AddThis SmartLayers

Trinity Mirror name duo to head digital-only project

Ed Walker PicTrinity Mirror has named the two journalists who will lead its ‘digital-only’ initiative in Reading following its decision to axe its printed newspaper title there.

The publisher announced last month that the Reading Post was to close along with its sister title GetReading.

Instead all resources will be focused on developing the papers’ online brand, www.getreading.co.uk.

Now Trinity has handed the task of leading the project to its digital development editor Ed Walker, who is appointed as publisher of the site.

Ed, above left, has been with Trinity Mirror since January 2010 when he joined as online communities editor at Wales Online, leading the launch of the community news site yourCardiff.

He moved to a group-wide role in 2011 and has latterly been involved in the rollout of the ‘Newsroom 3.1′ initiative designed to support digital-first publishing.

Said Ed: “I am honoured to take up the role of Publisher with getreading and look forward to working with the team in Berkshire.”

“We are going to be pioneering a new way for local news in the UK and we will be recruiting for a number of roles in the coming weeks.”

Ed will be joined in Reading by Lucy Thorne, below right, currently news editor of The Wokingham Times and The Bracknell Times, who takes on the role of deputy publisher.

Lucy Thorne PicSaid Lucy: “I am delighted to take up the role as deputy publisher and am looking forward to giving the people of Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell and surrounding areas quality and engaging news, sport and entertainment online.”

Simon Edgley, managing director of Trinity Mirror Southern said: “Ed and Lucy will represent a formidable senior leadership team for this exciting and transformational project and I very much look forward to working alongside them to build further on the extraordinary audience growth we are achieving across the Reading, Wokingham and Bracknell markets.”

Neil Benson, editorial director for Trinity Mirror Regionals, added: “I think we’ve got a really strong and highly skilled team. This is a bold move and potentially creates a new and different future for regional publishing.”

15 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • December 9, 2014 at 4:46 pm
    Permalink

    I will follow this with keen interest. Fifteen years ago I was editing a successful financial magazine when the first wave of net geeks came rolling in and told me that online was the only way to go. Fine, I replied, but how does it make a profit? That was the only question to which they didn’t have an answer. Now we’re all older (they’ll be in their mid to late-30s) I wonder if they ever did come up with an answer, because I’m still jiggered if I can see it.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 9, 2014 at 5:12 pm
    Permalink

    Couldn’t agree more with Dick Minim.
    More digi-nonsense. Online isn’t making money. Will it ever?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 8:38 am
    Permalink

    But online is making money. And fewer people are buying print and advertisers are aware of that.

    Online is hard. Publishing companies aren’t stopping news in print because they want to.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 8:40 am
    Permalink

    I like the immediacy of digital but like others I cannot see how it will generate enough profit to employ many people. These two might soon be in charge of a handful of people , unless the firm uses profits from other papers to prop it up. Good luck to them.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 8:48 am
    Permalink

    ***sniffs the air***
    “They must keep bulls nearby.”

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 9:34 am
    Permalink

    Mr Minim is correct, as usual. Online ad growth, we are assured, is soaring. Certainly our group’s own websites, cluttered to the point of madness with people you don’t care about flogging stuff you don’t want, seem to be attracting more than their fair share of them, so much so that online advertising revenue is all of a sixth of what the newspapers make. So out of curiousity, the other day I downloaded some free adblocking software. And they all disappeared, instantly. It was magical. It even knocks out the entries at the top of a Google search that have paid (handsomely) to be there. Lo and behold, websites now load in a sensible amount of time and you can actually find what you want on them. To the best of my knowledge no one has yet come up with a version that does the same thing to newspapers, unless a pair of scissors counts.
    Is ‘getreading’ supposed to be a pun? If so, how do you pronounce it: with a long diphthong, as in ‘to read’, or short, as in the provincial town? Not great for your brand recognition if people can’t actually say its name consistently. But I expect it looked super-clever on a Powerpoint presentation.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 9:48 am
    Permalink

    Will digital make money? Yes, yes it will. The Times and The Sun are both starting to do well from its online operations but it’s supplemented by the print edition.

    BBC Three going online only is the right thing to do: Auntie can help people over the digital hurdles, just as it did with BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge 15 years or so ago. But to expect a thriving local newspaper group to suddenly become a digital cash cow is an idea still ahead of its time.

    There’s still life in the old print dog yet.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 10:18 am
    Permalink

    An alternative headline could be: Trinity Mirror admit they can’t make newspapers work. My sympathies are with the “really strong and highly-skilled team” who will be shovelling in the user-generated content (ie rubbishy pictures of the weather and cat videos) so beloved of Mr Benson and his cronies because they are cheap. This so-called bold move is really a disaster for local newspapers and local news. When will TM own up to the fact that they haven’t got a clue what they are doing (just look at the recent circulation figures) and kindly leave the stage.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 10:59 am
    Permalink

    Whatever happened to good old titles such as Editor and Deputy Editor. In Digiland, we have Publishers and Deputy Publisher. On the planet TrinityMirror, is there an Assistant Publisher (Production)?

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 6:41 pm
    Permalink

    Good luck DDD. (Dynamic Digital Duo). But don’t expect miracles.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 7:03 pm
    Permalink

    Lets play with some facts, rather than the usual ‘in-my-day’ gubbins you lot like on here so much. Trinity Mirror needs to make money. It isn’t going to close newspapers which make money.

    It is employing a team of journalists to run a website providing local news and sport which it plans to make money from.

    We can all find links to stories which we don’t think equal ‘journalism’ but one fun quiz on WalesOnline isn’t reflective of the site, is it? Looking at it now, it’s doing live coverage of a big incident at a school, has acres of stories on Cardiff City and Swansea, covers Welsh politics like no-one else and so on. Just because it finds time to make people smile with a fun quiz doesn’t mean journalism is being killed.

    Newspapers will close as circulations fall. Advertisers aren’t stupid. Would you rather Trinity Mirror and other companies just shut papers and didn’t bother with the internet at all?

    You probably do. But you probably also believe that if the newspapers turned off their websites people would buy more newspapers. That simply isn’t true.

    It’s easy to stand at the side and shout ‘it’ll fail’ or shout ‘boo’ when someone is trying something new and different. Good luck to all involved in Reading, you deserve every chance of success.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 10, 2014 at 10:01 pm
    Permalink

    Mr Ostrich. Fact. Digital will never employ as many people as print. It does not need to (that’s the attraction to accountants). So start scrambling for jobs and brushing up on your IT skills print lovers. The future is here but many will not be part of it. Check again in five years to see what I mean. Meanwhile good luck to any new venture.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 11, 2014 at 11:19 am
    Permalink

    Escapee, you’re wide of the mark there. Surely this is about digital employing the number of people digital can afford to at the moment. In that sense, it is no different to any other business, be it print, online or Asda. No accountant is going to stand in the way of employing more people if it guaranteed making more money.

    As it stands, a digital project will employ more people than a newspaper which has stopped making money.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • December 12, 2014 at 8:39 am
    Permalink

    I love a spat and Mr Ostrich and escapee are doing superbly at bringing us one. Mr O, however, seems to think I am a “back in my day” merchant, hankering for a golden age. I’m not (I wasn’t a journalist then) – I am merely asking a question about how online local news makes the cash that’d keep me in a subbing job. You say The Sun and The Times are starting to make money but I have a faint connection with that outfit and figures are hard to come by – perhaps they are buried in News Company’s labyrinthine annual report somewhere. I agree with escapee that digital will employ less people and a lower skills levels – but then our sandy-headed friend makes the equally valid point ‘better something than nothing’. Yes, it’ll be very interesting to see where we are in five years… though for me I suspect it will involve a bucket, a leather, ladders, and bottles of Windowlene.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)