• Expanded roles too for Nicholas Gray, Julian Delany and Michael Wilkins
• Marketer Mark Reinke joining News as managing director, consumer
News Corp Australia has made a number of leadership changes to its publishing division as it brings together its digital and print publishing assets.
The aim of the appointments is to streamline its publishing operations, providing greater alignment across all assets and create a more agile and efficient business.
The company wishes to accelerate the key growth categories of travel, sport and wagering.
Responsibility for the company’s print and digital publishing assets now come under the executive leadership of Damian Eales, chief operating officer. This will expand his current responsibility for metro, regional and community publishing, to incorporate The Australian, News Prestige titles, and NewsDNA.
News Corp Australia has also announced expanded roles for:
Nicholas Gray: The current CEO of The Australian will expand his role to become managing director of The Australian, NSW, (The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and NewsLocal), and the News Prestige titles which include Vogue Australia, Vogue Living and GQ Australia.
Julian Delany: The managing director of NewsDNA will take on extra responsibility for the key categories of travel, sport, wagering and gaming in addition to his current leadership of news.com.au, lifestyle, WHIMN and food.
Michael Wilkins: The current managing director of NSW, will move to the new role of managing director, sport, wagering and gaming, which incorporates responsibility for affiliated wagering businesses, Punters.com.au and Racenet.com.au and uniting the company’s commercial efforts to maximise its investments in sport.
Mark Reinke has been appointed to the role of managing director, consumer, with a responsibility to drive audience growth and engagement and build the digital subscriber base.
Reinke left Suncorp 18 months ago after 14 years, where he held a number of senior roles, most recently as group executive for customer, data, and marketing, and chief customer experience officer. More recently he was with PwC as an advisor to its CMO Advisory Practice.
The appointment of Reinke also follows the recent departure of Tony Phillips as chief marketing officer.
Announcing the changes, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said: “I am excited about these changes which reflect our commitment to ensuring our businesses are aligned, fast moving and effective.
“Damian has been a driving force behind our strategy and our improving performance since he joined News Corp Australia six years ago. In this expanded role, he will work with me to ensure we deliver on the growth agenda for our publishing division. We have clear strategic objectives and with these new leadership roles in place, I have every confidence that we will continue to grow and strengthen our business.”
Eales commented: “I am thrilled to be working with Nicholas, Julian and Michael as we focus on the growth of our print and digital publishing assets. These appointments are testament to their expertise and prescience in driving commercial success.
“I am also excited to have a marketer of Mark Reinke’s calibre on board. His proven track record in understanding the customer experience is second to none, and he brings substantial and significant expertise to News Corp.”
These new roles will be effective from February 2019.
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Top Photo: [L-R] Nicholas Gray, Damian Eales, Michael Wilkins