The Newspaper Society has recruited a new member of staff to its newly-formed advertising affairs unit as part of a drive to increase the regional press’s share of national advertising revenue.

Gerry Boniface joins as advertising affairs executive.

He will play a key role in targeting national advertisers as part of the regionals’ Creating New Perspectives campaign.

Gerry was most recently managing director of Fusion Radio Sales, and has also worked for Emap, Newsquest and a national sales house.

Since the launch of the Creating New Perspectives campaign, the Newspaper Society has carried out 800 presentations to agencies and clients, promoting the strengths of the medium and highlighting improvements made in the areas of planning, buying and administration.

During that time, agency awareness of the generic marketing effort had risen from 25 per cent to 78 per cent, according to an independent tracking study carried out by BJM.

Newspaper Society marketing director David Hoath said: “During the last two years our presentation programme has collectively built momentum and we now have a recognisable media brand – regional press.”

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