The Ozone Project, the new joint digital ad sales house for publishers, has appointed Danny Spears as commercial director.
Spears joins from his position as programmatic director at Guardian News & Media, where he led advertising technology and data strategy globally. Prior to this, he was head of Guardian+ – the publisher’s buy-side function – which he grew to represent 25% of the Guardian’s total digital ad revenue.
In his new role, Spears will work with existing and new partners of the Ozone Publisher Platform to help them grow their digital advertising business. He will also be responsible for attracting new publishers and managing the commercial, product and analytics aspects of the platform.
“I’m excited by the opportunity that Ozone presents for me to represent a wider and diverse group of publisher interests – and by the role Ozone will play in catalysing market-level change,” Spears said.
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“It is a natural evolution of my work, and interest, over the past five years and keeps me close to the businesses of journalism and content-creation.”
Spears will report into CEO Damon Reeve, who added: “Our ambition with The Ozone Project is to unlock unrealised potential for publishers through better use of technology and data, and new revenue streams by providing advertisers with a single sales point for digital advertising inventory.
“We’re very excited that Danny has joined the team to help us work better with the existing partners and lead on bringing more publishers on board.”
In a display of unity, the largest news publishers in the UK announced the launch of the project in June last year as they seek to offer better scale, a cleaner supply chain and easier buying options for advertisers.
With News UK, Guardian News & Media, The Telegraph and Reach plc onboard as founding partners, The Ozone Project is set to launch in the coming months.
