Tag Archives: Management Change

Digital developments at CNN: Gustav raises traffic, as new international digital role is created

CNN‘s web traffic did rather well out of Hurricane Gustav: a press release issued yesterday told us that breaking news channel CNN.com Live ‘more than doubled its highest day on record on Monday, by serving more than 1.7 million live video streams globally’.

That figure represents a 124 percent increase on their previous highest day – February 21 – when it streamed the debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

In other news, another release announced the appointment of CNN’s first vice president of international digital services: Nick Wrenn, current managing editor for Europe, Middle East & Africa. Although based in Atlanta, Wrenn will manage all of the digital content outside of the US in his new role, bringing together CNN.com/international and mobile with its broadband services.

Wrenn will report to Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.

“Our digital services are playing an increasingly important part in the growth of CNN International and this new position ensures that they will be leveraged and incorporated into our current business appropriately,” said Maddox in the statement.

ProPublica hires T. Christian Miller, Dan Nguyen and Lisa Schwartz, completes staffing

The not-for-profit news site ProPublica has appointed three more journalists to its ranks, completing its initial round of staffing.

Former LA Times staff writer T. Christian Miller joins the organisation as reporter, while Dan Nguyen, a reporter/web developer for the Sacramento Bee, becomes web producer.

Lisa Schwartz, previously an ABC News staffer and freelance researcher, has been named research director and completes the site’s aim to have 24 full-time reporters and editors.

Interns with the site Benjamin Protess and Sharona Coutts have also be named as fellows, a release from ProPublica said.

Trinity Mirror overhauls senior management in Midlands

Trinity Mirror has announced a host of changes to the senior management of its Midlands newspaper titles.

Steve Dyson, who will remain in his post as editor of the Birmingham Mail, is to become additionally responsible for the Sunday Mercury.

He will also oversee the introduction of new centralised multimedia, newsroom and production operations to the region.

Marc Reeves, editor of the Birmingham Post, will take on new duties for the online development of Trinity’s titles in the area.

Dave Brookes, current editor of the Sunday Mercury, has been named as editor of the Coventry Telegraph and will take up the role in January replacing Alan Kirby, who will retire at Christmas.

Kirby and Brookes will remain as editor of their existing titles while the new processes are implemented.

Completing the changes Tony Lennox, editorial director of Midlands Weekly Media, has been appointed to the new role of business development editor for the Midlands.

Los Angeles Times appoints Eddy W. Hartenstein as publisher

The Los Angeles Times has named Eddy W. Hartenstein as its new publisher, the Associated Press (via the New York Times) has reported.

Hartenstein replaces David Hiller, who resigned from the post last month.

A former satellite television executive with DirecTV, Hartenstein has no experience in the newspaper industry.

Shiny Media co-founder Ashley Norris steps down

Five years after co-founding Shiny Media, creative director Ashley Norris is leaving the blog publisher.

Norris will remain ‘a significant shareholder’ in Shiny, he said in a blog post announcing his departure, and will work as a consultant for PR arm Shiny Red.

Future plans involve developing some new web projects and working with other start-ups, he said.

Read Journalism.co.uk’s interview with Ashley Norris on the growth of Shiny Media’s blogs.

Brand Republic: Bauer appoints Marco Nadotti to lead video drive

The magazine publisher has appointed Nadotti to the newly-created role of head of video acquisition and syndication.

Nadotti, who previously worked for video search engine Blinkx, will take up his new role on August 1.

BBC appoints Roly Keating as first archive director

The BBC has named BBC Two controller Roly Keating as its first director of archive content.

Keating, who will take up his new role in October, will be responsible for the corporation’s tv, radio and multimedia archive. He will be tasked with increasing public access to this content, a press release from the BBC said.

He will work with the newly appointed director of the BBC’s Future Media & Technology department Erik Huggers on the digitisation of the archive and take charge of BBC archived content on on-demand services such as the iPlayer.

“Unlocking the value of broadcast archives is one of the great opportunities opened up by digital media – and the BBC has the greatest archive of them all, with untold potential public value,” he said.

The BBC Two controller position will be advertised in the autumn.