Associated restructures London sales

The group currently has a 20-strong sales unit that sells across the evening paid-for title and its sister free paper, London Lite. Around 10 sales staff will move from this unit into the free division, alongside Associated's free newspaper, Metro, which houses around 20 sales staff. It is thought that the move will not lead to redundancies.

It is understood that Associated, which recently merged the sales teams of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, believes Metro and London Lite could prove a more compatible sell, because both are aimed at a similar urban audience.

It is thought the group has looked at the move before, but will now go ahead with it in January.
The move comes as Associated looks to ramp up investment in the Evening Standard, which took its ES Magazine online yesterday (Monday). Next week, it will launch News Extra, the first edition of the Standard.

In October, Associated announced plans to break with long-standing tradition and merge its Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspaper and digital sales teams. It has also promoted John Teal to group advertising director.

It is the first time the Daily Mail & General Trust subsidiary has merged its commercial operations across the two papers, which previously competed with each other.
Last month, The Mail on Sunday's head of client sales and strategy, Stuart Mays, left the company as part of the restructure. The Daily Mail's head of trading, Jon O'Donnell, moved across to become deputy ad director at the Evening Standard.

This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk