Immediate Appoints Heather Payne as New Chief Technology & Product Officer

Published: 30 Mar 2026

Immediate, home to trusted brands that people love, have announced the appointment of Heather Payne as Chief Technology & Product Officer.

Heather joins Immediate from Toast91, a social impact start-up she co-founded to provide young people facing abuse, mental health challenges and other life struggles with easier access to digital support.

Prior to this, Heather has held senior roles at DMG and Sky, as well as working as a consulting CTO/CIO advisor and executive coach, supporting scale-ups, founders and boards on technology strategy, platform design and operating model transformation.

As CTO at DMG, she led the transformation of its content systems, established a company-wide innovation lab and oversaw the Daily Mail’s first launch on Alexa. At Sky, she was Director of Digital Technology, scaling the team to support the launch of Sky Glass.

Working closely with Immediate’s Product and Tech leadership team - and in partnership with our Brand, Commercial and Central teams – Heather will continue to develop Immediate’s digital products and capabilities to drive audience growth through increased use of data, personalisation, and new products and services.

Sean Cornwell, Immediate CEO, says: “I’m really pleased to welcome Heather to Immediate. A highly experienced digital and product leader, Heather has a strong track record of driving transformation, building high-performing teams and using technology to unlock better customer experiences and new revenue opportunities. Heather joins Immediate at an exciting time, to build on the great work we’ve done over the last few years in developing our digital capabilities, including modernising our subscriptions and data platforms and developing a broad range of products to drive audience growth and engagement.”

Heather Payne adds: “In challenging times, people gravitate towards the things that inspire them, teach them something new, or simply bring a little joy to everyday life. That’s what Immediate does. These brands have been part of my life for years, from childhood through to parenthood, from finding Sunday brunch inspiration in Good Food to the weekly ritual of taking my kids to pick up the CBeebies magazine. I’m excited about what we can create together for our audiences in the years ahead!”

Heather takes up her role on Monday 13 April and also joins Immediate Leadership Team.

For further information contact: Toby.hicks@immediate.co.uk

ENDS

About Immediate

Immediate, home to trusted brands that people love, own and operate to some of the biggest and well-known consumer brands in the UK, including Radio Times, Good Food, Nutracheck, HistoryExtra and BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine.

Our trusted, quality content reaches 21 people in the UK every month across digital, print, video, podcasts, apps, live events, tools and services.

We are a purpose-driven business, bringing our audiences joy by helping them do what they love, creating content and experiences to inspire our audience’s passions in food, wellness, gardening, history entertainment, and beyond.

With over 1.4million active subscribers across print and digital, we are the UK’s leading publisher by subscriptions. Immediate is the market leader in many of the sectors we operate in, including food, gardening and children’s publishing.

Our brands include Radio Times, Good Food, olive, Nutracheck, HistoryExtra, BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, Girl Talk, and MadeForMums. We publish BBC Top Gear on behalf of BBC Studios and children’s titles for LEGO and Pokémon.

Immediate Live, our live events business, is the UK’s leading organiser of unmissable consumer events. We create premium events and experiences that connect and inspire our audiences, including BBC Gardeners’ World Live, the Good Food Show, London Art Fair, Move It and the Hampton Court Food Festival.

With offices in London, Bristol and Nottingham, Immediate was named AOP (Association of Online Publishers) Digital Publisher of the Year 2024 and won the PPA (Professional Publishers Association) Diversity & Inclusion Award 2024.

Immediate is part of Burda International, the global arm of Hubert Burda Media.