Press Gazette’s News Yacht at Cannes 2026

As Chief Executive Officer, Katie Vanneck-Smith has overall management responsibility for Hearst UK.

Katie has a wealth of experience innovating in the media industry, having worked for both large-scale corporations and more recently launching a successful startup.

Katie joined Hearst UK in December 2022 from Tortoise Media, a global media outlet that she co-founded in 2018. Prior to that, she was President and Chief Customer Officer of Dow Jones, where she helped build and lead The Wall Street Journal’s successful online membership-based business.

Katie has also held senior roles at The Telegraph Media Group and The Times. As Chief Marketing Officer at The Times, Katie led the architecture of the newspaper’s early move to paid digital subscriptions and was responsible for creating the UK’s first news membership brand, Times+. Katie also oversaw the company’s events programmes, including both The Wall Street Journal CEO Council and The Times CEO Summit.

Karl Wells is the Chief Revenue Officer for The Washington Post, overseeing digital revenue
growth across advertising sales, partnerships, licensing, and the B2C and B2B subscription
businesses, all underpinned by oversight of the Data, Analytics, and Insight team, which serves
all parts of The Washington Post.
He is a veteran media executive, having built and scaled successful businesses for startups and
global media brands worldwide. In his previous role as Chief Commercial Officer for The
Information, Karl led the successful growth of all revenue lines, including the launch of a
premium subscription product, The Information Pro, the creation of a B2B licensing business,
and an expansion of the advertising and events businesses.
Dubbed a “subscription wizard” by Vanity Fair, Wells also held the role of Chief Subscription
Officer for Dow Jones, where, under his leadership, total subscriber volume doubled, and digital
circulation revenue increased threefold. During his seven years at Dow Jones, Wells led
subscription growth across all consumer brands, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s,
and MarketWatch.
Prior to Dow Jones, Wells served as Subscriptions Director in the UK, launching a new
subscriptions business for one of News Corp’s largest tabloid newspapers.
Karl serves on the Ad Council’s Board of Directors and is based in New York City with his wife
Helen and children, Samuel and Charlie.

Imogen Fox leads the Guardian’s global advertising strategy, overseeing key relationships with clients and agencies in the UK, the US and Australia. Imogen has held a number of vital leadership roles in the commercial department since 2016, most recently as director of advertising, heading the commercial teams responsible for client relationships, marketing, strategy and content. Previously she was executive editor of Guardian Labs, leading their award-winning branded content partnerships.

Prior to this, Imogen worked for the Guardian in editorial, progressing from assistant fashion editor to head of fashion. In this role, Imogen drove the Guardian’s global reputation for intelligent fashion reporting, features and visuals.