News Int brings Times, Sun, NotW and londonpaper under one sales roof

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Media Week 02-Jul-08, 15:45

LONDON - News International (NI) has confirmed it is to merge its sales teams into one department covering all five newspapers. The radical move will see, for the first time in the UK, a sales operation selling across the diverse audiences that read red-top and quality newspapers.

As exclusively revealed in Media Week yesterday, 1 July, News International has also confirmed that News Group Newspapers media director Mark Chippendale is now working out his notice and that Times Media trading director Dominic Carter will become NI trading director.

As part of a range of management changes, four senior NI directors, including Carter, have been given new roles, three of which are newly-created.

All four will report to News International's new commercial managing director, Paul Hayes.

As predicted in Media Week, Carter will now be responsible for heading up the sales operation across The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and the News of the World, as well as thelondonpaper, providing agencies and clients with a single point of access to NI's key brands.

Claire Myerscough, currently Times Media development director, has been made NI business intelligence director and will work with all areas of the commercial department to deliver insight into the media industry and client markets.

Patricia Kill moves to NI sales support director, having previously been head of ad sales operations across the group, and David German retains his role as NI classified director.