Regional news publisher Johnston Press is picking its Scotsman Publications general manager Henry Faure Walker to be its new digital and business development director.
Walker replaces Lori Cunningham, the former AOL (NYSE: AOL) UK strategy VP who announced her exit in May as Johnston’s digital director after two years.
Walker had been MD of Johnston’s digital JP Ventures arm between 2004 and 2006.
That Johnston is also adding the “business development” role suggests a greater focus actually monetising the web, together with Johnston’s core income streams.
The publisher recently tested paywalls on a small number of local titles, but has not gone ahead to full launch.
Johnston’s January-to-June digital income grew 10.9 percent from last year to £10 million this year. But it’s mainly thanks to an outsourcing partnership in which it washed its hands of managing its jobs classifieds in-house and instead gave the task to DMGT