Gerard O'Brien will be joining as Digital Subscriptions Director from Future Plc where he was Consumer Marketing Director.
This is a new role at Newsquest which last year launched digital subscriptions on over 60 of its local news brands.
Gerard brings a wealth of experience across subscriptions, recurring revenue business models, digital marketing, and brand management within the B2B and B2C media industry having held senior positions at Future, TI media, Motor Sport Magazine, Informa, Perform Group and Haymarket.
Commenting on the appointment, 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 said: “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.”
Newsquest publishes over 150 news brands in communities across the UK in online and in print. It reaches over 40 million unique visitors a month online and 6 million readers a week in print, says the company. Its brands include The Herald (Glasgow), The Northern Echo (Darlington), Telegraph Argus (Bradford), Southern Daily Echo (Southampton), Lancashire Telegraph (Blackburn), The Argus (Brighton), and The Press (York).
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