The Daily Mirror is to merge its staff with those on the celebrity title OK! magazine in the latest move by the UK’s largest commercial news publisher to further cut costs.
The plan to combine staff across the newspaper, magazines and supplements, which are owned by Reach, was announced on Friday in an internal email to staff from the Mirror’s editor-in-chief, Caroline Waterston.
“Today I want to let you know that I’m planning to bring together our teams across the Mirror, magazines and supplements into one structure. I’m doing this to consolidate the significant experience and expertise we have, ultimately enabling us to get the most out of the fantastic journalism across both teams and drive better results for our brands,” Waterston said in the email to staff, seen by the Guardian.
“In particular, this move aims to support growth of the Mirror and sustainability of our magazines and supplements, including OK! magazine.”
The memo said the move would not result in a reduction of roles, adding that changes would be made to the leadership structure to better integrate the Mirror and the magazines team. Waterston encouraged staff to see the move as a “really exciting opportunity” to work together in new ways.
Waterston said on Saturday: “Our brands will remain completely distinct, as will many of our teams, for example, production, news and politics. These changes will mainly apply to showbiz and features teams and increase our competitive edge in getting big stories. Mirror readers love an entertainment exclusive and we’re banding together to get them more of what they love.”
Earlier this year, Reach, which owns more than 130 newspapers and websites across the UK, including the Mirror, the Daily Express and OK!, confirmed the departure by mutual agreement of Alison Phillips, a 26-year company veteran who was the Daily Mirror’s first female editor since it was founded in 1903.
Waterston, the editor-in-chief for the company’s magazines and supplements, including OK!, took the helm on an interim basis. The chief executive of Reach, Jim Mullen, said Waterson was “leading our magazines through a major digital shift”.
Reach cut about 650 roles in 2023, the biggest annual cull of jobs in the newspaper industry for decades. An announcement about cutting 450 of those jobs – almost a 10th of the workforce – led staff to call for Mullen’s resignation. The company, which owns titles such as the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo, said its digital revenues fell £21m in 2023 to £127.8m.
