The Washington Post this morning named long-time publishing industry exec Karl Wells Chief Growth Officer, a first-of-its-kind role for the publication.

Wells, who joins from his own subscription consultancy, previously served as Chief Commercial Officer of The Information and Chief Subscriptions Officer of Dow Jones before that.

Earlier in his career, he worked as a communications planner at GroupM's Mindshare and Mediacom units.

In his new role at The Washington Post, Wells will oversee "the next stage of cross-functional business growth, including subscription strategy, partnerships, licensing, and data and analytics," the company said.

The announcement noted that Wells once was dubbed a "subscription wizard" by Vanity Fair, but did not explain the context of that.

Wells officially joins the paper Feb. 12 and will be based in New York and reports to Publisher and CEO William Lewis.