Van den Belt leaves ITV.com

chris

Annelies van den Belt is leaving ITV.com after 15 months to run Sup, the Russian online publisher that bought blog network LiveJournal last December.

Van den Belt's new role as Sup general manager, Russia, puts her in charge of company's commercial strategy, with a brief to improve profitability in Europe's fastest growing internet market.

Research by comScore late last year suggested that Russia had seen a 23% year-on-year increase in connectivity in September 2007.

Van den Belt will be joining former Downing Street communications adviser Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, who moved to Sup in an executive role last year.

Sup is exploiting the growth in Russia's internet market through a combination of launching domestic services and acquisition of international companies and partnerships, including content deals with Last.fm, the New York Times and Yahoo.

In December, the company bought the LiveJournal blog and social network for an undisclosed sum. Van den Belt will oversee the Cyrillic version of the service, as well the sports site Championat.ru, the media sales house +SOL and Victory, a creative agency.

Sup, which means "soup" in Russian, was launched by publisher Andrew Paulson, founder of the cultural magazine Afisha, and by serial creative industries investor Alexander Mamut.

Van den Belt, who speaks fluent Russian, previously worked in the country for six years, including a stint as publisher of the Moscow Times, as well as in roles at the Russia Business Review and the St Petersburg Times.

She joins the 18-month-old company on June 1, but does not yet have a leaving date at ITV. Her role at the broadcaster involved helping to launch the ambitious broadband site ITV.com, where digital revenues increased 60% during her tenure.

"Where [ITV.com] is now to where it was when I joined has been a huge step change and I'm leaving a product I believe in passionately," van den Belt said.

"I'm leaving on a high but this is a match made in heaven in terms of my experience. The work on ITV.com is not done but that is the internet - it's a work in progress, always. It's in continuous development."

Van den Belt joined ITV.com as managing director in January 2007 after leaving her role as director of new media at the Telegraph Media Group, also after 15 months. Before that, she worked at News International for five years in roles including digital director.

The ITV chief technology adviser, Dominic Cameron, will temporarily head ITV.com until a replacement is found.

Cameron is also technology director at lastminute.com and has worked as internet technology adviser at Channel Five, director of upmystreet and as an executive producer at the BBC.


Source: MediaGuardian

__________________