The Sun hires Telegraph chief to run membership club

News UK title The Sun has recruited a new customer marketing director as part of plans to tap into the Sun Club membership programme, which was launched in February.

Elaine Scott brings over 15 years of experience in the media industry, with a focus on customer retention and engagement.

Having most recently served as retention director for subscriptions at The Telegraph, Scott also played a key role at Now TV as head of engagement, and at Sky as customer communications controller.

The Sun Club is initially priced at £1.99 a month and comes a decade after the Sun scrapped a subscription strategy that put all of its content behind a paywall.

The new offering requires readers to pay for some of the Sun’s daily output, including exclusive video content such as from its Royal Exclusive programme; other columns to go behind the new paywall include those by Rod Liddle, Loose Women’s Jane Moore and political editor Harry Cole.

Billed as a membership programme offering “no-holds-barred access to our first-rate content”, Sun Club also gives access to deals such as the long-running Holidays from £9.50 promotion. Previously that was only available to buyers of the print edition, or subscribers paying £6.99 a month for the digital edition of the paper through the app.

Scott will focus primarily on driving the acquisition, engagement, and retention of the programme.

The Sun director of customer revenue Louise Crosby said: “We’re thrilled to have Elaine on board as we continue to boost The Sun’s customer marketing strategy. We are at a pivotal moment for the publication following the launch of Sun Club, and her extensive experience will be a great addition to this growing proposition.”

Scott added: “I’m excited to be part of a team that prioritises innovation and puts the readers at the heart of everything we do. I’m looking forward to playing a role in maximising our success by driving engagement and loyalty.”