Nine appoints Chris Paine as its head of premium content for metro mastheads

Chris Paine has been appointed head of premium content at Nine Entertainment Co, a new role that will oversee the evolution of subscriber engagement through expanding digital presentation, audio and video journalism at Nine mastheads The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and WA Today.

Leading the presentation, video and audio, explainers and data teams, Paine will drive recent investments in these editorial sections, and will report to recently appointed executive editorTory Maguire, starting on Monday 15 November.

Paine’s appointment comes after recent announcements by the mastheads, and The Australian Financial Review, of significant investments into journalism, with the expansion of editorial teams.

Maguire said of Paine’s appointment: “This new head of premium content role brings together all the incredible work already done by our presentation, video and audio, and explainer teams with the new investments being made in those areas, and puts them at the centre of our newsroom operations.

“Paine’s job will be to make sure all parts of our mastheads get the premium content treatment, and he will be crucial to turbo-charging our subscriber strategy. His combination of experience, creativity and leadership make him the perfect person to step things up, ensuring our subscribers are rewarded with even greater value for money.”

Paine has a digital media background, most recently as head of digital news at Fox Sports Australia and, before that as editor of Huff Post Australia. He joined ABC News in Brisbane in 2006 as a digital producer, later progressing his career at news.com.au where he was appointed afternoon editor. He joinedDaily Mail Australia’sfounding editorial team as assistant editor in 2014, before moving toHuff Post Australiain 2015 as news editor, then editor.

“I am delighted to be joining Nine’s Metro Publishing team at an exciting time for some of Australia’s most trusted and innovative brands,” said Paine. “I can’t wait to work with Tory Maguire and her team on helping to deliver world-class journalism and tell compelling, engaging and important stories that audiences expect from the Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today.”

Earlier this week, it was announced thatNine Entertainment Co and its regional affiliate, WIN Corporation will be integrating its two sales teamsinto the one sales team, with the WIN staff becoming Nine Entertainment Co staff, effective as of 1 July 2022.