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Ladbible Group Production Arm Ladstudios Hires Former Barcroft Chief Creative Officer Alex Morris As Director To Drive Growth

EXCLUSIVE: Ladbible Group’s production arm Ladstudios has signed the former Chief Creative Officer of Barcroft Studios to lead its production arm.

Alex Morris becomes Director of Ladstudios, which was launched earlier this year as a central part of the youth-skewing global publisher’s growth plans.

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Reporting to Ladbible Group COO Arian Kalantari, Morris’ remit is to increase the size of the 100-strong department by 50% by the end of 2022 and build commercial and creative opportunities across video IP, channels, show brands and branded entertainment.

The production arm is also looking to take advantage of the UK public service broadcasters’ growing interest in short-form digital programming.

Morris will head up a growing team that includes Strategy Director Thom Gulseven, a former Channel 4 exec, Head of Creative Video Jody Smith, Head of Social Media Mike Vaughan and Head of Original Video Ben Powell-Jones.

“This is an incredibly exciting time to join Ladbible Group and lead the charge on their content offering,” said Morris.

“Ladstudios’ reputation is going from strength to strength and the next year promises a huge opportunity to innovate, double down on production, expand across multiple platforms and create unique relationships with new generations and creators.’’

Morris spent more than 13 years at digital and factual producer Barcroft, rising to Chief Creative Officer before departing at the start of this year to be replaced by John Farrar. Barcroft was acquired by publishing house Future in 2019 in a deal worth £23.5m ($32.4m), at which point investor Channel 4 exited the business.

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