Crace: “delighted” to be back in newspapers
Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey has brought in her former colleague from IPC, Georgina Crace, to be the group’s new managing director, regional newspapers.
Crace, who is currently managing director IPC Advertising and of the Wallpaper Group, will take up her appointment on 2 February next year. She was part of the team that successfully concluded the sale of IPC Media to Time Warner in which Bailey figured prominently.
In her new role, Crace will join Trinity Mirror’s executive committee and report directly to Bailey.
She will replace Stephen Parker, who resigned last summer, and her appointment marks a new era for the company’s regionals. On joining Trinity Mirror, Bailey is said to have been struck by the high ratio of middle-aged men in senior positions in regional newspapers to those of comparably promoted women on magazines.
Crace has had previous newspaper experience, but not in regionals. Before joining IPC Media in 1996, she spent nine years at Express Newspapers, where she held a number of senior positions including advertisement director, Daily Express.
Crace said she was delighted to be back in the world of newspapers. “I look forward to working with a team of talented people, building on past successes, and outperforming the competition in everything we do,” she said.
She was appointed managing director of IPC Advertising in 1999, creating one of the biggest jobs in UK advertising by uniting display, sponsorship, classified, promotions and inserts across more than 100 print and online brands. She was appointed to the board of IPC Media in 2000.
Crace is currently the chair of the Periodical Publishers Association Marketing Board. Previously she was a director of the National Readership Survey and a committee member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations for more than five years.
Bailey said: “The key value lever in our regional business is advertising and we are delighted to have someone of Georgina’s calibre to join our team to help drive an even greater performance from these assets.
“She has extensive experience in newspapers, but also brings the creativity and dynamism which has made the magazine sector so successful, as well as a critical focus on circulation and portfolio management.”
By Jean Morgan
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