News Corp Australia has created a brand spanking new regional publishing division, which the company has announced will be headed by Nick Trompf.

News Corp managing director of metro and regional publishing Damian Eales made the announcement today, with the new division to house the Mercury (Hobart), NT News, The Cairns Post, Townsville Bulletin, Gold Coast Bulletin, Geelong Advertiser and associated community publications.

The management of each regional masthead will now report to Trompf in his new role of executive general manager, regional publishing.

Trompf, formerly the executive general manager of North Queensland, starts in his new role on February 8 and will report to Eales.

“Our regional publications have a broad and deep connection with the communities they serve. Every day, our regional mastheads inform, inspire and advocate for their region,” Eales said.

“Together, our regional portfolio has a monthly cross-platform audience of 1.7 million Australians, representing a platform of significant size and opportunity for advertisers and marketers.

“By bringing these titles together into a new division, we can increase collaboration across editorial, marketing and advertising sales, delivering more for our readers and making it easier than ever for our commercial partners to engage with this important audience.

Following these changes the role of state director, Queensland metro and regional publishing has become redundant and so Sean Ryan will be leaving the business.

“I want to thank Sean for his invaluable contribution to our Queensland operations over the past couple of years,” Eales added. “He’s brought enormous enthusiasm and his trademark spirit to the role, and delivered some terrific results, particularly in resetting our sales capabilities in the local market. We all wish Sean the very best in his future endeavours.”