Richard Mennear

About

An experienced, well respected and energetic Sports Editor who leads, manages and inspires a team of football content writers for National World across the Sunderland Echo, Shields Gazette, Hartlepool Mail and Burnley Express websites and newspapers. Agile, adaptable and open-minded, I have close to 18 years experience in regional journalism, 8 in news and the past 10 in sports journalism and senior management roles. I manage and help develop writers to achieve their full potential and oversee the content plans, video, social and newsletter strategy for my titles.* I drive a targeted sport agenda across my titles seven-days a week, which also includes two daily newspapers and two weekly newspapers. I have a strong track record of driving audience digitally, following analytics and identifying trends to come up with original ideas. My current role includes overseeing the day-to-day management of the football desk in the North East and North West, overseeing a team of writers covering Sunderland, Newcastle United, Hartlepool United and Middlesbrough for the Sunderland Echo, Shields Gazette and Hartlepool Mail plus the Burnley Express.The role includes attending digital and print conferences, forward planning meetings and producing content plans on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to help drive our digital and print audience and subscriptions. Our extensive coverage includes unrivalled matchday content and podcasts for each club. Our focus is firmly digital and we are always finding new ways to showcase our content to readers though digital platforms; live blogs, picture galleries, podcasts, newsletters, YouTube channels and video output. Alongside driving digital audience, my role also includes raising engagement and I am responsible for optimising content for Google Discover, Showcase and other channels. As well as helping launch the successful Sunderland Echo 'Roar' podcast & Hartlepool Mail 'Poolie Podcast', I have also led sports journalism workshops at the University of Sunderland and have a strong track record in helping the next generation of journalists. I am collaborative, a great communicator, capable of working across departments while also bringing together different aspects of the team to achieve our digital, growth and revenue goals. X: @RichMennearEmail: richardmennear@outlook.com