Colman Murray appointed Global Brand Director of AFP-Relaxnews

The service will register turnover of 1.5 million euros in 2011 (up from 0.5 million in 2010). Among its 55 major clients in 25 countries are portals (Yahoo on three continents and MSN in Quebec and South East Asia), e-commerce groups (Redcats for their mobile, social media and websites), TV (France 24), blogs (Luxuo), magazines (The Week in India), daily newspapers (The Independent), radio (South African Broadcasting Corporation) and websites (RTLinfo.be, Newscorp in Australia).

As a result of this success, Relaxnews won the international digital innovation prize 2010 awarded by UbiFrance and the IE-Club and was selected as one of the 15 most innovative French SME, to take part in the Tech Tour 2010 in Silicon Valley.

Dublin-born Murray is a media specialist. He was Publisher for Time Inc titles in Europe, Middle East and Africa for 10 years. Later he published his own magazine on the fashion industry, OBJEKT, currently printed in 7 languages and with a circulation of 200,000. He moved to South Africa in 2005, buying Hot Mustard Publishing, which specialised in music and leisure magazines, before joining AFP in 2007. Murray will keep his current post as AFP's Director for Sales and Marketing in Africa.

"The success of the AFP-Relaxnews service proves that innovation and audacity are still paying off. We rely on the talent of Colman Murray, in association with our teams, to further strengthen the very positive trends of recent months and consolidate our position as world leader in leisure and lifestyle news," AFP Sales and Marketing Group Director Erik Monjalous and Relaxnews co-CEOs Jérôme & Pierre Doncieux said in a joint statement.