Independent hunts agency for £3m media business

The Independent and Independent on Sunday’s new marketing director, Trish Wadley, is looking for a single media agency to handle its &£3m media buying and planning account.

The media buying account is currently handled by Zenith Media. In the past, the media planning was carried out in-house at The Independent.

But Wadley has let it be known that she has no intention of continuing this arrangement, and intends to appoint an agency to handle media planning as well as buying.

Wadley has decided not to review the newspaper’s creative advertising account, currently held by Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper, at this stage.

Wadley says : “We want to complete the review by the end of the month as I want to get stuck into doing planning for the end of next year.”

It is expected that Zenith will pitch for the business, possibly alongside Media Planning and other agencies.

Wadley joined The Independent in October from Thomson Financial where she was director of marketing and communications for Europe. She replaced Duncan Eaton, who joined Carlton Interactive as marketing director.

The Independent’s average net circulation for the six months ending September was up 0.66 per cent year-on-year to 225,059.

The Independent on Sunday’s sales also showed a slight increase for the same six month period of 0.05 per cent to 243,917.