The leadership structure is being simplified to ensure greater cohesion and operational efficiencies across core functions - editorial and sales - and shift focus away from traditional geographic reporting lines, says Johnston Press.
* An Editor-in-Chief has been appointed to drive a co-ordinated editorial strategy across the portfolio by championing innovation and best practice
* The Local Display, Features and Entertainments (LDFE) sales teams and Sales Operations have been consolidated into one function to ensure rapid implementation of the sales strategy and faster-to-market product launches
* Two Group Publishing Director positions have been created to accelerate the delivery of the publishing strategy and identify new revenue streams
* Five regional MD roles have been removed to fast-track decision-making
Ashley Highfield, CEO of Johnston Press, said: “As we sharpen our focus on total revenue growth, these changes will ensure we are delivering our strategy in a consistent and effective way. By operating with more efficiency we will have greater capability to act quicker and take new products to our customers.
“Our digital advertising solutions such as Sky AdSmart, Digital Kitbag and 1XL have proved a success and adopting a more unified approach will allow us to innovate with even greater speed.”
Jeremy Clifford takes on the newly-created role of Editor-in-Chief and nine editorial directors will now report directly to him. Jeremy, who has successfully led the Editorial Board, will relinquish editorship of The Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post and a replacement will be announced in due course.
The new LDFE team will be led by Neil Pickersgill, who joined Johnston Press in June as Sales Transformation Director, bringing with him a wealth of experience in driving performance improvement across sales channels.
Helen Oldham, currently Scotland & Yorkshire MD and Warren Butcher, North West, Isle of Man & Northern Ireland MD, will both become Group Publishing Directors, reporting to John Bills, Group Managing Director. Both Helen and Warren have successfully delivered strong digital growth and product transformation in their areas, says the company.
