Pete Picton, long-time editor of the Sun Online website in the UK, is leaving London to join parent News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) in New York.
Sun Editor Dominic Mohan told staff on Tuesday Picton will be “helping to launch a new digital project”.
That project is understood to be the new, national U.S. newspaper title News Corp is developing for tablets only, on a subscription basis.
News Corp has already enlisted New York Post Executive Editor Jesse Angelo to head the project, which seems designed to go nationwide with a mass-market U.S. title on iPad in the same way The Sun has been in the smaller UK for decades. Digital distribution could help News Corp’s New York Post, or a title modeled on it, to break out of the metro market.
Picton rejoined The Sun in 2000 as head of features after stints at the News Of The World, Sunday People and Heat magazine; he has been online editor for the last 10 years, during which Sun Bingo became one of the site’s big revenue generators.
News Corp’s News International has pledged Sun Online will follow its TheTimes.co.uk and SundayTimes.co.uk by implementing reader charges.