Media Headliner: Hayes relishes the challenge of NI's restructure.

The ad supremo in the NI top trio is committed to newspapers and ebullient about circulation moving up, Anne Cassidy says.

Paul Hayes hasn't a moment to himself these days. He's scarcely started his interview with Campaign before he's fished out of his office by James Murdoch, the head of News Corporation in Europe and Asia, and The Sunday Times editor, John Witherow, for a quick confab.

The parameters of Hayes' job have expanded dramatically. He's decamped from his position as the managing director of Times Media to become the managing director of commercial across the whole of News International, overseeing advertising sales for the The Sun, The News of the World, The Sunday Times and The Times.

He's at the epicentre of Mur- doch's reorganisation of NI, but his ebullient demeanour doesn't betray a hint of stress or fatigue. He's a veritable ray of optimism; unusual in a newspaper executive.

There's a positive outlook at NI, apparently, and it's ushering in a new era, one where the old combative relations between agencies and media owners are a distant memory and the humble print newspaper has as bright a future as its flashy online relative.

Hayes explains that the Murdoch empire is out to defy a general defeatist attitude around newspapers. 'James' attitude is the same as Rupert's. We just spent pounds 650 million on presses; that doesn't suggest that NewsCorp thinks newspapers are a dying medium,' Hayes says, adding: 'News Corp is not generally known to be altruistic. Rupert backs things he believes in.'

The investment in printing presses made possible a colour redesign of The Sunday Times (to launch on 6 July) and The Times, and now NI's management sees its own revamp. The younger Murdoch has moved to flatten the top structure, with the creation of three new senior roles.