News Group appoints its first head of mobile strategy

News Group Newspapers (NGN) has appointed its first head of mobile strategy as part of its plan to push its brands across several different platforms.

Andrew Bagguley, previously head of international portal management at T Mobile, will take responsibility for growing the group's news audience on mobile phones.

News Group hopes the appointment will help identify trends in mobile content and interpret these to fit in with its multi-platform publishing strategy.

Earlier in the year, Les Hinton, executive chairman of News International, announced that the company would 'protect and extend' its newspapers by developing online and mobile audiences.

In recent weeks, as part of a plan to triple page impressions, Times Online has launched a TV service - Times TV - and made new appointments to aid integration of the web operations of The Times and The Sunday Times.

The Sun Online has developed a classifieds section, Sun Local, as part of its drive to broaden its appeal.

News Group said the appointment of Mr Bagguley was a sign of its seriousness about developing mobiles as the next home for its news content and to take advantage of the vast number of its readers who had mobile phones.
 
Andrew Bagguley said: "It's a very exciting time for the mobile industry as a whole and I believe NGN has a superb opportunity in mobile, delivering high-quality mobile content and products to its readers."

News Group's commercial telephony wing will also fall under Mr Bagguley's control.

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