NatMags To Extend Reach With New Online Division
NatMags is planning to launch a new online division to extend the company’s market reach, setting up websites to create online communities to bolster existing magazine titles.
The publisher will look at launching standalone websites with bespoke content online that may not be derived from the print versions of its magazines.
The Runner’s World website is being used as a blueprint. The magazine, which is published in the UK by joint venture NatMag-Rodale Ltd, has functioned simultaneously with its website for a number of years, operating as a community-based site offering user discussion forums and bespoke content such as podcasts.
About 30 staff will be hired for the new digital division, which will handle production, advertising sales and marketing, overseen by a managing director for digital publishing, a role which is yet to be filled.
Niall Hogan, a former Emap Interactive sales director who was responsible for 18 consumer websites including FHM.com, NewWoman.co.uk, Kiss100.com and EmpireOnline.co.uk, has been hired as sales director for the division.
Further transformation for the press industry was indicated with the recent announcement that Johnston Press, owner of the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, would integrate its 70 newsrooms into multimedia operations with reporters filing both video and written stories.
The UK’s second largest regional newspaper group said it would roll out a trial at the Preston-based Lancashire Evening Post. The Preston newsroom, which is home to 50 journalists, has had hundreds of thousands of pounds invested in it and has been reorganised so that reporters can file video stories for streaming on the website.
The publisher plans to roll out the integrated newsroom across an estimated 70 other offices nation-wide next year. Johnston’s 20 daily titles will become digital newsrooms and a further 50 newspaper offices will serve as digital hubs for papers in their area.
National Magazine Company: 0207 439 5000 www.natmags.co.uk