News Corp is bringing its regional and community newspapers into a single business with the formation of a regional publishing division led by Nick Trompf.
The former general manager of the Cairns Post and Townsville Bulletin now heads a unit comprising these titles plus the Hobart Mercury, Northern Territory News, Gold Coast Bulletin and Geelong Advertiser.
Commercial leaders in each region report to Trompf, who report to Damian Eales, managing director of metro and regional publishing.
Eales says the move will give the titles more focus, help them capitalise on opportunities and address their common challenges: "By bringing these titles together into a new division, we can increase collaboration across editorial, marketing and advertising sales, delivering more for our readers and making it easier than ever for our commercial partners to engage with this important audience," he says.
The regional portfolio has a monthly cross-platform audience of 1.7 million.
The restructure sees the departure of Sean Ryan, whose job as Queensland director for metro and regional publishing disappears. A replacement for Trompf in Cairns has yet to be named.
Pictured: Regional people and their priorities, from the News Corp Australia website