Star Tribune names new advertising chief

The Star Tribune has named Jeff Griffing as its new head of print and digital advertising.

Griffing, 45, who currently is sales vice president and publisher of Time Inc.'s Sports Illustrated Group in New York, will replace former senior vice president of advertising David Walsh, but with a new title: chief revenue officer. Griffing, who starts his new job March 29, said his title reflects a trend toward combining print and online ad offerings into customized packages for advertisers.

"One of the reasons I came to Sports Illustrated was to help evolve media solutions away from strictly print," Griffing said. Customized advertising can include a combination of print and online advertising as well as advertising via cell phones and online social networks. "I think there are a lot of strategic alliances we can bring to the table."

Griffing is returning to newspapers as they try to recover from both the recession and several years of declining revenue as more readers and advertisers flock online. In January, Star Tribune officials estimated that 2009 revenue tumbled about 22 percent from 2008, to $193 million. When the Star Tribune emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last fall, officials said its revenue had plunged by $165 million since 2006.

A veteran of ad agencies, national newspaper ad sales and specialty magazines, Griffing said he learned about customized advertising at Time Inc. unit Transworld Media. There he marketed seven California-based youth sports magazines and their websites, on topics such as snowboarding and motocross, to advertisers seeking to reach 15-to-24-year-olds.

"All those websites were in their infancy, and that's where I cut my teeth in the digital world," Griffing said. "You had to be smart about creating digital offerings to reach those kids."

At Sports Illustrated, he combined customized advertising with the marketing of a nationally known brand name.

"No matter how big the brand is, you have to think like a start-up company and be nimble," Griffing said of his ad strategy.

A native of Walworth, Wis., he started his advertising career in the Twin Cities, but left in the mid-1990s to sell advertising for national newspaper USA Today.

STEVE ALEXANDER