Johnston Press has appointed Jeremy Clifford, the editor of the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post, as its first-ever group editor-in-chief.
The appointment of Clifford, who was promoted into the role editing the Yorkshire titles in 2013, comes as part of a major restructure of the regional newspaper business’s operations to “shift focus away from traditional geographic reporting lines”.
Johnston Press has moved to scrap its five regional managing director roles in a bid to “fast-track decision making”.
As a result, two group publishing director positions have been created to oversee the company’s strategy and identify new revenue streams.
The managing directors to survive the cull and make the step into the two positions are Helen Oldham, currently MD of Scotland and Yorkshire, and Warren Butcher, MD of the north-west of England, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.
Those going are Karl Dimmock, MD of southern England, Richard Parkinson, MD of Midlands and South Yorkshire, and Stephen Plews, MD of the north-east of England and Scottish weeklies.
The restructure also includes the merging of Johnston Press’s local display, features and entertainments sales and operations teams.
The publisher would not reveal how many jobs were being cut as a result of the consolidation, which it said aims to “ensure rapid implementation of the sales strategy and faster-to-market product launches”.
“As we sharpen our focus on total revenue growth, these changes will ensure we are delivering our strategy in a consistent and effective way,” said Ashley Highfield, chief executive of Johnston Press. “By operating with more efficiency we will have greater capability to act quicker and take new products to our customers.”
Johnston Press publishes over 220 titles, including 13 paid dailies, 185 paid weeklies and 28 free titles.
Last month, Highfield said the number of local newspapers that have been closed over the last decade has been “blown out of all proportion”, with most of the 300 being shut not “papers of record” that are vital to most UK communities.
