Mirror Group Newspaper digital content director Matt Kelly is to leave the business after 16 years to join Perform, an online sports video business.
Kelly will leave the Publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror titles in January after being appointed as the managing director of a new publishing division.
Reporting directly to Perform’s joint-chief executive Simon Denyer, Kelly will be responsible for creating the publishing division, building new audiences and revenue streams across an array of sports.
During his time at MGN, Kelly oversaw the launch and development of MirrorFootball.co.uk and 3am.co.uk – digital spin-offs of key editorial features to the group’s newspapers.
Prior to taking up his digital content director role, Kelly had been an associate editor of the Daily Mirror, led the print redesign in 2008 and has held a variety of positions on the paper, including head of features and new technology columnist.
He said: “I’ve had 16 brilliant years with the Mirror and am incredibly proud of everything the digital team has achieved here – particularly Mirror Football and 3am.co.uk, but now it’s time for a fresh challenge.”
Perform holds numerous rights to show sports online, runs video-on-demand sites for Football League clubs and provides edited highlights packages for newspaper and other websites.
The firm boasts that its ePlayer is the world’s largest premium sport VOD broadcaster with more than 600 customers.
Denyer said: “Perform now generates and accesses more sports video, editorial and data than any other media company in the world so we wanted to bring someone in with creative drive and a proven track record to take these assets and create a range of new direct-to-consumer sports channels.
“Following the resounding success of ePlayer, which is now the world’s leading premium sports VOD broadcaster with 31 million unique users a month, we have hired Matt to launch and manage other new mass audience initiatives.”
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