Northcliffe Media is to increase its digital presence tomorrow with the launch 45 local websites.
The launch of the regional sites will mean that the number of online news sites Northcliffe runs as part of its “This Is” network will outnumber the number of newspapers it publishes.
Northcliffe Media, the regional arm of Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT), currently publishes 113 daily, weekly and free newspapers. Following tomorrow’s launch, its digital portfolio will rise to 151 sites.
Sean Mahon, Northcliffe Media director of marketing, said: “If you rewind the clock to a few years ago, people would describe businesses like Northcliffe as primarily newspaper publishing businesses with a few websites. Now they’d describe us as a multimedia business.
“The whole thing for us now is looking at total audience across newspapers and websites and as part of that we’re focusing on interaction.
“We have 200,000 interactions on our sites each month, be that voting, commenting or registering.”
The majority of the launches will be hyperlocal offerings and will include new sites for Hucknall, Sherwood and Eaton areas of Nottingham, previously served by the ThisisNottinghman.co.uk site.
It is understood that the company will launch more “This Is” sites over the next six months, as well as developing sites in regions where it does not have a print presence.
Northcliffe Media: www.thisisnorthcliffe.co.uk