APN management shake-up squeezes out digital boss Crockett

APN News & Media, the publisher of the New Zealand Herald newspaper has shaken up its management structure, leaving out head of digital Matt Crockett, who was reportedly in the running for the top job.

The Sydney-based media group has made chief development officer Crockett, a former head of Telecom New Zealand’s wholesale unit, redundant and replaced regional media division head Warren Bright with group operations and procurement director Neil Monaghan.

Both Crockett and Bright were name-checked in the Australian Financial Review as being in the running for APN’s chief executive role, which became vacant after cornerstone shareholder Independent News & Media lobbied to ditch previous boss Brett Chenoweth over the company’s direction.

APN will streamline its digital division’s management, and doesn’t plan to make “any significant digital investments this year,” chairman Peter Cosgrove said.

“APN believes there is a strong future in regional newspapers to provide local news to local communities and our strategy will be clearly focused on meeting this need for our readers and advertisers,” he said.

The dual-listed shares were unchanged on the NZX at 38 cents, and gained 3.4 percent to 36.2 Australian cents on the ASX.

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