Independent Commercial Team

Agency: Independent Digital News and Media

“We always felt that The Independent was somewhat of a sleeping giant. We're not a sleeping giant anymore. We're just a giant,” Andrew Morley, CRO, The Independent.

Against a backdrop of hugely challenging circumstances, 2021, our 35th birthday year, saw the news brand not only survive, but thrive; growing revenues by 41% and growing operating profit by 103%. Through creating Independent Advertising, embarking on landmark audience studies, articulating our proposition with a new bold strapline around positive action, homing in on our unique strengths, commercial diversification and compelling solutions (launching the Ignite business and focusing on Independent TV) - as well as supercharging the team - we came out of 2021 stronger than ever and primed for another record-breaking year doing the things that The Independent has always done best – disrupting, innovating, empowering and making change happen.

Until recently, The Independent’s commercial team operated under the ESI umbrella. Independent Advertising was created in early 2021 as a standalone commercial proposition, braced for the next stage in The Independent’s matchless journey.

The Independent is the world’s only profitable transformation of a quality news brand to fully digital, with the topline growing at a compounded average growth rate of 16% over five years.