Harper Collins Hires BBC's Weston as Insight Chief

In the UK, book publisher Harper Collins has appointed the BBC's Head of Digital Insight Rufus Weston as Customer Insight Director.

Headquartered in New York City, Harper Collins is a subsidiary of News Corporation, and has publishing groups in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and India.

Weston has spent around twelve years at the BBC in various research roles. For the past five, he has led the Digital Insights team, managing projects to improve global digital news reach, embed analytics into the business, and integrate insight analysis with other BBC teams. Earlier, he set up the BBC World Viewer panel, and ran the broadcaster's first positioning study to identify channel strengths and weaknesses. Prior to this, Weston was a Research Executive at Chrysalis Radio.

Commenting on the appointment, Harper Collins CMO Barnaby Dawe said: 'Rufus will be key in providing accurate analysis of our consumers, to help deliver better targeted and more focused marketing strategies around key talent.'

The firm has also appointed Erin Roy as Marketing Communications Director. Roy joins from IPC Media, where he was an Associate Publisher, prior to which he held a number of marketing roles at News International, Titan Books and BBC Worldwide.

Web site: www.harpercollins.co.uk .