Former Reach North West business editor Jon Robinson has joined the team at the recently relaunched City AM to “help grow the brand’s presence outside London.”
Robinson, who will serve as UK editor in the new role, was one of many staff whose jobs were put at risk by last November’s announcement that regional publishing giant Reach Plc would be making 450 redundancies in a third major set of 2023 cuts.
Robinson took to LinkedIn in December to confirm that has time at Reach had officially come to an end, saying: “I’ve really enjoyed providing exclusive and agenda-setting stories and interviews for the likes of BusinessLive, the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo as well as the Daily Express and Daily Mirror during my tenure as North West Business Editor.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Alistair Houghton and Tom Houghton for giving me a shot back when the world was still in lockdown. It certainly was a challenge joining a new company completely remotely.”
Prior to his three years at Reach, Robinson’s CV also included spells at the Lancashire Telegraph, Insider Media and Mancunian Matters.
The news on LinkedIn was more positive this morning, with Robinson announcing the new role to the world.
City AM, historically a London-focused business daily with a core readership based around free distribution in the capital, was acquired last summer by Manchester’s THG after financial damage sustained during the pandemic forced the previous owners to put the paper on the market.
THG said at the time that it intended to invest in both editorial and technology within the newspaper as, well as expanding its lifestyle and sports categories.
THG founder and CEO Matthew Moulding, who has not always enjoyed the most cordial relationship with the UK’s business press, raised a few eyebrows at the time of the purchase when he described his desire for City AM to become a “cheerleader” for UK business, although he insisted at the same time that the paper would retain its editorial independence.
