Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers is to hire 40 staff as part of a major multi-million pound investment in the Express and Star web operations.
The hiring spree will take the number of digital editorial staff at Northern & Shell’s titles to well over 100.
Geoff Marsh, group director of digital content at Northern & Shell, said that several rounds of investment in building a digital presence was now starting to pay off.
“We were late comers to the digital party but continual investment over the last two to three years has seen us build a meaningful digital presence,” he said.
Marsh said that January has proved to be a record for video views across the sites, and that a portion of the investment will be on boosting video content and capability.
In January, Express.co.uk and Dailystar.co.uk recorded the strongest growth among all national newspapers, with average daily browser numbers soaring 31.38% and 51.68% respectively.
“We had a really strong news month on the Express and Star websites,” said Marsh. “Something we have been trying to do is grow the news operation and invest significantly in digital news. People are now coming to us as a destination site for news.”
The new investment will include hiring 40 staff, which Marsh says will grow the digital team to “triple figures”, with a significant number of the new hires expected to be transfers from the print editions.
“We have a successful record of moving staff onto the digital side of the business,” he said. “Where the skill set allows we move people across.”
While Express Newspapers is investing heavily in its digital operation the group cut editorial budgets by about £3.5m from the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday.
