Rich, who will take up his position in February, replaces Stephen Miron, former managing director of The Mail on Sunday, who left the group in November to join Global Radio as chief executive.
He will have a larger remit than Miron as he will also have responsibility across the Daily Mail with his role as deputy managing director of Mail Newspapers.
Rich will report to Guy Zitter, managing director of Mail Newspapers, unlike Miron, who reported to Kevin Beatty, Associated Newspapers' managing director.
The former Emap executive has been working on a part-time basis at Crash Test Media, the consultancy that launched Mike Soutar's free men's weekly magazine ShortList.
Rich left his role as group managing director of Bauer Advertising and Bauer London Lifestyle in July.
He spent 25 years at Emap, which was acquired by H Bauer in December 2007. Latterly, he was responsible for 500 staff in his role overseeing Emap Lifestyle Magazines and Emap Advertising.
His other previous roles include managing director of Emap Performance and FHM Worldwide, and president of Emap Metro in New York.
Zitter said Rich would bring an extra range "of experience and talent" to the company.
The appointment of Rich follows Associated taking the radical step last year of merging its sales teams across the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as it looked to better streamline its operations.
In a separate move, Associated Newspapers has undertaken the latest restructure of its operations and rejigged the sales team of the London Evening Standard, splitting the 34-strong team into a separate creative and trading team.
The 16-strong creative team will be headed by Chris Kelly, who was previously head of creative solutions, and the division will be made up of client sales, creative solutions and special projects.
The 18-strong trading team will be headed by John Gill, currently head of client communications, and will be split across three units - magazines, newspapers and arts and entertainments.
Be the first to comment