Gannett Names PointRoll’s Head as Chief Digital Officer

Gannett has named PointRoll chief Chris Saridakis as its new senior vice president-chief digital officer, reporting to longtime vet Jack Williams, who has been named president of the division. PointRoll is a rich media ad agency that Gannett purchased in June 2005 for $100 million. Since then, it has incubated new revenue pools, such as political advertising, corporate communications and pharmaceutical testing recruitment. If widely adopted, these would represent radical new directions for the newspaper and TV giant.

Gavin O’Malley at Online Media Daily interviewed Saridakis about the new appointment. Saridakis, who previously worked at DoubleClick, noted that PointRoll has moved from being a rich media evangelist to executing local, national and behaviorally targeted campaigns. “Most of our successful rich media ads at PointRoll, in terms of time spent with brand and interactivity, have some element of sight, sound and motion wrapped in an interactive envelope,” he said.

Going forward, Saridakis said plans include partnerships, acquisitions and custom development. “We can harness all of Gannett’s breadth in location and depth of local content to success,” he said. “The opportunity I have at Gannett is to take a leader like Gannett and help it transform into a leader across all mediums, print, TV, Web, mobile, etc.”