caxton and CTP group executive, will be leading the Spark Team. Spark has also appointed new departmental heads in the sales and marketing team and refined the existing exco team.
A new dawn at Spark Media

The restructuring of the team takes place after the recent resignation of Olav Westphal, who leaves the company to pursue new opportunities after years of leading and propelling the Spark Media to success.

Fedder has been a noteworthy leader in paper and electronic document management for over 15 years. In addition to managing various assets within the Caxton Group, Fedder’s key responsibility at Spark Media will be to lead the team into the future. He hopes to achieve this by allowing his team to grow on a personal and business level, to make their own decisions, and to take accountability for all their actions. Fedder’s astute knowledge of business and operations, attention to detail, and measurement mindset, make him the ideal candidate to steer the Spark team into a prosperous future.

In addition to Fedder’s appointment, Chris Halstead has been appointed as the new head of sales and Jacqui Hansen as the head of marketing. Hansen has been with the Caxton group for 30 years and has served clients in a range of roles. With her extensive experience in media, advertising and marketing positions Hansen as a valued manager in the Spark team. Halstead is an accomplished and successful sales professional with 16 years of experience in the Caxton Group. The last six have been in the Spark Media sales team. He possesses a wide range of knowledge and talents that allow him to contribute towards the success of the overall group.

In a fast-moving world, change and growth is inevitable. Both new departmental heads have been an integral part of the business for years, making them the ideal candidates to steer the team into a prosperous future.

It is also important to highlight and recognise the existing exco members who still play a significant role in the daily running and operations of the business. Diane Albertus: head of ad operations, Ferhana Naran: head of finance, and Graham Sinclair: general manager.

Sinclair plays a key role in ensuring the sales success and operations of the business. He is involved in most aspects of the Spark Media business and places a special focus on driving the collaboration of Caxton Local Newspapers and Spark as the national sales arm, ensuring alignment between the two Caxton divisions. Albertus has been in the advertising and media space for 41 years, making her a trusted and respected leader in the industry. Her key responsibilities include managing the ad operations department; ensuring client advertisements are booked and processed timeously; and ensuring team performance is commiserate to high quality work. Naran, who has been in the business for five years, has great supervisory and leadership abilities. She possesses skills of maintaining accurate records of all financial transactions and extensive knowledge in accounting that allow her to ensure that all Spark financial obligations are met.

With the support of the commercial managers, business unit heads, account managers, ad operations team, and the marketing services team, the Spark business will continue to reach great heights.

"Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much." - Helen Keller

For any media related queries and the business offerings, contact the corporate affairs manager: Kamogelo Aphane on 010 971 3736; az.oc.aidemkraps@ak

Spark Media
Spark Media, a division of Caxton & CTP Publishers and Printers Ltd, is South Africa’s largest print and digital media solutions sales company. It represents Caxton’s 115 local newspapers and 58 local websites, providing location-targeted content for brands and ad agencies at scale in 120 economically-active communities. It also produces ROOTS, SA’s leading urban, community-level quantitative survey that provides unequalled demographic and behavioural information on local consumers.
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