BikeRadar and Cycling Plus publisher Future has brought in Andy Rice to head up sport, outdoor and auto, including the media company's huge cycling portfolio.
That cycling portfolio includes Cyclingnews, BikeRadar, Cycling Plus, Procycling, Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Triathlon Plus as well as multiple iPad iterations.
Starting in February, Rice will aim to develop Uk and global reach, engagement and commercial potential of the portfolio. Reporting directly to Future CEO Mark Wood, Rice will set and drive the next phase of strategic development for what is a key strategic portfolio within Future.
Previously, Rice was commercial MD of international sports content provider Press Association Sport, which handled delivering dedicated coverage of more than 40 sports worldwide. His career has spanned 25 years in the media, including senior management roles at Archant and SportBusiness International Group.
CEO Mark Wood said: “Andy brings a wealth of experience of sports content management to Future. He will help us drive forward our existing Sports and Auto portfolio and will lead the way in taking Future into entirely new sport verticals.”
Rice added: “PA Sport and Future’s recent collaboration illustrated to me the number of exciting opportunities which exist by combining Future's market-leading technology and digital marketing experience with unexploited content from various different sources. I look forward to working with the talented team at Future to continue to push the boundaries of digital publishing.”
Future said it has been a good year for its cycle brands. In the last year BikeRadar took its US operation into a higher gear, passing 2.5 million unique users monthly. Meanwhile Cyclingnews achieved record growth last year, now reaching over 2.9 million unique users per month. The firm added that Cyclingnews delivered three 3 million page views in a single day as Bradley Wiggins ruled the mountain stage of the Tour de France last summer, and has delivered over half a billion page views across 2012.
On the iPad side, Future launhed its first iPad-only weekly cycling brand – CyclingNews HD – in May.