Telegraph Media Group is promoting politics editor Iain Martin to a new role of head of comment and community, in a move that integrates the letters and blogs operations across print and online. The former Sunday Telegraph assistant and deputy editor will have ultimate responsibility for a relaunched version of MyTelegraph, the readers blog portal and comment tracker that has been on life-support since third-party vendor Interresource collapsed late last year. Telegraph.co.uk has been managing the service on its own servers since then but will be re-built by Oklahoma-based ONEsite, wrote current communities editor Shane Richmond.
Despite first launching its ambitious transition to multimedia production back in 2005, The Telegraph is still facing staff concern over the matter. Bosses had planned to tell staff about plans to work across both web and print today but have canned the meeting after an NUJ threat of industrial action, Guardian reports. The title has scrapped most of its reader relations department and is also offloading some reporters. It needs to get to a position where it can settle on multiplatform working rules, as Guardian News & Media did in December.