• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, July 17, 2007

Turner Broadcasting has recruited Walker Jacobs, formerly senior vice president of the Reuters Americas Media Group, to lead a new consolidated digital sales force at the company.

The Turner Entertainment New Media Ad Sales team brings together disparate sales groups representing Turner's collective properties, including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, GameTap, Super Deluxe, Court TV--soon to be renamed trueTV--and Turner Sports.

As senior vice president of the new unit, Jacobs is overseeing all the new media ad sales initiatives for the Turner Entertainment portfolio. Based in New York, he is reporting to David Levy, president of Turner Entertainment Ad Sales and Marketing.

"The digital side has become incredibly intricate over a short period of time," Levy said, discussing the rationale behind Turner's new sales structure. "With that have come much greater opportunities for advertisers to reach a specific demographic across many properties and platforms all at once."

The new sales unit, added Levy, is in preparation for further growth in the digital space.

"We did double the amount of revenue this year than we did last year, and we expect that growth to continue."

Jacobs and an expanded digital ad sales team will work with Turner Broadcasting's Entertainment, Sports and Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media divisions to develop integrated sales and marketing plans across the entertainment portfolio of television networks, platforms and businesses.

Jacobs joins Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president of Turner Entertainment Ad Sales; Trish Frohman, executive vice president of Turner Sports and Regional Ad Sales; and Beth Goss, executive vice president of Animation Ad Sales, as part of the Turner Entertainment Ad Sales and Marketing executive team.

For the past six years, Jacobs worked for Reuters Americas in a variety of executive positions. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of the Reuters Americas Media Group, responsible for general management of Reuters.com ad sales and business development, as well as content sales for Reuters Media Business in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.