A regional publisher has created a new director role in a bid to boost its digital subscriptions strategy.

Newsquest has appointed Gerard O’Brien to the newly created post of digital subscriptions director after the number of people subscribing to its titles online grew “significantly ahead of our expectations”, according to the company.

Newsquest launched metered paywalls on more than 60 of its local news websites last year.

Gerard, pictured, joins from global media company Future Plc, where he was consumer marketing director.

Newsquest group product director Simon Hill said: “We’ve seen impressive growth across our new and established subscription-focussed titles, significantly ahead of our expectations.

“Gerard brings the senior leadership and marketing expertise we need to continue this growth.

“His experience across such a wide range of publishing sectors, business models and communities are exactly the right fit to lead our acquisition, retention and data strategy.”

Gerard added: “I’m delighted to be joining Newsquest at this pivotal moment for the business, and for the sector.

“Newsquest has seen impressive results to date in terms of digital subscriptions, which shows huge appetite for trusted community content that customers are now willing to pay for.

“There’s a terrific buzz and excitement about the company and I’m very much looking forward to working with Simon and the team to help accelerate development.”