Digital officer Kirk departs News ship

Stuart Spiteri, the chief operating officer of News Digital Media recently hired from Google, will take on some of the digital chief officer's roles in the interim

NEWS Limited’s digital chief product officer, Sigrid Kirk, has stepped down with immediate effect.

No reason has been given for Ms Kirk’s departure, but according to the publisher, her departure is not part of a redundancy program.

Stuart Spiteri, the chief operating officer of News Digital Media recently hired from Google, will take on some of Ms Kirk’s responsibilities in the interim.

Ms Kirk had spent eight years at News Limited, working for News Digital Media division.

She joined News Digital Media in 2004 as editor-in-chief of news.com.au. Two years later she was promoted to group publisher. She became chief product officer two years ago.

She started her career as a journalist and rose through the ranks, chief-of-staff at The Sydney Morning Herald and head of network content at nineMSN.

She was also a member of the paid content strategy unit and helped to develop News Ltd’s iPad apps.