James Murdoch is a talented executive, as exemplified by his performance as BSkyB CEO. But the 67 percent of outside shareholders that on Oct. 21 voted against his inclusion on the board must not be ignored.
Miguel Villagran/Getty ImagesInteractive advertising company true[X] media has added James Murdoch, co-COO of 21st Century Fox, former AOL and News Corp. digital unit head Jonathan Miller and Mich Mathews, the former chief marketing officer of Microsoft, to its board.
They will bring “unparalleled advertising and media expertise to true[X] media’s mission to power the perfect advertising system for digital media with best-in-class engagement advertising technologies,” the startup said Thursday.
“Mich, James and Jon each represent the very top of their fields in media, advertising and digital, and their insights will be invaluable as we continue to expand in key areas,” said CEO Joe Marchese. “Their experience defining and shaping new consumer-focused content and advertising models aligns with our goal to elevate and evolve the digital advertising industry.”
Murdoch, son of Fox and News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, was recently promoted to the co-COO role. He is directly responsible for the entertainment conglomerate’s global TV business.
“Joe and the team at true[X] are clear thought leaders around the development of new advertising platforms,” said Murdoch. “This is an area of exciting innovation, and true[X] is pioneering a new way to deliver real value to media and marketers alike.”
Miller, previously chairman and CEO of the digital media group at News Corp. before it split into two companies, also served as chairman and CEO of AOL from 2002 to 2006.
“In both my time at AOL and at News Corp., there was always a question of how advertising would evolve to meet the needs of a digital world,” he said. “After seeing the true[X] platform for engagement advertising, I felt strongly they had one of, if not ‘the’ answer to what advertising needs to evolve into. I can’t see a reason why publishers of high-quality content wouldn’t adopt this format.”
The company’s board also includes venture capitalists from such firms as Redpoint, Jafco, Norwest and Pinnacle.
“We believe that ads should be enabling rather than interruptive and have built the definitive engagement advertising system around our core product of true[ATTENTION], which delivers on the promise of ‘zero waste’ advertising,” true[X] says in its company description online. Founded in 2007, the firm is headquartered in L.A. and New York.
