Paul Lomax - Two Point Oh

Pod1, the creative digital agency whose recent clients include Kurt Geiger, Reiss and Uniqlo, has appointed Paul Lomax to the new role of technical director. Paul will oversee all technology at Pod1 including web development, production and infrastructure. He will report directly to founders Fadi Shuman and Marc Cauldron, and will work closely with recently appointed creative director Serge Manoukian to ensure that clients receive the highest standards of technical delivery as well as the already award-winning design solutions.

Paul joins Pod1 from consumer magazine publishers IPC Media, where he was responsible for digital strategy and new product development centred on mass-market female titles. Prior to this, Paul worked across a series of roles in IPC, latterly heading up their internal digital department which he formed in 2002. Over the next four years, Paul was responsible for launching over 30 new websites at IPC including Marie Claire, Ideal Home and most recently the re-launch of countrylife.co.uk and initial product development on Good To Know. Before joining IPC, Paul was managing director for a digital design, development and hosting company he founded in south Manchester in 1998.

Last week IPC unveiled the new Instyle UK website which has been in development from the start of this year and is IPC‘s first new website launch of 2007. Earlier in the year, Country Life’s website was relaunched.

The website was developed in partnership with Instyle US, and unlike all other IPC sites it uses Time Inc’s 6 year-old Vignette based CMS and tools. However it also uses IPC’s Symfony-based “CMS2″ technologies that were developed for Country Life.

I’ve not seen any comment or analysis in the press yet - they’re just reporting the launch as per the release.

This is the first IPC site to come out of my old department that I’ve not been heavily involved in, and I think they’ve done an excellent job - I believe it’s pretty much on budget and on time, and from a quick click around has well tested.
The site has much more of a celebrity focus than I’d have thought, with fashion constantly in the background - but that’s the way the US site has been moving recently as well. Previously it was much more product based. However the US site does still cover more products than the UK site, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until they build up the archive over here.

The launch is being supported by a paid-search campaign - which makes sense since they chose to launch with a brand new domain which would get sandboxed.  I noticed that one of the keywords they’re bidding on is [celebrity news], which I’d imagine is pretty competitive - and somewhere we’re going to want to push Now and Look as well.

If anybody spots any critics of the site, I’d be interested to see them. In the meantime, have a look yourself and feel free to comment below.

The Media Guardian reports that the Internet casts shadow over glossy trade, with comments from IPC’s CEO, Sylvia Auton; Neil Robinson, digital development director; and Eric Fuller, managing director of IPC Ignite.

Following the external annoucement last week, a few trade websites have covered my recent appointment as digital publisher:

• IPC Connect appoints digital expert - mad.co.uk
• IPC Connect appoints Paul Lomax as digital publisher - New Media Age
• IPC appoints Lomax to digital role at women’s titles - Brand Republic
• InStyle to launch in travel size - Media Week
• And last but not least: IPC Connect appoints Paul Lomax as digital publisher - FloridaBoating.com (!?)

Both New Media Age and Brand Republic appear to have mixed me up with Sarah Summers in this paragraph, which you will note did not appear in the press release:

Lomax will oversee “general strategy” across Pick Me Up, Chat, Now, Women’s Own and the newly launched Look, among others. Lomax’s first responsibility will be to oversee the roll out of Look’s website, which is still at soft launch stage.

I’m not overseeing “general strategy” nor is it my first responsibility to roll out Look’s website…

Oh, and the mad.co.uk report (which you can only see if you subscribe) gets the Look URL wrong - it’s Look.co.uk, not .com.

Time Inc is to cut almost 300 jobs as it restructures and prepares to expand its digital activities.  In all, 289 jobs are going including 172 on the editorial side (of Time Inc’s worldwide editorial staff of 3,300) and 117 on the business side, reports Brand Republic.

Progress brings change and we need to continue to evolve to meet the cost pressures and challenges presented by our rapidly shifting industry. While we continue to invest in our core magazines, we are also focused on transforming our workforce and broadening our digital capabilities in order to become a truly multi-platform publisher.
- Ann Moore, the chairwoman and chief executive of Time Inc

Hopefully it’s not going to create a ‘them and us’ feeling around Time. Personally I’m hugely in favour of integrated print and digital teams (except the technical teams which from experience has to sit more central). Let’s just hope nobody stands up in front of all the print editors at tells them that “print is dead” like our editorial director did back in 1999…

Meanwhile, IPC Media [my employer] appears to be recruiting “Online Editors”, but does not specify which brands you’ll be working for - you apparently have to specify on application… But make sure you can “demonstrate Web 2.0 skills”!

IPC CONNECT APPOINTS NEW DIGITAL PUBLISHER

The appointment of Paul Lomax as digital publisher for IPC Connect is announced today. Currently internet technology manager within CALMtech - the team responsible for designing, building and evolving many of our brand websites - Paul will take up his new role on Monday, January 8, reporting directly to managing director Evelyn Webster.

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We’re in the middle of a huge project at the moment, known as CMS2.0….  hence the lack of updates.

Plus Serendipity was annoying me - I’m hoping we shall “eat our own dogfood” with the release of CMS2.0-beta, and I might start blogging again to give it a run for its money.