News International’s New Media Section Disbanded

News International (NI) is thought to have broken up its new media division, News Network, handing control of the online editions of the Sun, News of the World, Page3.com, the Times and the Sunday Times back to the individual newspapers and shedding dozens of staff, mainly from auction site FiredUp.com.

Speculation in the press said that reorganisation will see News Network, consisting of FiredUp.com and recruitment site Revolver, merge with News International Ventures, which handles reader-offer and brand extensions business.

Earlier this year NI sold its free internet service provider Bun.com, which had been rebranded from its original title of CurrantBun.com and undergone a large-scale television advertising push. The service was bought up by World Online (see News International Sells Bun.com).

Research published earlier this year found that many newspapers are failing to exploit the possibilities of the internet in their online versions (see Study Finds Newspapers Failing On The Net). Another study has recently revealed that 80% of the UK public say they will never use the internet as their primary source of news (see Web Report – UK Public Still Prefer Print To Pixels For Their News).

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