MW: Do you regret sticking your neck out on Search Engine Optimisation [Kelly believes that newspaper online offerings should rely less on SEO and more on journalism]? Do all Mirror executives agree with you?
MK: No regrets at all, although I've never been dogmatically anti-SEO. I've always just said we've got to remember the metric that matters is how much the users engage with your site, rather than the number of page impressions you can collect. I think that's a view that has become commonplace these days. I'm interested in building massive scale quality audiences, rather than massive scale rubbish audiences, because that's where the commercial value is.
MW: Which newspaper group, discounting the Mirror, has got the right digital strategy? Will anybody else follow Murdoch's paywall strategy?
MK: I'm sure they all make sense for the companies involved. Whether people follow Mr Murdoch, I have no idea, but I do know there must be a reconnection between reward and the investment in premium content newspapers publish online.
MW: What will you miss most about leaving national newspapers?
MK: Besides the constant office buzz, the seat-of-your-pants excitement when a story breaks, the electric pressure of deadline, the thrill of working alongside the smartest, most cynical, witty and fun people in journalism, and the inspirational leadership of editors like Richard Wallace and Piers Morgan? Nothing much.
MW: What is your biggest achievement at the Mirror?
MK: Leading the redesign of the newspaper in 2008, launching MirrorFootball and 3am.co.uk, running the Buckingham Palace Intruder investigation and Anton Antonowicz's brilliant reporting from the Gulf War were all good.
But getting the wonderful Christine Smith to interview Martin Amis was a highlight. Christine was a brilliant Mirror journalist, but not exactly famed for her Hemingway-esque copy. Her opening admission that she'd never read any of his books won an admiring "well, this is a very postmodern way to conduct an interview, I must say" from the great man of letters. It was a brilliant interview. She brought him right back down to earth in spectacular style and he loved it. The headline we ran was: "Britain's greatest living writer meets... Martin Amis."
MW: What will your new role at Perform involve?
MK: My role at Perform is managing director of Perform Publishing, a new division creating quality online products, leveraging the tremendous resources at Perform's disposal.
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