Watkins restructures team in bid to strengthen global sales

Watkins Media has appointed Chris Wold to the role of group sales director in a bid to strengthen the global sales for the trade publishing imprints.

Wold was previously at HarperCollins as group international publisher before joining Watkins Media early last year in the role of associate publisher for Nourish and head of special projects. His internal move sees the consolidation of the UK, US, International and Rights sales team under his leadership and the publisher said this will be the first step in strengthening the global sales for its trade publishing imprints.

Jo Lal will continue in her role as publisher of both Watkins and Nourish, with Kate Fox as commissioning editor for Nourish reporting to her.  

In the marketing team Vicky Hartley has been promoted to the role of chief marketing officer for Watkins Media, overseeing the promotional activity for the all parts of the group as well as managing the production and distribution of Watkins Media’s two consumer magazines Kindred Spirit and Watkins Mind Body Spirit.

Watkins Media’s Owner and c.e.o. Etan Ilfeld said: "Chris has already made a real difference to our sales department with his work on Special Projects and his fresh take on the publishing in our Nourish imprint. I am sure that under his guidance the sales team will move from strength to strength. Under Vicky’s direction the company now has a clear brand-driven marketing and publicity strategy that supports our channel led initiatives. Her ability to understand and speak to each segment of our clearly defined readerships has seen a rise in direct sales as well as an uplift in subscriptions."