SiriusXM has brought on Suzi Watford, the former chief marketing officer for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, to oversee the satellite radio giant’s streaming subscription business, the company said on Tuesday.
Watford will join SiriusXM in the newly created role of chief growth officer and report to Joe Verbrugge, SiriusXM’s chief commercial officer. Her position will also include oversight of corporate marketing, data and research across SiriusXM and Pandora.
“Suzi has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to build and lead talented teams to evolve and grow profitable consumer subscription businesses, and we are thrilled to have her join us,” Verbrugge said in a statement.
Watford has spent the majority of her career at Murdoch-controlled media companies like News Corp.’s News U.K., in addition to the WSJ and Dow Jones. She most recently served as the chief marketing and membership officer for Dow Jones, overseeing marketing and subscription strategies across WSJ, Barron’s and MarketWatch.
Watford will be based in New York City.
“I’m looking forward to joining the talented team at SiriusXM at this stage in the company’s journey and playing a role as we look to attract and retain new growth audiences,” Watford said.
SiriusXM last reported having 32.2 million self-paying subscribers and 34.2 million total users at the end of September. During the same quarter, Pandora lost a net of 52,000 self-pay subscribers, leaving the music streaming service with a total of 6.29 million subscribers. The company will report its Q4 2022 earnings on Feb. 2.
