Telegraph Media Group has named Jason Seiken as editor-in-chief.
Seiken, who will also take on the newly created role of chief content officer, has been hired from Public Broadcasting Service in the US, where he is senior vice president and general manager (digital).
Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher and Ian MacGregor, editor of The Sunday Telegraph, will now both report in to Seiken.
Seiken will assume responsibility for all editorial operations and for “transforming the newsroom into a dynamic, entrepreneurial culture with digital products at its core", according to a statement from Telegraph Media Group.
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Seiken’s appointment is part of the group’s transition into a fully integrated digital newsroom, the company said. He will start his new job next month.
Seiken has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism. Before joining PBS six years ago, he was vice president at AOL Europe (based in London) and he is also a former editor-in-chief of washingtonpost.com.
Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of TMG, said: “This appointment is vital to the future of our business and in achieving our ambition to become the foremost English language multimedia news and content provider. There could not be a better person for this crucial role than Jason Seiken.
“He has a lifetime of experience in the media industry and an extraordinary track record of completing profound business transformations.
“He is a remarkable leader who is at the cutting edge of global developments in the media, with a pioneering track record of delivering radical, durable change in companies which include some of the world’s leading media brands.”
Seiken said: “The Telegraph is an iconic global media brand, renowned for its quality and its innovation. I look forward to joining next month and working to make the Telegraph a fully integrated, entrepreneurial multimedia news organisation providing the best English language journalism and content in the world.”
The appointment comes after the announcement in March from TMG that it was creating a new director of content position. The news came as it revealed plans to cut 80 out of 550 editorial jobs but also create 50 new digital jobs as part of an £8m investment to “complete our transition to a digital business”.
Executive editor Richard Ellis has been filling the director of content role on an interim basis.
PBS is a network of US non-commercial educational TV stations.
As general manager (digital) Seiken has been credited with greatly increasing the number of videos viewed on PBS websites, especially PKIDS.org.
Seiken is a dual citizen of the UK and US and is married with two children.
At the Washington Post, he led teams which launched the newspaper’s first digital products, including washingtonpost.com. At AOL, he ran all of the major content channels, including AOL News which (according to the Teleraph) became the most visited news website in the world under his leadership.
Earlier in his career, Seiken was a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist. He was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.
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