Archant’s chief executive Jeff Henry will leave the company this Friday, it has been revealed.
The company has confirmed the CEO’s departure, with chairman Simon Bax taking up the newly created role of executive chairman at the same time.
Jeff’s departure follows last week’s announcement that Brian McCarthy, Archant’s chief operating officer, will also be leaving the company after 15 years.
The announcement of Jeff’s departure came hours after staff were told the company’s print plant at Thorpe was due to close, and Jeff himself had visited the centre last night to inform workers there of the move.
Of his departure, Jeff said: “I have had five fantastic years as CEO and have been proud to lead a magnificent group of people at Archant through the acceleration of digital innovation.
“The company has progressed on so many fronts and I am very proud of our transformational achievements during times of great change for the publishing industry.
“It’s been an honour to be part of the Archant story. It is now time for me to move on to new ideas and opportunities.”
Jeff joined Archant in 2014 when he replaced Adrian Jeakings, who had held the role for six years.
He had previously been CEO of Filmflex Movies, a joint venture between Sony Pictures Television and The Walt Disney Company.
In the announcement, Simon said: “I would like to thank Jeff for all that he has done over the past five years. He has assembled a tremendous team and positioned Archant as an innovative and dynamic company, as evidenced by the unique and exclusive relationships with companies such as Hearst and Google.
“Whenever I meet our staff, I am truly engaged by their creativity and passion. Our transformational journey continues and I look forward to working even closer with our teams to build a successful future for Archant.”
A total of 96 staff currently work the Thorpe centre and a number of redundancies are expected as a result, although Archant declined to confirm how many when approached by HTFP.
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If he honestly believes “The company has progressed on so many fronts” he must be in denial,likewise Simon Bax if he thinks he’s built a “tremendous team and positioned Archant as an innovative and dynamic company”
It beggars belief it really does
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Is it normal to refer to a newspaper company’s chief executive by their Christian name throughout an article?
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That’s a couple of big salaries freed up then, but presumably it won’t end there. Taverham is right, given how when Jeff Henry was appointed it was all about how projects such as Mustard TV – remember that? – were about to take off.
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Yes @One Time Sub big salaries will be freed up but payoffs will be handed out too as a reward for years of underperformance, all the while good staff lose their jobs.
Hopefully this will be the start of a complete overhaul of those on whose watch the dismantling of the company and its products has happened, including those who’ve gone along with it all, unchallenging and agreeing with every cut back, redundancy and ill conceived strategy they’ve been asked to implement.
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Chairman Bax believing, or trying to convince others, that the worst set of company performance figures ever, copy sales at record lows,ad revenues all but gone, digital sites with increased free to view traffic the commercial teams can’t monetise and competitor publications, magazines,periodicals and web sites opening up in areas once regarded as exclusively Archant territories is the sign of Archant being “….an innovative and dynamic company” then I think that sums up just how out of touch with reality and the true state of Archants position in the communities they really are.
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Masters of the art of delusion.
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Norfolk ‘n Good maybe someone got confused and thought his name was Henry Jeff.
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‘I have had five fantastic years as CEO and have been proud to lead a magnificent group of people at Archant through the acceleration of unprofitable digital innovation.’ There, fixed it for you.
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@Philip
With the pension deficit, the tax history, the protracted process of trying to sell Prospect House etc etc it’s surely going to be someone with a financial background, unconnected with the company or area and prepared to be a hatchet person when it comes to staff (not the top levels, obviously!) and printed titles.
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