Riaan Wolmarans has been appointed as Head of Audience Development, Percy Goetsch as Head of Product, and Dan Calderwood as Head of Multimedia. They will form part of the team directed by Lisa MacLeod, Head of Digital Publishing at Times Media.

The investment in digital forms part of Times Media's broader diversification into other platforms and markets across Africa. “We have acquired interests in leading radio and TV broadcasters in Kenya and Ghana and have recently purchased stakes in radio businesses in both Nigeria and Uganda. All of the operators have significant digital reach and provide a platform for growth in West, East and Southern Africa,” says Andrew Bonamour, CEO of Times Media Group.

Times Media’s push towards digital includes developing proficiency in terms of technical infrastructure and tools, training, and dynamic content creation internally. This has led to the establishment of two senior internal positions to manage the change with Michael Biberauer, former managing editor of Business Day and Financial Mail being appointed as digital development manager, and Business Day’s Valdi Strauss as digital production manager. Both will be involved in large technical rollouts in the coming year, and the overhaul of newsroom structures and ‘digital-first’ workflows.

“The team will form a core part of positioning Times Media for an increasingly digital future. Their focus will be on delivering Times Media’s premium content to digital consumers, and the ongoing enhancement of customer-facing products to provide the best experience for our growing audience. We are fortunate to have such a talented and experienced group to deliver on our strategy to serve our consumers on all platforms," says MacLeod.

Riaan Wolmarans returns to TMG as Head of Audience Development. He has more than 15 years' experience in the media industry, both locally and abroad, specialising in digital content and publishing. He has steered the digital editorial output of the Mail & Guardian and Business Day/Financial Mail (Times Media Group) in South Africa and also worked in print and digital at the Financial Times in London. He was most recently Head of Digital Content at MetropolitanRepublic, the Johannesburg-based integrated communications agency with operations in several African countries.

Percy Goetsch joins TMG this month as Head of Product and will focus on tech development and innovation. His experience with customer-facing products such as websites, apps and mobile spans the financial, information technology and media sectors. Goetsch joined Media24 in 2010 as Business Development Manager (Digital News) for all local news titles. Since 2013 he has been focused on digital publishing for Media24’s daily news titles which included the development and launch of Media24’s Netwerk24, the most commercially successful paywalled site in South Africa.

Dan Calderwood joins TMG next month as the new Head of Multimedia. He is a digital content specialist who in 2013 became the founding editor of 24.com’s video brand News24 Live, heading up the company’s video department and strategy. In just under two years, he grew the video platform’s audience to more than 1.5-million monthly unique browsers, with four million monthly video views across Media24’s various digital platforms.

For more information on Times Media, visit www.timesmedia.co.za.