Torstar names Fredric Karen as SVP Editorial
Award-winning editor to lead company's digital news initiatives
TORONTO, Oct. 4, 2018 /CNW/ - Torstar Corporation announced today that Fredric Karen, an internationally recognized news media leader, has been appointed Senior Vice-President, Editorial, effective January 2, 2019.
Mr. Karen has enjoyed an outstanding career over the past 30 years as an editor, senior manager and newspaper publisher at multiple news organizations in Sweden.
He has served as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Editor and Responsible Publisher at Svenska Dagbladet AB, which has won numerous top international and national journalism awards under his leadership. He had been employed by the company from 2002 until the present.
In recent years Mr. Karen has focused on quality journalism and digital transformations of traditional news providers, working with algorithms and advanced data analytics in newsrooms to create news products that address the needs of readers and meet the challenges of a rapidly changing business environment.
"We are pleased that Fredric Karen has agreed to serve as Senior Vice-President, Editorial of Torstar," said John Boynton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Torstar Corporation. "He is a proven leader with a passion for news and a global reputation as a reporter, editor, publisher and digital media innovator.
"He brings to Torstar a deep commitment to quality journalism, a determination to address difficult times in the media industry and a proven record of digital innovation that will help our company as we move transition to a more digital future," he added.
In this new position for Torstar, Mr. Karen will be responsible for developing and executing the company's editorial content strategy, working with data science and marketing to maximize subscription revenues, leading the digital transformation in the company's newsroom across Canada to create the newsrooms of the future, building relationship with customers and other key stakeholders throughout the country and helping senior executives maximize efficiencies in Torstar's daily and community news operations.
Mr. Karen will focus on content science, data and analytics, and digital subscriptions and work with senior editorial and department leaders at all of Torstar's daily news outlets, including the Toronto Star, The Hamilton Spectator, Waterloo Region Record, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune, Peterborough Examiner and StarMetro publications in Toronto, Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver as well as Torstar's 80-plus community publications in Ontario.
Before joining the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet AB, Mr. Karen had 22 years' experience in the news industry, working for different Swedish news outlets as a reporter, Managing Editor, Editor in Chief and News Editor.
Under Mr. Karen's leadership, Svenska Dagbladet saw its best financial performance and has won multiple journalism awards, including the Swedish Pulitzer Prize, the Swedish "The Year's Newspaper," Swedish "Newsroom of the Year," the Swedish Goldspad award for investigative journalism in 2015, 2016 and 2018, and the "Best in Show" prize in the 2016 International News Media Association's Global Media Awards competition.
In recognition of his newsroom transformation successes, Mr. Karen has been a keynote speaker at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, in 2017 and a keynote speaker at a number of European media conferences on digital transformation of newsrooms.
About Torstar Corporation
Torstar Corporation is a broadly based media company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TS.B). Its businesses include the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper, six regional daily newspapers in Ontario including The Hamilton Spectator; English-language StarMetro newspapers in several Canadian cities; more than 80 weekly community newspapers in Ontario; flyer distribution services; and digital properties including thestar.com, wheels.ca, save.ca, toronto.com and a number of regional online sites and eyeReturn Marketing. Torstar also holds a majority interest in VerticalScope, a North American vertically-focused digital media company.
SOURCE Torstar Corporation
Bob Hepburn, Director, Communications, Torstar Corporation, [email protected], 416-869-4947
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