Northcliffe launches digital arm as standalone operation

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Regional newspaper publisher Northcliffe Media is to "refocus" its digital business strategy with the creation of a separate digital team.

The newly created Northcliffe Digital will operate as a standalone business unit from the group's print-based activities and will be responsible for the 'thisis' network of more than 200 local news sites.

As part of the restructuring, current digital director Mike Rowley has been named managing director of the new unit and content strategy director Robert Hardie has been appointed as publishing director.

The separation of the digital unit from the print business marks a maturing of the online product, Rowley told Journalism.co.uk.

"One of the things that I think we and other media companies in the regional press have been really good at is getting our content online and getting people to focus on it. We have a very credible audience online now. We try and create content for the digital space and user engagement and we think we can do more of the same," he said.

"The digital product has a life all of its own now - this is about deciding where we go forward with it."

Northcliffe's online and print products are becoming more editorially and commercially distinct, Rowley said. The formation of the new unit recognises that these are different products with different needs and revenue drivers and will encourage sales teams to work on more multimedia advertising campaigns, he added.

A new team of around 15 digital publishers focusing on the 'thisis' sites will also be appointed as part of the changes. According to a report on HoldtheFrontPage , which is advertising the new roles, a consultation with existing newspaper staff affected by the plan will begin shortly.

Significant web traffic targets and goals to build a profitable digital business with substantial online-only revenues have been set as part of the restructure, Rowley added. A new design template for the sites in the network is also scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. The new template will make use of recently introduced web features, such as topic pages , to make the websites more user-friendly and their content more relevant to both local and online readers, said Rowley.

According to the most recent figures published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) for regional newspapers' web traffic , Northcliffe's network of websites recorded 246,302 daily unique users on average and 3,597,283 monthly unique users on average during the first six months of 2009.