Foundry announces the closure of the CMO Australia brand
It is with regret and after much consideration Foundry (formerly IDG Communications), announces the closure of the CMO Australia brand.
In February 2022, IDG Communications, the global leader in technology media, data and marketing services, completed its global transformation and rebranded as Foundry. The announcement marked the company’s transformation from legacy media network to integrated marketing technology (martech) and data provider.
Since that time, Foundry has been reviewing its international operations and organisational structure to best position the company moving forward. As part of this review, the business has engaged in significant discussion and work internally over the past six months to determine the path forward for the CMO Australia brand.
While the audience is important and Australia remains a significant market to Foundry, the existing CMO brand in Australia is unfortunately not something the business can map to other markets and scale in the way it has other flagship media brands represented locally and internationally, such as CIO, CSO and Computerworld.
This has led to the difficult decision to close the brand, effective 1 March 2023. As a result of this decision, CMO Australia Creator, Publisher and Editor, Nadia Cameron, has exited the Foundry business, effective 23 February 2023.
CMO Australia first launched in April 2013 with a vision to help Australian marketing leaders not only excel as functional leaders, but as strategic business contributors. The brand’s dedicated focus on modern marketing leadership and how to navigate the intersection of marketing and technology saw CMO Australia’s scope extend from its core website, www.cmo.com.au, and CMO magazine, to a weekly newsletter with more than 8000 subscribers, a portfolio of industry research programs, such as State of the CMO, the CMO Momentum conference and the highly esteemed CMO50 program.
Foundry is now working with partners and clients on outstanding programs following the closure of the CMO Australia brand, and identifying opportunities across the wider portfolio of products and services locally and globally. No further employee or program changes are expected as a result of CMO Australia’s closure.
“CMO Australia has been a huge part of the Foundry story these past 10 years. We are proud of everything achieved with – and on behalf of the Marketing community in Australia,” said Matt Egan, Global Editorial Director, Foundry. "As our global business continues to transform, we have taken the difficult decision to step back from CMO Australia in its current form to concentrate on our core Enterprise IT and Channel brands in Australia: CIO, CSO, Computerworld and ARN. But readers and customers should rest assured that this is not the end of our journey in this market. We thank you for your attention and custom over the past decade.”
“The ultimate aim behind the CMO Australia brand editorially has been to elevate the role of Australian marketing leaders as contributors to organisational growth. I believe we’ve gone quite a way to achieving that,” said Nadia Cameron, Publisher and Editor, CMO.
“The inspirational stories our CMO50 share each year certainly helped. But so did the individuals who contributed to every article we’ve penned and platform we’ve provided. Jointly, we’ve helped marketers of all shapes and sizes become better business contributors, do more creative and effective work, and ensure the community can achieve greater success.”
For further details, please contact Jon Stubley, Vice President A/NZ, Foundry: jstubley@idg.com
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