Dominic Collins named new co-chair of AOP

Dominic Collins will replace Alison Reay as co-chair of the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) in October, the organisation announced in a press release.

Collins, group director for Autotrader.co.uk at Trader Media Group, will work alongside current co-chair Tim Faircliff, general manager of consumer media at Thomson Reuters.

The official switchover will take place at the AOP summit on October 7.

At last year's summit the AOP introduced the joint chairmanship system, in which two people share the role with each chair overlapping for a six-month period.

The system 'allows greater rotation in the role of representatives drawn from newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and online-only players', the AOP said.

"Trader Media Group strongly supports the AOP's efforts for our industry. I am thrilled to be accepting the position of co-chair for such an important and established industry body, helping the sector during such a pivotal point for our businesses," said Collins in the release.

Collins joined Autotrader.co.uk in June 2008 from the online business unit at BSkyB. The site currently attracts between 8-10 million unique users a month with £100 million a year generated by the website. Last year Guardian News & Media sold its share in the group to help generate a one-off profit of £306.4 million.

Last week, Edwin Ulak, publishing director, digital, at Trader Media Group described his group's digital success at an AOP industry gathering: "The group's valuation was supported by our change to a digital business. Shareholders believe that they will have a much more valuable asset with this transformation."

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