Johnston Press has merged its publishing and digital operations after a restructure of its senior management.
The changes will see chief digital and product officer Jeff Moriarty oversee the digital product and multi-platform publishing function in a move that will also bring group marketing and events under his remit.
Richard Thomson has been appointed group publishing director following the departure of Helen Oldham in March, and retains his current responsibilities for publishing, newspaper sales and circulation.
Richard will also lead the publishing strategy for flagship titles i and The Scotsman.
Former Yorkshire Evening Post editor Paul Napier, pictured above left, who has been running JP’s digital news brands and recently oversaw the relaunch of the company’s 161 websites, has become publishing director, while Nigel Leigh is now senior director of commercial products and events.
At its AGM last week, Johnston Press reported its digital audiences have grown by 11pc year-on-year, with page views up 17pc.
Said Jeff: “This cross-platform approach in publishing acknowledges that our audiences will continue to move towards digital and yet we must preserve our print readership for decades to come.
“We must have an integrated approach – and get the print/digital balance right in each market – in order to continue to grow audiences, optimise revenues and ensure a vibrant mix of news brands that reach national, regional and local customers.”
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They’d be better off restructuring their dreadful websites and getting rid of the well-paid executives responsible for creating them.
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Isn’t this at odds with their other announcement of removing all news from the web sites instead redirecting site traffic to their social media pages?
It sounded to me as if they’ve given news on the web pages a wide berth and shoved it across to their social media posts as ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ (to them anyway), is a more valued currency
Either that or they cannot make web sites pay
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I work for JP at this is the first we have been told of this.
Brilliant communication from the Death Star as usual
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Moriarty. Holmes next, to solve the murder of newspapers riddle.
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” At its AGM last week, Johnston Press reported its digital audiences have grown by 11pc year-on-year, with page views up 17pc.”
lovely stuff but what does that mean in financial and revenue terms?
And why not give Jeff moriarty a broom to go with his digital product and multi-platform publishing, marketing and events role too?
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hmm, trying to work out the difference between somebody with responsibility to “oversee the digital product and multi-platform publishing function”, Group Publishing Director and Publishing Director.
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For goodness sake!! Dump digital news now. It simply dosent pay and creates a free competitor for their own nrwspapers.Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! They have been tinkering around the edges for years and still can’t make it pay. They abandoned print way too quickly and easily and threw all their eggs into the one digital basket. I know, you know and I bet THEY know it’s not working but they are too stubborn and proud to admit it. Papers are withering on the vine because of cuts and no investment while digital cannot be made to pay. It is sooooo simple…DIGITAL DOSEN’T PAY..DROP IT.
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Three really good guys, but no-one a salesman. No-one who know how local markets work.
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They can probably write better than I can, though!
*knows
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If I’d written clap-trap like the cliche-ridden report at the top of this page, I’d never have got into journalism. I won a few awards on the way and now I’ve been made redundant! ?
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When there isn’t any wool left to pull we can always rely on someone at JP to try.
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@voice of reason
There are no real business minded sales people left in the industry anymore, fact
All the best left the industry either in various cost saving culls or by losing faith in the business and taking up positions in the independent publishing sector, leaving in experienced copy collectors and order takers to man the desks,this is part reason why advertising revenues have hit rock bottom and continue to fall
….or maybe that’s just where I am
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