Johnston Press reorganises with central editorial team

Johnston Press has appointed an editor-in-chief and created two publishing director positions as part of the local newspapers group's editorial restructuring process to “shift focus away from traditional geographic reporting lines”.

Yorkshire Evening Post and Yorkshire Post editor Jeremy Clifford has been given the newly created editor-in-chief role, which the company said was to "drive a coordinated editorial strategy across the portfolio by championing innovation and best practice".

Two group publishing director positions have been created with give regional managing director roles removed in order to "fast-track decision-making", with the two promoted being Helen Oldham, currently MD of Scotland and Yorkshire, and Warren Butcher, MD of the north-west of England, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.

The group said it was also consolidating its various display, features and entertainments teams into one "to ensure rapid implementation of the sales strategy, faster-to-market product launches and a simplified product portfolio" but did not say how many jobs would be lost.

In October, Johnston Press, whose 220 titles range from the Scotsman to the Sleaford Standard and Mid-Sussex Times, announced that it had closed or merged 11 small free print titles as part of the portfolio simplification programme and its move out of print titles.

Chief executive Ashley Highfield said the new managerial changes reflected a sharper focus on overall revenue growth, and "will ensure we are very clear with our strategy and its execution".

He said digital products such as the AdSmart project with Sky, Digital Kitbag and 1XL had proved successful and using the new centralised approach will allow further innovation at "even greater speed".

Shares in Johnston Press have lost two third of their value since the start of the year as revenues continues to decline as it battles with a shift to online readership. A November trading update showed underlying revenues fell 8.8% year-on-year, having slid 7.6% in the second quarter.

The company said it still expects underlying profit and net debt for the full year to be in line with expectations lowered after July's profit warning.

On Tuesday, Johnston shares were down 1.6% to 45.62p by 1550 GMT, having topped 160p in January.