LEGENDS OF ADTECH

Episode 5: The Front Runner

Karen Eccles, Chief Commercial Officer at The Telegraph


Welcome to Legends of Adtech: the podcast where we go beyond the buzzwords and straight to the people at the cold face of the adtech industry. Every two weeks, we sit down with the industry’s boldest thinkers, pioneers, and disruptors, to find out how they’re rewriting the game. This is their story.


In Episode Five, we sit down with Karen Eccles, Chief Commercial Officer at The Telegraph, to deep dive into her career, which has been defined by leadership, transformation, and future-thinking. A true front-runner, Karen shares what it takes to drive commercial success across publishing and adtech, how neurodivergence has shaped her career, and why giving back to the industry is a non-negotiable for her.


From trendspotting before the curve to balancing performance and purpose, this episode is packed with insight from one of the most influential voices in digital media today.

About Karen Eccles

Karen Eccles is a multiple award-winning executive leader, board member and commercial chief. She is Chief Commercial Officer at The Telegraph responsible for digital advertising, partnerships, licensing and commerce.


With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Karen has a proven track record of delivering transformation and ambitious growth for publishers, digital platforms and ad technology. She is passionate about long-term success strategies to boost change, accelerating revenue streams in customer centric companies, and building strong cultures with happy, high-performance teams to deliver financial growth.


She is also the Chair of the AOP where she helps the industry come together to solve the big challenges and make the most of the opportunities ahead; and is on the board of the news industry’s collaborative joint venture Ozone.


The Refill

Get a content top-up!


Black Friday ads don’t work everywhere Parallel study finds
October 12, 2026
Simulations of seven major UK Black Friday ads found that a third to half of available YouTube content was a poor fit for each ad - and that the content where ads work best is often also a strong fit for competing brands.
We can label AI. But what are we actually labeling? | Adtech Juice
October 4, 2026
Anthropic has begun embedding invisible watermarks in text generated by new Claude models, part of its effort to comply with the European Union’s new transparency requirements for AI-generated content. The idea sure seems straightforward: if AI generated something, there should be a way to identify it.
AI shopping upends the rules of brand leadership, price positioning & competition, according to new
October 4, 2026
Analysis reveals shopping assistants create radically different ‘AI Shelves,’ as Brandtech’s Jellyfish launches Share of Model™ Shopping Optimization to help marketers understand & influence how products get chosen
Particular Audience launches Trade Media solution to bring trade marketing into the digital age
October 4, 2026
New offering enables brands to launch, measure and adjust supplier-funded promotions in real time - bringing digital flexibility to trade marketing
Assertive Yield expands team with senior appointments of Shez Iqbal and Jack Watt
October 4, 2026
Assertive Yield, the adtech platform helping publishers, SSPs and ad networks maximise revenue, working with the likes of 9GAG, Bauer Media Group, Hearst and Britannica, has appointed two very well-known industry veterans to fuel the next phase of their growth.
6 things marketers must know to navigate the Golden Quarter
September 29, 2026
As the year’s biggest sales event rolls over the horizon, how should marketers strategise for the Golden Quarter? We’ve got six things brands should be considering if they want to win big.
AB Tasty and VWO unite as Wingify to launch Agentic Experience Optimisation platform
September 16, 2026
New platform brings experimentation, personalisation, customer insights and engagement together through a shared data foundation and embedded AI engine
WTF is attribution!? | Adtech Juice
September 14, 2026
There's no holy grail in attribution, but there is a model that works best for you. Suzanna Chaplin, CEO of esbconnect breaks it down.
Show More

Need to bust the jargon?

Read our Adtech Glossary