Reach has announced the appointment of Harry Fawkes as its first head of digital subscriptions, responsible for scaling digital subscriptions across its newsbrands.
Harry will develop and launch new subscription propositions and deliver subscriber experiences, with an aim to fuel long-term reader engagement and sustainable journalism, added the publisher.
Starting his new role this week, he joins with over eight years of experience in digital strategy, subscription business development and data analysis, having worked as head of digital subscriptions, marketing and business data for The i Paper for the past five years, where he grew their registration and paywall proposition. Previously, he was the head of digital at wine magazine Decanter.
Harry said: “I’m delighted to be joining Reach at such an exciting time for digital subscriptions. What ties together successful digital subscription publishers is readers' deep engagement with quality journalism, and Reach has that in abundance across its titles. I'm looking forward to building on that strength and helping grow meaningful, lasting reader relationships.”
David Higgerson, reach chief content officer, commented: “We're delighted to welcome Harry to Reach. He is joining us at a really exciting time in our journey into digital subscriptions for the first time, as we continue to evolve our new strategy. Harry's experience growing other digital brands’ premium offerings complements our existing expertise and will help us bring to market a compelling subscription offer to our audience.”
Reach says, as announced in its half year results in July, the introduction of digital subscriptions forms a key pillar of CEO Piers North’s growth strategy, alongside other initiatives such as expanding video content and enhancing tech capabilities.
At the July presentation, the publisher says Piers positioned the move to digital subscriptions as additive to the existing advertiser-funded business, noting that “whilst we see this as an important addition to the business, we will continue to be primarily an ad funded business in digital.” Reach says it is expecting to launch its first digital subscriptions pilot later this autumn.
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