Louise Birkner has been announced the new inland sales director at Ads24, bringing years of experience and expertise in the challenging environment of print media sales. Birkner replaces Francois Rohlandt and will begin work on July 1.
“The media industry is highly competitive and excellent sales leaders are scarce. Even more difficult is to find managers who are totally committed, passionate and have the highest integrity in their work. We have recruited Louise because she embodies these values and will certainly add enormous value to newspaper ad sales in general and Ads24 in particular,” said Linda Gibson, Ads24 CEO.
Birkner leaves Wings Travel Company as head of business development to take up the position at Ads24. Her previous work experience includes Primedia Unlimited’s group sales and marketing director and Avusa Media’s chief sales director.
“Louise is a seasoned sales manager with many years’ experience of driving revenue for a business. In her time in print media, she worked to stretch targets and was able to consistently stay the pace even when times were really challenging. She headed a team which re-built a sales division to take on additional newspaper titles in the Avusa stable. This required many changes to the way staff approached the sales discipline and also included new relationships to be formed internally and externally,” Gibson said.
Notably, Avusa newspaper sales team, led by Birkner, received a 2009 MOST Award for excellence in the newspaper category and won the Overall Media Owner MOST Award across all media types.
Birkner said she was excited to begin work at Ads24 and says her true home is in newspaper advertisement sales; she is also excited to be selling on the digital brands as well. “I aim to apply my knowledge and experience in elevating, and to an extent reviving, the newspaper sector in South Africa. With all the changes brought on by the digital revolution, my job is going to provide me with the challenges I need to thrive and grow,” she said.
Rohlandt will be missed as a very effective leader; Ads24 is very supportive of his new ventures.
