Amid the changes taking place at Fairfax will be a new structure within the company’s consumer marketing team, with group marketing director Briony Amey tipped to take on an expanded role.
Amey joined Fairfax in mid-2009 and oversees marketing for The Age, The Canberra Times, Brisbane Times and WA Today. AdNews understands Amey will now add The Sydney Morning Herald and Fairfax events to her marketing portfolio as well.
While Amey is still Melbourne-based, she has been spending more time in Sydney recently. She reports to head of marketing and communication Robert Whitehead. She has previously worked for Naked Communications, M&C Saatchi and Host in Australia, and Cake in the UK.
Fairfax confirmed there will be a new marketing structure as part of the wider organisational changes at the company but declined to give details.
The company recently revamped the positioning of its two primary mastheads, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, with the launch of major consumer marketing campaigns. The Sydney Morning Herald’s positioning uses the strapline ‘Know No Boundaries’ while The Age’s is ‘Forever Curious’. Both were developed with Whybin TBWA.
Fairfax has undertaken two sets of organisational restructures in the past 12 months as it moves from a predominantly print to a digitally led business.
Yesterday, Fairfax shook up its business with the merger of Metro Media, Financial Review Group, Regional Media and Agricultural Media into the new Australian Publishing Media unit. As part of the changes, Metro Media boss Jack Matthews and chief operating officer David Hoath will both leave the company after the transition. Regional Media chief executive Allan Browne will also depart.
Fairfax New Zealand head Allen Williams will lead the newly created APM.
A single audience insights and marketing unit will be created under the changes. It is understood Amey’s role was expanded prior to the announcement of the shake-up this week.
Fairfax Media chief executive and managing director Greg Hywood told staff in an email: “As we all know, the business of journalism is changing profoundly from print to digital publishing. We are well down the track on this change, with more than two thirds of our audience now accessing our journalism through our digital products. Because we deliver our journalism within a commercial model, it is critical that we organise ourselves to maximise revenue and drive efficiencies.”
Fairfax will also roll out a metered paywall model around The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s websites later this year. Readers from North America, Europe and Middle East are already subject to the ‘freemium’ model.
This article first appeared in the 5 April 2013 edition of AdNews, in print and on iPad. Click here to subscribe for more news, features and opinion.
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