News Corp aligns digital and print assets under Damian Eales’ leadership
News Corp has expanded the remit of publishing boss Damian Eales, as part of a major re-structure of the publishing division.
Eales, who is currently chief operating officer of publishing, will now take responsibility for The Australian, News Prestige titles and NewsDNA.
Eales will now be responsible for metro, regional and community titles, as well as The Australian, News Prestige titles and NewsDNA
In addition, Nicholas Gray, current CEO of The Australian, will become managing director of The Australian, NSW titles including The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and NewsLocal, as well as News Prestige titles Vogue Australia, Vogue Living and GQ Australia.
At the same time, Julian Delany, managing director of NewsDNA, will look after travel, sport, wagering and gaming categories, in addition to his current remit, which includes news.com.au, lifestyle, Whimn and food. Michael Wilkins, managing director of NSW, has been appointed managing director, of sport, wagering and gambling, which includes punters.com.au and racenet.com.au.
As part of the re-structure, the current executives will be joined by former Suncorp marketer, Mark Reinke, who joins as managing director – consumer for News Corp. Reinke, who left Suncorp in May last year, will be responsible for driving audience growth and building the digital subscriber base.
Former Suncorp marketer Reinke is joining the publishing division at News Corp
The appointments are part of a re-structure of publishing operations, which seeks to better align News Corp’s brands across digital and print. News Corp has said the approach will provide better consistency to masthead publishing in NSW and across digital.
Michael Miller, News Corp Australia’s executive chairman, said the changes reflected a commitment to ensuring the business if “fast moving” and “effective”.
“Damian has been a driving force behind our strategy and our improving performance since he joined News Corp Australia six years ago. In this expanded role, he will work with me to ensure we deliver on the growth agenda for our publishing division. We have clear strategic objectives and with these new leadership roles in place, I have every confidence that we will continue to grow and strengthen our business,” he added.
Eales’ promotion is the fifth since he joined News Corp in 2013 as strategic partnerships director. Later that year, Eales was appointed group marketing director, replacing Corin Dimopoulos. In 2015, he took “temporary lead” of the national sales team, following the departure of sales boss Fiorella Di Santo, and was quickly promoted to News Corp’s managing director of metro and regional publishing.
In 2017, Eales was promoted to lead the company’s print opeartions, while Nicole Sheffield took charge of digital and the magazine’s arm. Sheffield left the business the following year.
“I am thrilled to be working with Nicholas, Julian and Michael as we focus on the growth of our print and digital publishing assets,” Eales said of his latest appointment. “These appointments are testament to their expertise and prescience in driving commercial success.
“I am also excited to have a marketer of Mark Reinke’s calibre on board. His proven track record in understanding the customer experience is second to none, and he brings substantial and significant expertise to News Corp.”
The new roles are effective from February 2019.
Nicholas and Mark are excellent operators – great retention for Mr Gray and acquisition for Mr Reinke.
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They love these top level restructures, and using words like “remit”, “aligned” and “engagement.” Where they fall down badly is somehow failing to realise that a large proportion of the people who walk around the Holt St building do nothing that makes any money for the joint.
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With media having such a good proportion of staff being females sad to see no female leaders at this level. How is that possible? Looks like nothing has changed. Still a boys club.
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Top to bottom marketer-led company decides 20 years after the event to manage its primary channels in one line. Today’s ample evidence is that media is wholly content-led (unless you are a giant algorithm). News ignores the commercial evidence, as it does in so many other fields.
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You’ve heard of Siobhan Mckenna right?
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And Lou Barret – the smartest of them all.
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