Former Local World boss Steve Auckland could be set to return to the industry as chief executive of Johnston Press – if a planned ‘boardroom coup’ at the company is successful.
The regional publisher’s second-biggest shareholder Christen Ager-Hanssen has told HTFP he sees Steve Auckland, left, as a “potential CEO” if his own bid to become group chairman is successful.
As reported on Friday, Christen is calling for an extraordinary general meeting and intends to seek the removal of JP’s interim chairman Camilla Rhodes.
He also plans to appoint Steve, who spent almost two years as Northcliffe group managing director before an 11 month spell as Local World CEO in 2013, as a non-executive director with a brief to oversee print operational changes alongside digital development.
However when asked by HTFP whether there were any other roles being lined up for Steve, Christen responded: “He could also be a potential CEO.”
Former BBC and Microsoft executive Ashley Highfield has been chief executive of JP since 2011 and is the current chairman of trade body the News Media Association – but Christen’s comments suggest his position could be under threat in the event of a takeover.
Christen told HTFP: “There’s many roles open for [Steve], first of all as a non-executive director on the board. He has an enormous confidence within this sector. He has the same vision as me, and that vision is very simple.
“Newspapers these days are about big data understanding. We’re going to create the ecosystem of tomorrow and feed that back into great journalism.”
Steve’s time with Northcliffe and Local World were sandwiched by two spells as managing director of Metro.
Since leaving LW, ahead of its takeover by Trinity Mirror, he has served as CEO of ESI Media, whose titles include the London Evening Standard and The Independent, and which also ran the i prior to its purchase by JP.
Christen’s investment vehicle Custos, which also owns the Swedish version of Metro, is now the second-biggest shareholder in JP with 12.6pc of the group.
Key to the outcome of any boardroom battle will be the attitude of its largest investor, Crystal Amber, which has an 18pc stake in the publisher.
Last week, JP announced it was approaching its largest bondholders about the potential formation of an ad hoc committee to negotiate with the company about the terms of refinancing its £220m debt.
The company has declined to comment further on the issue.
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Super guy with an impressive track record. Just do it.
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Steve Auckland as CEO of JP would see the few remaining JP staff heave a massive sigh of relief…and hope.
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JP badly needs a shake-up and needs to get back to being LOCAL, or perish. Sooner rather than later.
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So replace the guy who’s made a success of the i with the previous guy who’d made a failure of it? This makes no sense.
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Well as far as I’m concerned, it’s just replacing one man in a smart suit with another man in a smart suit. Meet the new boss – same as the old boss.
As long as they keep using Cluster 4 I don’t really mind.
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So,a new CEO…..redundancy pay off for whoever leaves; and this will be paid for by what….more cost cutting?
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Highfield is dragging the business into the twenty first century. Dorkland would take it back to the 80s. Careful what you wish for, folks…
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Grumpy…Highfield’s digital plan for local weeklies is a disaster. Digital isn’t working for them and never will. Highfield thinks digital is good for everything…it isn’t. Some things yes but not local weekly papers. He tried to force ppl to go digital but it didnt make money. Local advertisers hate it. In the process the papers were neglected and let wither on the vine. Now it is time to force ppl back to print with good quality hyperlocal weeklies. As I remember the 80s they were the heyday for weekly papers. Ok now we’ve got Facebook but that only means a really high quality product is needed and ppl will come back. There are 100s of jurnos and snappers out there ready to provide that quality. Finally..for all the digi-heads out there..please try to see that digital IS NOT the future for EVERYTHING.It’s failure in local weekly news should tell you that.
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TDDH, I don’t know how you can continually be so wrong! You’re living in a dream. Please just wake up to the real world!
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Let’s face it JP is nearly dead, flagship regional dailies with shocking sales – Scotsman 21000, less than 10000 are sold at full price with the rest being discounted/bulks. There will be a tipping point soon with high distribution costs for many titles. The operating profit is poor and decreased 16% in the first half of the year, which can only be increased or stemmed in the short term by cuts. Any payout to AH will come out of the profits, which may result in cost cutting.
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Someone who can stop amateur rubbish like this spotted by my partner in her local JP paper down South might be better.
“There was a hype of acticity at the ……..” Two mistakes in first six words.
The school mags do better.
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Can someone please explain this quote:
“Newspapers these days are about big data understanding. We’re going to create the ecosystem of tomorrow and feed that back into great journalism.”
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Anybody know what has happened to John Bills JP’s Group MD, appointed not long ago amidst fanfares ?
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Oliver… What planet are you living on?.. Digital is an utter and complete failure. Show me major digital success. Ypu are the one who is ‘dreaming’.. You, me and the world and his brother know that as far as local weekly news goes, digital is a complete disaster.. Digital does not and will not be the answer for everything. Yes of course it is good for some things ..just not local weekly news. Local advertisers abs hate it. Without them you are giving news away for free.. 10 years have passed and digital local weekly news still can’t make money. Wake up and smell the coffee mate..digital is the failure here!! You are trying to replace the wheel with a digital version…it can never work. Please please listen…..Digital is good but is NOT the answer for everything. Try to see that greedy CEOs see £££ signs in their eyes with no print or transport costs. You can put as much news on the net as you want but without advertising you are wasting your time and giving the news away free!. I TOTALLY refuse to accept that digital will ever work for local weekly news. Show me how it can! Oliver you ate soooo wrong and the facts prove that. 10 years of failure prove that! Oliver…get a grip and wake up. Just because it is new and thrusting dosen’t mean it will work for everything. THAT is your mistake. You CANNOT re-invent the wheel! I’m NOT wrong… You are!
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PS. Oliver…you make me so angry. You have the cheek to say I am living in a dream world. It is YOU who is dreaming. SHOW me some real digital success. The only real facts we actually do have is that digital is a failure for local weekly news…how on earth can you say what you are saying? You are a digital TOADIE. You cannot see the reality that DIGITAL DOSEN’T WORK FOR EVERYTHING. I claim the upper hand here as digital has been a proven failure..If it aint broke don’t fix it!!!
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Aukland took on Northcliffe valued at a billion pounds. Sold it for 60 million. No greater slasher and destroyer of value. Avoid.
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Good job TDDH explained that he was angry. Was hard to tell from the previous post.
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I think The Dead Digital Horse is going to have a heart attack
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Anyone else think this Ager-Hanssen bloke speaks fluent Trump?! What on earth is an ‘ecosystem of tomorrow fed back to great journalism’ – for gods sake. Sounds like a load of pomp and waffle from someone who’s failed at previous publications (both Steve and the other one) and is hell bent on doing it again to one of the only profitable publishing houses left!
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If the Dead Digital Horse does have a heart attack then someone on the Trinity Mirror websites down here in the South West would probably suggest live blogging it….
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Cool.
I’ll sell some display ads on the blog. Please forward specs for the banners and copy deadlines.
Cheers
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Ok folks..I can take a joke!
But the reality of the situation is that know nothings have taken over the newspaper industry and virtually destroyed it esp local weeklies. Their digital dream is becoming a nightmare for most talented jurnos amd snappers. If Auckland replaces Highfield then halleujah!!. NOTHING could be worse than the current management. I won’t rest until real newspaper people take charge again. There is so so much life left in print yet. I will rant and risk cardiac arrest until ppl realise digital is not the answer for everything!
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TDDH, you post the same misinformed nonsense under your already biased handle on a regular basis and it’s, frankly, getting dull.
You have previously stated that you are angry at the way you have been forced out of the profession you love and I genuinely feel sorry for you, but that is no reason to keep posting the same bitter drivel about digital. It’s not about digital. It’s about the business of publishing news!
I make no bones about my doubts regarding the current business model of regional publishing and how useful it is at a local level. I’m convinced that better local business models can be found if owned by smaller consortia which are willing to accept lower profit margins.
However, let’s be in no doubt that despite local print still being feasible and profitable in many areas for a few years yet, it’s days are absolutely, unequivocally numbered.
You can pull out all the stats about print bringing in four times the revenue of digital, how digital revenue is all too often upsold rather than standalone and how impressions are useless to local advertisers… blah blah blah.
The real facts are that since your coveted ‘print heyday of the 80s’, circulations have been plummeting and long before local news websites and social media hit the scene. Since then, the golden revenue streams of jobs, classifieds, cars and property have dried up in print.
Only a small number of people ever really bought their local paper for news. I admit I’ve been out of those discussions for a few years now, but the last Jicreg report I read suggested it was less than 20 per cent.
All digital news has done is exacerbate an existing issue by making a large number of those remaining readers realise that they can get local information in other ways, often direct from the source.
Yes, it’s sad times for local investigative journalism and society may pay a heavy price for its apathy about local issues but this sort of journalism alone cannot generate enough to pay the bills either online or in print.
When regional business sees double digital percentage declines in print revenue and double digit increases in digital revenue, regardless of how you ‘package’ it, you can’t expect shareholders to say ‘hang on, let’s not build this business for the future’. It’s… a… business!
Audiences and technology are changing so the delivery and consumption of news is changing with it. I agree that people might even pay for your coveted ‘high-quality’ product over Facebook but in print? No chance! It’ll have to compete in the digital arena somehow!
PS I don’t want you to be angry and I’m not a digital ‘toadie’, whatever the heck that is. I just want you to understand that doing things how they’ve always been done is not a sensible way to run a business and that applies to both print and digital! For all the faults of TM, Johnston et al, I can see why they’re making certain decisions regardless of how unpalatable I may find them.
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I found my glasses in time for the wit. Thanks guys. Blinkered horse in focus.
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