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New Johnston Press boss buys 14k of shares in company

The incoming chief executive of Johnston Press has issued a vote of confidence in his new bosses by buying more shares in the company.

Ashley Highfield, left, is joining the regional publishing giant as chief executive next week, taking over from John Fry.

The Scotsman reported that Mr Highfield purchased a total of 334,595 shares last week, bringing his overall shareholding to 711,818 shares.

With the share price hovering between 4.4p and 4.55p a share last week, it will have cost him a minimum of £14,722.

Mr Highfield, a former director of new media and technology at the BBC who oversaw the launch of the iPlayer, was named as replacement for Mr Fry in July.

He was previously at Microsoft, where he was vice-president responsible for its UK consumer and online business, including the MSN website.

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  • October 26, 2011 at 2:10 pm
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    A good newspaper man, then…run for the hills, print journos!

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  • October 26, 2011 at 2:46 pm
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    Come on, give the guy a chance – he hasn’t even started yet. None of the people who had been in the industry for years managed to work their way through revenue or audience migration. Maybe someone with a different background might crack it!

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  • October 26, 2011 at 2:51 pm
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    Yes, I buy that. Given Highfield’s track record in online innovation, appointing him as CEO is possibly the smartest thing JP has done since it decided to stop being a small (but highly successful) Scottish weekly newspaper publisher.

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  • October 26, 2011 at 3:16 pm
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    And there’s no such thing as a print journo anymore, Glad. We’re all multi platform now, dontcha know. We’ve moved with the times.

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