News Corp Australia boosts digital talent, announces appointment of Kristin Carlos

News Corp Australia has appointed Kristin Carlos to head up its digital platform business including News Xtend which specialises in marketing solutions for small and medium enterprises.

As managing director, commercial platform, she will report to chief financial officer Michael Ford who said Carlos would bring a solid track record of developing innovative client solutions to News Corp Australia.

“Kristin has a wealth of digital experience in a range of senior roles,” Ford said.

“She brings to News Corp Australia a customer-centric focus to technology solutions and demonstrated success in developing high-performance teams. It’s great to have her join us and we all look forward to working closely with Kristin.”

Previously, Carlos spent more than a decade in various senior executive roles including at Yahoo! as the director of connected entertainment, and Qantas, where she headed its Digital & Entertainment division.

“The role presents an exciting opportunity to grow the digital platform business and to lead a key function at Australia's premier digital media company,” Carlos said.

The Platform division, which Carlos will lead, is charged with evolving News Corp Australia's commercial model and leveraging the News Xtend and News Connect platforms to provide a seamless, end-to-end customer experience to a variety of clients.

News Xtend is a digital marketing business that provides advice and know-how to small and medium businesses to market themselves digitally. Its marketing specialists work one-on-one with business owners to understand their specific market needs and create targeted digital campaigns to increase customer numbers.

News Xtend has enjoyed robust growth since its establishment almost seven years ago.

News Connect collects two billion data points from News Corp Australia websites and apps, as well as from partnerships. With 15 key partners – including Near, flybuys, Qantas Red Planet, realestate.com.au, Fox Sports, productreview.com.au, smrtr, TEG and more – News Connect offers more than 2,700 segments where marketing partners are able to find any audience, particularly intenders.

News Connect finds the right customer by layering first party audience data with partner data. It then targets those audiences in News Corp Australia’s premium publisher environments. This combination of targeted audiences with high levels of engagement delivers outcomes for marketers.