Magazines

John Reynolds, mediaweek.co.uk, 19 November 2009, 3:47pm

Fuller departs as managing director of IPC Ignite

LONDON - Eric Fuller, managing director of IPC brands including NME and Loaded, is to leave the magazine publisher after nine years as part of a restructure of its operations.

Webster: restructuring operations

Fuller, a big name within magazine publishing, will leave his board-level position as managing director of IPC Ignite at the end of December.

Under the new structure, IPC will effectively subsume two of its flagship divisions - TV weeklies (TX) and Ignite (lifstyle) - into its three remaining divisions: Connect (women's weeklies), Soutbank (upmarket women's titles) and Inspire (mens)

The restructure, effective from January, has prompted a limited number of redundancies, although IPC would not disclose further details. IPC says it is restructuring around three audience groups of men, mass-market women and up-market women.

The managing director of IPC TX, Charlie Meredith, will be moved to a new board role as managing director of central operations, with responsibility for its direct marketing division.

IPC chief executive Evelyn Webster admitted its structure was no longer fit for purpose. She said: "While our current structure has served us well over many years, it now no longer fully reflects our clients' business needs."

She added: "By organising IPC by consumer audience, rather than by magazine frequency or subject area, we will create a more market-facing structure, which will also bring greater coherence to our operations."