The Press Association has appointed Pete Clifton, a former editor of the BBC News website and head of MSN UK, as its new editor-in-chief.
He replaces Jonathan Grun, who is stepping down after 14 years in the role in December and more than 35 years with the group.
Clifton is tasked with continuing the transformation of the news agency into a multiplatform business.
For the past three years he has been executive producer of the portal MSN, leading a 70-strong editorial team.
Prior to that job he spent 15 years at the BBC in roles including editor of Ceefax, launch editor of the BBC Sport website, editing the BBC News website, and head of editorial development for multimedia journalism.
He left the corporation in April 2011 when the news online division suffered a 25% budget cut, costing 360 staff their jobs.
Mark Byford, then BBC deputy director general, said at the time that Clifton had played a “pivotal role in taking BBC News into the digital age”.
Clifton, who worked for PA in the mid-1990s as chief subeditor of its sports service and Teletext editor, said he was thrilled at the opportunity of returning to lead its editorial operations.
“As someone who has worked for PA and also been a customer, I am passionate about its reputation for fast, fair and accurate journalism. I look forward to helping PA prosper at the heart of the UK’s media landscape in the digital age,” he said.
Tony Watson, managing director of PA, said Clifton had a reputation as an editorial heavyweight in British journalism.
“He joins PA at an exciting time, when the opportunities and challenges presented by huge changes in news consumption are encouraging tremendous innovation and creativity in storytelling. He will bring to the role an impressive combination of editorial judgment, digital insight, and the leadership qualities to bring about the changes necessary to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving media market,” he said.
As well as the news agency business, Press Association also owns Sticky Content, a digital copywriting and content strategy agency, and TNR, a communications consultancy.
PA is owned by 27 shareholders, the biggest of which are Daily Mail owner DMG Media, News UK, Trinity Mirror and United Business Media.
Profits for the core news agency business rose £1.7m to £5m in 2013, although that was boosted by a non-cash element of interest credits relating to its pension fund.
PA Group, the parent company, reported a 25% rise in operating profits to £9.8m. It sold weather forecasting business MeteoGroup to General Atlantic for £158.5m, resulting in an exceptional profit of almost £128m that will be recorded in the 2014 results to be published next year.
Clive Marshall, chief executive of PA Group, admitted the business was being squeezed by an explosion of digital news sources and outlets.
“We are acutely aware that our business will need to continually adapt to reduce our dependence on traditional media by developing a new range of services that will enable us to fully capitalise on the huge demand for compelling, quality multi-media content,” he said last month.
PA’s 2013 results were helped by a number of big news stories, including the birth of Prince George, the death of Lady Thatcher and the killing of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, London.
Professor Charlie Beckett of the London School of Economics said news agencies like PA and Reuters were being squeezed by the amount of information now available on social networks and other online sources.
However, he said there remained a pressing need for news organisations to have access to reputable images and text at speed for reasonable cost, particularly as roles such as picture editors are done away with.
The news agency could attempt to pick up on information posted on social media to spot trends or issues before they become mainstream, Beckett suggested.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.
• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook.
