Next month, Global CEO Stephen Miron will officially step back from his role after 16 years at the helm of one of Britain's largest media enterprises.

When Miron joined Global as CEO in 2008, it was a £200m business with only one national radio brand. In March, he’ll leave an almost £1bn business, with numerous national radio brands, a digital ad exchange, dedicated listening app and substantial OOH footprint.

Miron will still be involved at Global as chairman, replacing former ITV and Granada CEO Lord Charles Allen, who himself will become a senior non-executive director. Former STV CEO Simon Pitts is succeeding Miron as Global’s CEO.

In an interview with The Media Leader in October, Global’s chief commercial officer Mike Gordon said: “We’re very lucky because Stephen’s not leaving the business. We have Stephen and we have Simon – it’s great to have somebody join the business with the experience that Simon’s got. No-one has a monopoly on a great idea.”

Miron sat down last autumn with The Media Leader columnist and former editor-in-chief Omar Oakes for a conversation at our Future of Media London event to reflect on his career and legacy.

“You have to know when to exit stage left,” Miron said. “It’s been the most amazing journey for 16 years, but I also think the business needs different thinking in the next 15 years.”

Highlights:

3:13: Looking back on Global's beginnings and Miron's early career path

13:54: Lessons from Associated Newspapers

18:50: Working with Ashley Tabor-King to identify growth in radio and OOH

31:02: Defining Global's unique culture and identifying and inspiring talent

Related articles:

‘Disrupt yourself before someone disrupts you’: Stephen Miron on 16 years of Global

Global commercial chief Mike Gordon: Radio has ‘grown up and adapted’

STV’s Simon Pitts to succeed Stephen Miron as Global CEO

‘A tough act to follow’: Industry reacts to Stephen Miron’s departure from Global

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Are audience-targeting practices too simple in an era of big data? Advertisers and their agencies tend to use demographics to target people across media channels, but perhaps that model is outdated.

Natalie Bell is CEO of MG OMD. The Omnicom media agency is coming out with new research on how community-based targeting might be a new model worth considering and she joined host Jack Benjamin to preview early findings.

As a trustee of Nabs and member of Wacl, Bell also spoke to concerns around a rollback in DEI initiatives across the media industry, led by the US market.

She discussed the ethical conundrums of striving for responsible marketing in what feels like a new era, where progress is at risk of being rolled back, and what leaders should be doing to fight for what’s right for their employees and their clients.

Highlights:

5:40: Why brands should reconsider targeting practices to focus on communities

13:17: Learnings from working on the government account during the Covid-19 era

18:50: Media agency brands aren't dead

23:38: How agency leaders are reacting to a "sunsetting" of DEI and ESG initiatives

Related articles:

ESG has become a key differentiator for the investment community

Let’s harness the power of community for mental wellness

Podcast: Why social media is all about community now – with Reddit’s Paul Peterman

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At a Thinkbox event in September, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 announced Lantern, a new measurement panel aimed at tracking the short-term impact of TV advertising on sales.

The goal for the initiative, which is aiming to fully launch in 2026 following a period of testing and requests for proposals, is to help provide TV with “the measurement it deserves” in an era when brands have increasingly demanded more outcomes-based measurement solutions, rather than simply measuring audiences.

Sameer Modha is measurement innovation lead for commercial at ITV and sits on the commercial board of UKOM. Matt Hill is director of insight and measurement at Sky Media and formerly director of research and planning at TV marketing trade body Thinkbox.

Both have had a strong hand in the early development of Lantern. They joined The Media Leader Podcast to discuss the project – its purpose, goals and timeline – as well as how TV measurement efforts need to adapt more broadly to address the needs of advertisers.

Modha and Hill also spoke about how Lantern will help attract new-to-TV advertisers, how the project is "fundamentally different" from Isba's cross-media measurement initiative Origin and why the majority of media buying is now spent on outcomes, not eyeballs.

"In the end, buying outcomes rather than buying eyeballs has won in the market," said Modha. "We can either sit on our hands and just ignore that or say no, no – actually, we've got a fantastic ad product and it is great at doing those things, but we haven't surfaced that in a way that can play a part in those finance conversations."

Highlights:

4:44: The when, how and why of Lantern

13:10: Targeting new-to-TV brands and the problem with attribution

19:54: The challenge of cross-industry collaboration

24:37: Lantern's launch timeline

39:16: Has brand advertising become passé in an era of outcomes-based measurement?

50:21: What the future of TV measurement looks like

Related articles:

ITV, Sky, C4 reveal Lantern audience measurement launch

Lantern joint measurement panel could be live ‘by 2026’

Thinkbox research lead Matt Hill to join Sky Media

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