Vanneck quits after Telegraph takes axe to marketing budget

Telegraph Media Group (TMG) marketing director Katie Vanneck has quit her role after brutal cuts to her marketing budgets were imposed to meet the group’s profits targets. She has left to go back to Times Media as sales and marketing director.

Vanneck’s department was hit particularly hard by a 10% budget cut after TMG was forced to rein in its marketing spend.

The group has been battling to ensure financial stability against a depressed advertising market. Its media spend is estimated to be between £5m and £8m per annum, but its total marketing spend is unclear.

It is understood that TMG’s new finance director, Simon Tucker, appointed earlier this year, was particularly keen to cut the group’s marketing spend.
Vanneck, who joined TMG in early 2005, admits that the marketing department was hit hard by the cut-backs. She denies that it prompted her departure from the newspaper group.

Commenting on her departure to Times Media, Vanneck says: “It is a bigger role. It is also the fact that News International understands what it means to be a customer-led organisation.”

Sources suggest that her departure is likely to prompt a review of the group’s advertising, currently held by Clemmow Hornby Inge.

Vanneck, who is leaving this week, has championed the prospects of three of her division heads to replace her.Nick White, head of customer relationship management; Suzi Watford, head of partnership; and Emma Frazer, head of brand strategy and communications are all strong candidates for the role, she says.
Vanneck is credited with undertaking radical†moves while at TMG, including replacing its DM function with CRM data units.