Reaching out for reader loyalty

Christina Savvas

Fourteen editors, including Birmingham-based Christina Savvas (pictured), have been given new senior roles in Reach plc’s bid to increase reader loyalty.

Announcing the appointment of a raft of senior customer editors to cover regions of the UK and Ireland, as well as specialist areas including sport and newsletters, the publisher said that the team will “serve as the bridge” between editorial and customer teams and will be responsible for developing editorial products, such as digital newsletters, to “drive customer loyalty and engagement”.

Christina Savvas, previously head of audience at Birmingham Live, takes on the West Midlands beat. She joined the digital development team in 2012 after having previously worked as a general reporter on the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post and Coventry Telegraph.

Nottingham, Derby and Lincolnshire audience editor Sam Dimmer has been  promoted in the East Midlands.

Reach says the new team will focus on newsletters, which generate 50 million page views a month across the company’s portfolio and are a “strong driver” in its bid to register more customers online. The team will also continue to work with colleagues from editorial and customer teams on a range of other initiatives designed to “boost loyalty and engagement”.

This includes recruiting a new team of nostalgia journalists, a content testing team and a digital content optimisation team.

Martin Little, Reach audience transformation director, said: “Over the past two years we’ve built many of the foundations we need for our customer value strategy to succeed. Now we’re using every tool at our disposal, including the increasingly rich data coming from the customer team, to help our editors create products and content that turn our readers into truly loyal customers and registered users.

“This new team will oversee the introduction of new data, technology and expertise to help our newsrooms live and breathe the customer value strategy and ultimately unlock the potential that a massive, loyal audience can deliver.”