Media Executive Kevin Curnock Joins Huddle as General Manager
After a career spent largely in newspapers, Kevin Curnock took the plunge into the digital world when he recently joined Huddle as its new General Manager and Chief Revenue Officer.
“I had a startup in mind for quite a while. I wanted to do something different.”
Curnock was most recently General Manager of Brunswick News where he led the business side of the operations for daily newspapers like the Telegraph Journal, Times-Transcript and Daily Gleaner. At Huddle, he’ll lead business operations including overseeing sales of display ads and sponsored stories.
This is the latest addition to the Huddle team, following the appointment of Mark Leger as Editor and Inda Intiar as Staff Writer in Moncton.
“Huddle was an excellent opportunity that was a lot different from what I was doing. I knew the skills I had would benefit Huddle and I know that Huddle will give me things too, a way to interact with the community, to get to know the business leaders in the region and help them get their message across,” said Curnock.
A native of St. Catharines, Ontario, Curnock spent the bulk of his career in Toronto, working for the Toronto Star and Toronto Sun. Earlier in his career, he also spent some time in Japan teaching English. He met his Australian wife there before the couple returned to Canada.
During his time at Brunswick News Curnock and his wife fell in love with life in the Maritimes and he decided he wanted to stay here and be part of a growing media outlet that brought a positive message to the region.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the feedback that I’m getting from all sorts of people. Readers genuinely like Huddle. Lots of people say it’s the first thing they read in the morning. Some people say it’s the only thing they read. And they love that it doesn’t have a paywall,” he said.
“I see Huddle being a key piece of a business’s marketing program. It’s a great platform to get a message out. If you’re going to be online in New Brunswick, you have to be on Huddle.”
“There really aren’t any other brand-safe online advertising channels in New Brunswick. If you want to reach people like managers, owners, professionals and entrepreneurs, you have to be on Huddle. There’s no other way to effectively reach this audience,” he said.
After a career spent mainly in large corporate environments, Curnock’s biggest adjustment to life in a digital startup might be the dress code.
“I wore a tie every day from 1999 until now. Even when I went to Japan I wore a tie. I wore a tie at Brunswick News, the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun. The dress code at Huddle is there is no dress code. So that’s been an adjustment,” he said with a laugh.
He hasn’t been spotted in Huddle’s office hammock yet, but we’ll give him some time.