Telegraph Media Group today announced the creation of 40 new editorial jobs amid around a dozen departures.
The new positions are said to focus on “strengthening the Telegraph’s original reporting, with significant new investments in investigative reporting, data journalism, interactive tools, and video production”.
The Telegraph has confirmed that a “limited number of positions are being lost as editors focus on their strategic priorities”.
Editor of Telegraph blogs Damian Thompson has confirmed that he has left the paper. Former Daily Telegraph deputy editor, and comment writer, Benedict Brogan has also left the title.
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Press Gazette understands that business editor Tim Jotischky is leaving next week after serving his redundancy notice and that a number of other individuals have been made redundant today. Former City AM editor Allister Heath joins the Telegraph as deputy editor in charge of business coverage next month.
The Telegraph said that the new roles come on top of a "significant number of important appointments" that have already been made recently in search engine optimisation, social media, the homepage team, sport, Life and Weekend and Motoring.
The Telegraph said the 40 new positions include:
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- a new cross-functional team of journalists, engineers, and designers focused on innovation in digital journalism and creation of new tools for reporting and data presentation the formation of a breaking news team to speed the delivery of stories to?mobile and web
- a strong boost to the Telegraph search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media teams
- the appointment of a consumer affairs editor
- expansion of the digital design team
- the establishment of a new editorial apprenticeship scheme for school? leavers and non-graduates, to sit alongside the ?graduate training scheme.
Telegraph editor-in-chief Jason Seiken (pictured above) said: “I strongly believe that, in the long run, quality journalism wins.
“That is why we are focused relentlessly on two things: producing truly distinctive quality journalism and ensuring this journalism is seen by the largest possible audience.
“Our investment in areas such as investigative reporting and data journalism will enhance the former, while our new positions focused on SEO and social media will power the latter.”
This latest changes at the Telegraph come after 80 editorial redundancies were announced in March 2013 along with the creation of 50 new digital journalism jobs. Press Gazette understands that most, but not all, of the 50 new jobs were filled.
In January this year, Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher was sacked as Chris Evans was made print editor Monday to Friday and Ian MacGregor was made weekend editor.
In February it was announced that Dan Hickey had been appointed general manager (lifestyle), joining from the US Meredith Corporation and Gregg Stewart was made director of audience development amid a wide-ranging senior editorial shake-up.
In a statement the Telegraph summarised the following recent appointments from the last month or so (which are in addition to the 40 new jobs announced today):
- Dan Adcock, currently head of SEO at ITV, joining as Head of Technical SEO
- Mark Molloy, a journalist who helped drive record page views at Metro, joining the expanding Social Media team
- Kerry McQueeney, formerly of Metro, MSN and Mail Online, joining the Homepage team along with Michael Wilkinson, a digital-focused reporter who, as Public Affairs Correspondent for the Gloucester Citizen, pioneered video journalism for his company's websites
- Adam Sills, who during the past year as the Acting Head of Sport has driven significant growth in digital audience while also launching digital innovations, such as Project Babb, is promoted to the position permanently
- In Lifestyle, Jon Stock, currently managing the online Books channel, becoming Executive Head of Life and Weekend, leading three new content hubs: Gardening (led by Joanna Fortnam), Property/Interiors (led by Stuart Penney) and Food (joined by Elfreda Pownall and Amy Bryant from Stella magazine)
- Steve Huntingford, who led content creation for the newly launched Telegraph Cars site, becoming the new Head of Motoring. Before joining The Telegraph, Steve worked at What Car?
- Three new appointments in the business team made by Allister Heath: Ben Wright, the former Editor of Financial News and now City correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in London, joins as Senior City Editor; Lauren Davidson, who works for Quartz in New York, joins as a business reporter and James Quinn, who has been acting Executive Business Editor, is confirmed in the role permanently."
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