A News Corp director will replace Nine’s Chris Janz as chair of newsmedia promotion group ThinkNewsBrands.

Janz – who announced his departure from Nine last month – will be succeeded by Nicholas Gray, who is managing director of The Australian in NSW and News Corp Australia’s prestige titles.

A longstanding member of ThinkNewsBrands, and former chief executive of The Australian, Gray's CV includes roles at Nine and Lion Co, plus a range of non-executive director positions. (He is pictured left)

Joing the group is James Chessell (pictured right), who was appointed Nine’s managing director – publishing following Janz’s departure.

Gray thanked Janz for his contribution as inaugural chair. “During his tenure, we appointed general manager Vanessa Lyons, migrated measurement of news readership to Roy Morgan and delivered important research,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with my fellow board members and the ThinkNewsBrands team to continue this great work.”

News Corp Australian, Nine and Seven West Media are the “stakeholders” of ThinkNewsBrands.