Page 474 - The Case Lab Book

JP

JP appointed Ashley Highfield as CEO in November, 2011.
Although he had no experience of the newspaper industry he

did have a strategic vision for the future of the business which

involved transformational change, implementing a number of

strategic initiatives focused on improving efficiencies and
saving costs such as raising the cover price of many of JPs 170

local and regional newspapers as well as turning five local

daily papers into weekly titles. In addition the number of
contact centres would be reduced from 14 to 2, consolidating

the printing sites from seven to three, taking out layers of

senior management and reducing the overall numbers of staff.

In 2012, Highfield’s "Vision for 2020" predicted the publisher's

digital audience would grow from 10m to 20m, while its print

audience would shrink from 11m to 8m over the same period.
He also predicted that by 2020 all sites would be "digital first"

and that "few daily print products" would remain. Moreover, "a