Rachel Middlewick joins PA Media in the new role of Chief Commercial Officer

24 May 2021: Rachel Middlewick has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer at PA Media (PA), the national news agency for the UK and Ireland.

She will be responsible for growing and diversifying PA’s revenue streams as the news agency continues to tailor its editorial offering for media customers and grow its proposition for non-media clients.

PA created the role as part of its focus on keeping customer insights at the heart of its commercial and product development strategies. Rachel will lead a multidisciplinary team encompassing sales, marketing and data insights. She will also work closely with PA’s product development team to shape PA’s product roadmap.

Rachel brings to PA more than 20 years of commercial, strategy and business development experience, spanning a range media and consumer brands including Haymarket Media Group, Sports Direct and The FA.

She joins PA from Hearst Content Agency, part of Hearst UK. As Commercial Strategy Director since November 2019, she was responsible for growing the agency’s brand awareness and scale, winning new client accounts including NatWest, Proctor & Gamble and the furniture brand DFS. Prior to that, she was Strategy & Planning Director at The River Group, working on brands like Co-op, Holland & Barrett and the Oxford Saïd Business School between July 2018 and November 2019. She also created a podcast strategy for The River Group, to broaden its offering for new and existing customers.

Rachel takes up her role in June, reporting to Polly Curtis, Managing Director of PA Media. Polly said of the appointment:

“Rachel joins PA at a really exciting time as we prepare to roll out an ambitious growth strategy built around our customers’ needs. Her commercial acumen, knowledge of the media space and enthusiasm for what we do stand her in good stead to build on our relationships with editorial customers and create new opportunities in the corporate space.”

Rachel Middlewick, incoming Chief Commercial Officer at PA Media, said:

“PA represents the perfect blend of heritage and innovation. The passion the team has for what they do is infectious. My focus will be to truly understand PA customers’ needs and to ensure they continue to get value from PA’s world class journalism created for multiplatform users, and ultimately, to support their efforts to deepen engagement between the audience and their brand.”

ENDS