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News Corp shuffles digital leadership again with Julian Delany and Dominic Hatfield expanding roles

News Corp has announced more changes to its digital leadership, following the abrupt departure of chief digital officer Nicole Sheffield.

Mumbrella understands Sheffield will not be directly replaced, with Julian Delany, managing director of News DNA since July, expanding his remit to include digital, and chief technology officer Dominic Hatfield moving into the new role of chief information officer.

News Corp: Looking towards a digital future

Adam King, chief data officer at News Corp Australia, will also depart for a new role with Fox Sports.

In March last year, News Corp switched up its management, with Sheffield, previously managing director of News DNA taking charge of digital, in addition to the company’s magazine arm. Damian Eales took control of the company’s print operations at the same time.

Eales had previously held the dual role of managing director for metro and regional publishing and chief marketing officer. His title then changed chief operating officer, publishing, where he took responsibility for the company’s eight metro and Sunday titles, 18 regional dailies and 100+ community papers.

But just two weeks ago, Sheffield left to pursue her “entrepreneurial spirit”.

This evening’s announcement sees News Corp indirectly replacing Sheffield with Delany and Hatfield taking on elements of her role. A News Corp spokesperson described it as a ‘realignment of the business’.

Delany, already responsible for digital subscriptions, product delivery, content optimisation and digital revenue, will now also look after digital platforms and strategy. He will also take on accountability for Food Corp.

Hatfield, now CIO, will expand his current responsibilities to incorporate business intelligence and enterprise data.

Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australia said he was confident this round of changes would deliver profitable growth for the publishers’ digital future.

“These changes reflect our ambition to create the digital organisation that best aligns digital and technology with our strategy and objectives of increasing audiences and their engagement, being more efficient and driving profitable growth,” he said.

“We are moving to a model that realigns the responsibilities under digital and technology to best reflect how we will serve both our external consumers and our internal customers.

“The result is a clear digital ecosystem to deliver on consumer product and client solutions along with a sharper focus for technology to allow it to evolve into a true enterprise and information function.

“With Julian and Dominic I am confident these changes will ensure we have the expertise, roles and resources to best support our goal of driving profitable growth as we build our digital future.”

The company said the changes to News DNA would ensure a well-defined and consumer-focused digital area of the company, to drive subscription and ad revenue objectives.

“It will enable News DNA to make the most of any opportunities the digital consumer demands to deliver on audience growth,” the company said in a statement.

“The alignment of BI and enterprise data with technology ensures News Corp is well-placed to remain focused on providing a robust and strategic technology platform on which to enable its business strategy.”

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