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The new director will have direct responsibility for IPC’s central sales team and will replace Georgina Crace, who recently left to join former boss Sly Bailey at Trinity Mirror as the group’s regional newspapers’ managing director.

The job will include looking after longer-running magazine campaigns, key accounts with top-spending clients, magazine insert sales, the ad marketing department, and regional sales from its Manchester office.

IPC’s tx and Connect publishing divisions, which publish TV and women’s weekly titles respectively, including What’s On TV, TVTimes, Chat and Now, will also be directly answerable to the new director.

The soon-to-be-appointed boss will report directly to IPC Media’s chief executive Sylvia Auton, who announced the restructuring move yesterday.

The position is an entirely new one for IPC Advertising, and has been announced following IPC Advertising’s managing director Georgina Crace’s departure last month.

Crace officially moves to Trinity Mirror when she returns from maternity leave in February 2005, after eight years with IPC.

However, it is believed the company is not anxious to fill the post as the existing managerial roles have assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations since Crace announced her exit last month.

Candidates are being sought by an external executive headhunting company.

Auton also announced management restructurings for several of IPC’s advertising divisions.

Mark Reen, the group ad director of IPC’s fashion, home and women’s lifestyle imprint SouthBank, which publishes Marie Claire and Homes and Gardens magazine, will now report directly to SouthBank’s managing director Sandy Whetton.

Karl Marsden, the group ad director of IPC ignite! – which looks after Nuts, NME and Loaded in its music and men’s lifestyle stable – is now answerable to Tim Brooks, the division’s managing director.

The ad director responsible for classified sales, Cathy Neale, will now report to IPC’s Country & Leisure Media managing director, Paul, who already looks after his own division’s sales.

IPC says that its overall brand identity and strong advertising structure will remain unchanged following these developments.

Auton said: “The industry is demanding more innovation and more creativity in our ad offering.

This structure provides IPC with the perfect framework to build on the proven success and strength of IPC Advertising, while facilitating more tailored ad solutions for our clients and agency partners.”

By Martin Hemming