Guest · Publishers and media owners
Owen Griffiths
Commercial Revenue Director, The Sun, News UK
Owen Griffiths is Commercial Revenue Director at The Sun, responsible for commercialising the brand across all of its platforms: from print display to digital partnerships, 140 video sub-channels on nine platforms, and a growing US operation. He has been at News UK for 17 years and believes the industry narrative around news avoidance is one worth questioning.
About
Owen Griffiths is Commercial Revenue Director at The Sun, a role he has held since October 2024, having served as Commercial Director from May 2022. He has been at News UK for seventeen years and oversees the full commercialisation of The Sun across print, digital, app, social video, and off-platform channels including YouTube.
Owen’s commercial approach centres on long-term partnerships built around brand synergy, editorial integration, and data-driven measurement. The most cited example is The Sun’s decade-long partnership with Tesco, originally structured around front-of-page print placements, evolved into digital splash screens and app formats, and now tracked through reader polling, brand uplift studies with Differentology, and speed-dating workshops where the client meets fifteen diverse Sun readers face to face. Front-of-mind brand recall for Tesco grew from 45% to 51% over the course of that partnership.
The Sun’s Nucleus data platform aggregates first-party data across all reader touch points and allows advertisers to target by intent, attention, and emotional state rather than solely by demographic. The new Sun Originals video proposition, built around the overlap between editorial authority and commercial interest, launched shows including Betfair’s Tactics Exposed in sports and a female lifestyle series under the Fabulous brand. Owen’s team is structured around client, agency, studio, and commercial services functions, with the ability to inject expertise into new areas as the portfolio expands.
Career21 years
- 2024 to now The Sun / News UK Commercial Revenue Director
- 2022 to 2024 The Sun / News UK Commercial Director
- 2005 to 2022 News UK Seventeen years in various commercial roles across News UK
How Owen thinks3 convictions
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Long-term partnerships outlast campaigns and deliver compounding returns
The Tesco partnership is Owen’s clearest illustration of what sustained commercial relationships can achieve that campaigns cannot. It began as a print front-page placement, moved into digital with first-ad-on-landing formats, and expanded into app splash screens and video. The measurement architecture evolved alongside it: econometric modelling, brand uplift studies, reader polling, and speed-dating workshops where the client meets real readers directly. Owen’s argument is not that campaigns are wrong, but that the compounding value of a partnership that evolves over time is qualitatively different from anything a single campaign can produce.
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Content and data combined unlock integration that neither can achieve alone
The Nucleus data platform is The Sun’s commercial infrastructure: first-party data aggregated across all reader touch points, packaged to allow advertisers to target by intent, attention, and emotional state. When Owen’s team developed Sun Originals, they mapped the overlap between commercial category interest and editorial authority before commissioning a single show. The Betfair Tactics Exposed sports show emerged from that mapping. Data shapes the editorial territory; editorial gives the data meaning.
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The news avoidance narrative is worth challenging
The trade press narrative around news avoidance and brand safety has shaped media planning decisions in ways Owen believes are out of step with what The Sun’s data actually shows. Initiatives like the Stagwell News Alliance are beginning to challenge the prevailing story at industry level. At The Sun, the commercial counter-argument is built on reader engagement metrics, long-running advertiser success stories, and an editorial-commercial relationship that allows brands to integrate authentically with content readers actively choose.
