Will Payne, The Sun’s director of digital (editorial), is leaving after almost 11 years to join fellow News Corp title the New York Post.
Payne will become deputy editor-in-chief of the New York Post Group, reporting to editor-in-chief Keith Poole – who also joined from The Sun, where he had been digital editor and deputy editor, in March 2021.
His previous roles during his time at The Sun have included head of digital, head of content, deputy editor of Sun Online having joined shortly after it took down its paywall in 2015, and head of TV.
In a message to staff seen by Press Gazette, Sun editor-in-chief Victoria Newton said Payne’s “impact and contributions have been invaluable. He has been a tremendous support to me and the Sun business.”
She added: “Under his leadership, our digital strategy has seen us launch our US operation, transform our video output with huge success; establishing Sun Originals and helping us become the biggest UK print publisher on Youtube, as well as the launch of Sun Club this year.”
Sun Originals is part of the brand’s new video strategy based around episodic formats. Press Gazette understands The Sun’s total video revenue is currently up around 2.5 times year on year.
Meanwhile Sun Club is the partial paywall that charges £1.99 per month for premium content and other perks.
Poole told New York Post staff in an email seen by Press Gazette: “Will will bring a new level of experience to our fantastic leadership team as we grow our successful operation, building new audiences with new forms of storytelling. (More on that soon!)
“I worked very closely with Will at The Sun, where among many notable achievements he oversaw the launch of the US Sun.
“He is a terrific team player, expert in digital strategy, regularly edits The Sun newspaper and has a great nose for impactful stories.”
The Sun and New York Post have seen similar issues with traffic referrals from search and social falling due to various algorithm and strategic changes in recent years.
The Sun’s digital offering reached 74 million global monthly unique users in March compared to 126 million a year earlier, according to Meta Pixel data in the latest News Corp results.
The results also cited Google Analytics data showing the New York Post reached 85 million unique users in March, down from 125 million.
However, Press Gazette understands The Sun has seen month on month growth in global page views for the last four months and June is on course to be its best month since August 2024. In addition, The Sun US has just had its best week for traffic since May 2024.
Like other publishers it has benefited from Facebook reprioritising news and paying publishers for engagement, with revenue there up ten times year on year.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
