Time’s design mag Wallpaper* has created the new role of website publisher and is promoting international sales director Ben Giles to fit the job. Wallpaper.com got a new lick of paint in 2007 and says it’s pulled 63 percent more ad sales and 66 percent higher page impressions in the last year. Whilst the idea of being a digital Tyler Brûlé might seem sexy, Giles’s task of converting for the web a brand that exists precisely because it’s a glossy printed magazine may seem equally unenviable…
But Wallpaper seems to have big designs on online, with publishing director Gord Ray (via release) calling it “an increasingly important part of our business” for which there are “very exciting plans” in 2009. Says Giles, who has been Express Newspapers ad salesman and Natmags promotions director: