Nielsen reorganizes measurement management team
The Nielsen Company EVP and Chairman of Nielsen Media Research Susan Whiting announced in a client communication they're making some management changes to better accommodate client needs. The Media Client Services Leadership now is under the direction of Dave Thomas, President, Media Client Services. The Media Product Leadership is under the direction of Jim O'Hara, President, Media Products.
Nielsen is also creating two new positions within the company-an EVP and Chief Research Officer (CRO)-Paul Donato; and an EVP/CTO-Bob Luff. Each of these executives will continue to report to Whiting.
As President of Media Products, O'Hara is responsible for setting the strategic path of specific products or group of products, including the Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement strategy (A2/M2). Jim, who joined Nielsen in 2000 as CFO for Nielsen Media Research, moves up from SVP/CFP of the Media Measurement and Information Group.
As President of Media Client Services, Thomas will have client responsibilities for all of Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen Entertainment. Dave will oversee Nielsen's collaboration with Arbitron in Project Apollo single-source Pilot Test. He will work closely with Nielsen//NetRatings and with BuzzMetrics as well.
Dave, who joined Nielsen in 1989, moves up from SVP/Strategy and Business Development. His team now includes:
• Sara Erichson, who takes on the new position of EVP, Client Services, Nielsen Media Research NA with responsibility for national and local TV ratings and Advertising Information Services. Rob Sisco, President of Nielsen Music and COO/East Coast Operations for Nielsen Entertainment, and Howard Ballon, President of Film and Home Entertainment, now report to Thomas. Howard and Rob are responsible for the Entertainment services, including Nielsen NRG, Nielsen EDI, Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen VideoScan, Nielsen BookScan, Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems and Nielsen Music Control.
Whiting tells TVBR about her new role and the restructuring: "My role has expanded and it's really in reaction to the change we're seeing among clients in the marketplace. Our clients still look at media and marketing as being separate, in isolation from each other. So we're really restructuring our business to address that. We're doing two different things. We're looking at all the client needs in servicing our clients, by having senior executives who manage a team that's totally devoted to the clients' needs and service. Separately, we have another team, again across the board, also looking at products that those clients need and their whole focus will be about building the products. Then you put it together and you add research and development, which is our engineers who look at consumer electronics and technology, and you look at the research science and measurement science of putting company-wide practices together. My job is to manage that."
