The Press Association, which should at this point have properly translated to the online world its status as one of the few UK-wide newsgathering agencies, is making several appointment changes for what it calls the “integration of its multimedia operations and expansion of digital services”...

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—Tony Watson is upped from editor-in-chief to MD of the PA, tasked with “ensuring the business can maximize opportunities in the growing digital markets”.
—Editor Jonathan Grun gets a “wider, strategic brief”, though the new responsibilities of “meeting the changing requirements of media customers” and “safeguarding the quality” are a bit cryptic.
—Multimedia editor John Agnelli is hired to a new role of content head; it’s he who will oversee integration of text, photos, video and graphics
—Jim Grice takes the new role of video editor.

Meanwhile, Teilo Colley becomes newswire editor while Emily Shelley gets the new entertainment editor role, working across both print and online and working to introduce video to PA’s entertainment output.

The changes seem designed to put PA on a footing with ITN On. PA is delivering video to Newsquest websites but the TV agency has stolen a significant march on it in furnishing newspaper websites’ new appetite for video news and even bespoke multimedia productions. PA had already made the technology investment earlier this year, promising to become a multimedia agency with a new emphasis on video by year’s end. Exec chairman Paul Potts: “Their key objective is to continue our progress in the digital arena, ensuring that our content and technology solutions are market-leading.”