• by Wayne Friedman , March 22, 2007

News Corp. is getting back into the integrated selling game in a formal way--again. It is launching Fox One, which will sell ad packages to marketers across the company's media properties: Fox network; its stable of cable networks, including FX; its digital properties, including Fox Interactive Media, Fox Mobile Entertainment and Fox On Demand, as well as marketing opportunities with Fox Filmed Entertainment; and its publications, such as the New York Post and TV Guide.

Jean Rossi will carry the title of president, Fox One. Rossi has been the longtime lieutenant of Jon Nesvig, president of advertising sales for Fox. Since June 1996, she has held the position of executive vice president of sales for Fox Broadcasting.

Joining Rossi in the new unit will be ex-CW network ad executive Claudine Lilien as senior vice president, and Fox ad sales executives Annie Hekker and Jessica Siff, both as vice presidents.

Rossi has been involved in integrated sales deals for some time. She recently put together a deal with the network's hit drama "Prison Break" and Toyota.

Four years ago, News Corp. dropped its cross-platform selling unit, News Corp. One, but didn't abandon the business. Instead, it named Rossi to an additional post: president of the Fox Entertainment Group Integrated Sales. For both jobs, she reported to Nesvig.

Some analysts believe the move to the Fox name is the company's attempt to employ a more consumer and business-friendly brand name to gain business. Fox One will compete with Disney/ABC Unlimited and Time Warner. Cross-platform selling units can attract some $400 million to $500 million in revenue for a major media company.

The timing is right, say several analysts, as some major media companies' cross-selling divisions have dissolved and/or changed. The decision by CBS and Viacom to go their separate ways forced the two to disband the Viacom Plus cross-platform selling division earlier this year. Now, both CBS and Viacom have separate--and smaller--cross-platform units.

In 2003, the same year News Corp. dropped News Corp. One, NBC also stopped its NBC Connect, its cross-platform selling division--then under the domain of president of NBC advertising sales, Keith Turner. Turner has been replaced by Michael Pilot; it is yet to be determined if Pilot will resurrect the group.

Still, NBC executives say the NBC ad sales division continues to sell across all its TV, cable and digital properties--without a brand-name cross-platform division.