Guardian Media Group appoints new Managing Director of Guardian Newspapers

Guardian Media Group plc today announced that Tim Brooks has been appointed as Managing Director of Guardian Newspapers Limited, GMG’s national media division. He will succeed Carolyn McCall, who became Chief Executive of GMG on 1st August.

Tim Brooks is currently Managing Director of IPC ignite!, IPC Media’s men’s lifestyle and music division. His extensive media and publishing career includes co-founding Media Week magazine, launching a publishing business in Australia, and nine years in senior management at Emap plc, including Network Managing Director within Emap’s UK business and Executive Director of Emap Digital. In 2000 he joined the Board of IPC Media as Managing Director of IPC SouthBank, and became Managing Director of IPC ignite! in 2003.

Carolyn McCall, Chief Executive of GMG, said: “Tim has a strong track record of commercial and creative success. His extensive experience of transforming businesses, diversifying brands, and leading high performance teams will ensure he delivers the vision and innovation needed in a profoundly changing media world.”

Tim Brooks said: “GNL produces two world-class newspapers and a world-beating website. Recent successes – notably the Berliner transformations – have demonstrated a boldness of vision, and a readiness to embrace change, which are two of the reasons I was attracted to this job. The opportunity to lead GNL through a period of profound change in the media industry is one I relish immensely.”

Tim Brooks will also join the Board of the Guardian Media Group plc on his appointment.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

After graduating from Cambridge, Tim Brooks became a business journalist and was co-founder and launch editor of Media Week magazine. He launched a publishing business in Australia, and then spent nine years in senior management at Emap plc, including Network Managing Director within Emap’s UK business and Executive Director of Emap Digital. In 2000 he joined the Board of IPC Media as Managing Director of IPC SouthBank, responsible for 14 leading consumer titles including Marie Claire and Ideal Home. In 2003 he became Managing Director of IPC ignite!, IPC Media’s men’s lifestyle and music division, where he has overseen significant growth in the men’s lifestyle market, with titles including Loaded, Nuts, NME and Uncut, and the successful development of the magazines’ online and mobile extensions. He is also chairman of Time Inc. South Pacific, which reports in to IPC, a director of the Periodicals Training Council, and sits on the Audit Committee of the Periodical Publishers’ Association. He is married with three children.

Guardian Newspapers Ltd (GNL) publishes the Guardian and Observer newspapers, and the Guardian Unlimited websites.

GNL is owned by the Guardian Media Group plc (GMG), one of Britain’s leading media companies, which in the year ending 2 April 2006 earned pre-tax profits of £66 million on turnover of £700 million. Its diverse portfolio includes national media – the Guardian and Observer newspapers and the Guardian Unlimited websites; regional media – the Manchester Evening News and more than 40 other regional newspapers in the North West and Surrey and Berkshire; five radio stations under the Real Radio and Smooth FM brands; and Trader Media Group, one of Europe’s largest specialist media and online companies.

GMG is wholly owned by the Scott Trust, which was created in 1936 to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity.