Alison Phillips will be leaving her role as editor of the Daily Mirror at the end of the month amid massive job and budget cuts throughout the tabloid’s parent company, the Guardian understands.
Phillips, 53, has accepted voluntary redundancy as Reach – owner of the Mirror, Express and scores of local newspapers – pushes through the biggest annual loss of jobs in the UK newspaper industry for decades.
A source at the Mirror said Phillips was “universally loved and respected by staff for her leadership and kindness”. They added: “She has ensured the Mirror remains the powerful voice it is for the decent, compassionate people of Britain because she herself is decent and compassionate.
“While there are some great journalists left at the Mirror, many fear that without Alison at the helm, it’s the end for the UK’s only left-leaning tabloid. Everyone is gutted for Alison, who has worked very hard for the brand and her staff amid some terrible calls from above.”
Phillips has led the Mirror since 2018, when she took over the post from Peter Willis to become the paper’s first female editor since 1903. She was formerly editor of short-lived newspaper the New Day, another venture of Reach, which was then called Trinity Mirror. She was named columnist of the year by the National Press Awards in 2018 for her Wednesday column in the Mirror.
Phillips did not immediately return requests for comment.
Roy Greenslade, the ex-Daily Mirror editor and former Guardian columnist, posted on X that Phillips was a “fine editor” and said the development was “such bad news for the Daily Mirror.” He added that Reach was “facing an existential crisis”.
The departure of Phillips, first reported by the Daily Drone, came just months after Reach announced plans to cut about 450 jobs – almost a tenth of its entire workforce – in an effort to trim operating costs by 5% to 6% in 2024.
Over the past year, Reach has culled almost 800 roles in total – the biggest annual loss of jobs in the UK newspaper industry for decades. The company had already cut costs by 6% over the past year, with a reduction of 200 roles in a £30m cost-cutting drive after a slump in the digital and print newspaper advertising market.
The value of Reach has slumped 30% over the last year as large social media platforms, most notably Facebook, deprioritised news, hurting the company’s digital revenue strategy. The company reported in its third quarter trading update a 13.7% drop in digital revenue, with online page views slumping by 21% year-on-year in the first nine months. Meanwhile, with income from newspaper sales and advertising also continuing to decline, total print revenues fell by 6%.
Jim Mullen, the chief executive of the company, has not ruled out further cuts, telling staff in November that the company must “set ourselves up to win” in an “increasingly fast-paced, competitive and customer-focused digital world.”
“Our industry has a history of change and the future will undoubtedly involve yet more,” added Mullen.
In July 2020, Reach cut 550 staff, about 12% of its workforce at the time, in response to the Covid pandemic.
As the UK’s largest commercial news publisher, Reach’s titles include the Daily Star, the Daily Record, the Manchester Evening News, the Liverpool Echo and the Live network of local news websites.
