±±¾©Èü³µpk10

Lawson will be responsible for developing the new brand and its digital spin-offs. He will report to chief operating officer Clive Dickens and oversee a team of 18 people in a merged digital and marketing department.

At Bauer Performance, Lawson was responsible for the management and implementation of a digital marketing strategy and is experienced in media brand building, having supervised more than 30 individual brands within the Bauer portfolio, including the heatworld.com and FHM.com sites.

He has also overseen the rise in Bauer website users from 5.5 million to 10 million, launched eight new websites in the past year and focused on putting search and community at the heart of the brands. Prior to that, he spent four years as head of customer relation management for Emap Consumer Media.

It has emerged that Albion, the agency charged with creating a new name for Virgin Radio, has consulted widely. Simon Gottschalk, Albion's business director, said: "We are using a mixture of sources to develop the brand's identity. We are holding research groups with the current listeners of Virgin Radio, rejecters of the station and the people who work at Golden Square. They are very passionate about the product and the direction it moves in. The Absolute team did a lot of quantitative research before the sale, which is feeding into it as well."

He added: "Name-wise, we have been working on our own creative development and presented different options ranging from rock music-based names to names based more on the values and aspirations of the firm. All options are with the management team and the decision should be made in the next couple of weeks." The Virgin Radio name has to be given up by Absolute by 1 October.

Lawson's role replaces those of Andy Gumbridge, the digital media director, and David Lloyd, Virgin Radio's programme and marketing director, who are set to leave as part of a management restructure revealed on mediaweek.co.uk last week.

Both are staying with the firm for the immediate future, but Dickens will assume control of programming duties immediately.