Sports Publications have appointed leading digital journalist Alex Perry to spearhead their ambitious online plans for the coming year.
Perry is making his return to the golf industry as the digital editor of nationalclubgolfer.com after a four-year spell with ESPN.
“The appointment of Alex is a big step forward for the company,” said Sports Publications’ publisher Tom Irwin. “He is a hugely talented and respected digital journalist, and his addition to the team will play a key role in the next phase of our development online.
“This has been a year of real progress for our online offering. In April we launched two brand-new sites www.nationalclubgolfer.com and lady-golfer.com – and in the next few weeks our new corporate site, www.sportspublications.com, will go live
“The new sites have given us the platform for growth: Our year-on-year traffic is up 30 per cent, with visitors to the site staying for longer and viewing more pages.
“We are committed to delivering unique content that our audience cannot find elsewhere.
“To do that you have to invest in your staff and from that perspective too we are better equipped than ever before: an in-house content management and video production team has added significantly to our existing team of journalists and designers.
“Our output is huge, consistent, and unique. We are committed to investment in digital and have several innovative content marketing plans in place for 2017 – watch this space,” said Irwin.
Perry will arrive in time to join the Sports Publications team in Orlando for the PGA Show in late January, where he is looking forward to seeing many of his former golf industry colleagues again.
“I spent four years learning how to write in American-English at ESPN, for whom I covered four Open Championships and two Ryder Cups,” said Perry, the former editor of golfmagic.com.
“Now it’s time to move my young family to the glorious Yorkshire countryside, where I will help drag National Club Golfer magazine kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It’s a big challenge, and one I can’t wait to get started on,” he said.