The decision to appoint was made following a four-way competitive pitch held earlier this year.
Archant Chief Executive, Adrian Jeakings (pictured), said: “During the last six months we have been conducting a thorough review of our arrangements for selling national advertising. That process led us to the conclusion that Mediaforce was best positioned and had the scale and resources to progress our engagement with national advertisers in a much more competitive media landscape.
“We are very grateful for the good work that Clacksons has done for us over the last 12 years.”
Lawrie Procter, Mediaforce Managing Director, expressed his delight at the announcement: “We are really pleased to have been appointed by Archant, they have a fantastic portfolio of products from daily and weekly newspapers to specialist magazines and the excellent upscale portfolio of London and county Life titles. We are also really keen to help them realise the value of their very strong digital assets. We’re really looking forward to working with them,” he said.
Procter also added that he felt that the Archant portfolio represented an excellent opportunity for national advertisers to really engage with the communities served by the publisher: “Archant really make their products relevant to their audiences, they truly understand their communities be it rural Suffolk or central London, this coupled with their willingness to work with us to develop new platforms and solutions for advertiser partners makes this a tremendous opportunity for national brands to engage with.”
Archant has four daily and over 50 weekly regional newspaper titles, around 80 magazines and 200 associated websites.
Mediaforce represents over 400 titles from 37 regional media groups across the country including Johnston Press, Northcliffe Media, DC Thomson and parts of Guardian Media Group.
