Gary Jones, the editor of the Daily and Sunday Express, has become the latest casualty of the owner of the Mirror and Express newspapers’ cull of staff and senior management.
The departure of Jones, the lifelong Labour-supporting, remain-voting ex-Sunday Mirror editor, follows that of senior editorial executives including the Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips and the group editor-in-chief Lloyd Embley.
Jones was appointed to edit the title in March 2018 after the £200m deal by its parent company, Reach, to buy the Express and Star titles from Richard Desmond, who donated £1m to Ukip in 2015 to help the party’s general election campaign. He has sought to shift the tone of the tabloid over the past six years.
However, Reach, the listed media group that also owns the Mirror, the Sunday People and hundreds of local titles including the Manchester Evening News and Birmingham Post, has undertaken the biggest annual reduction in jobs in the newspaper industry for decades, axing 800 roles in the past year to cut costs.
Three sources told the Guardian that Jones has left the Express, while a spokesperson for Reach would not confirm that he was still employed as editor of the title. Jones did not respond to a request for comment.
Jim Mullen, the chief executive of Reach, said recently that its print titles could become loss-making within five years and the group was relying on a digital-first strategy for survival.
However, the publisher’s digital strategy has faltered, declining by £21m year on year to £127.8m last year.
In July, Reach reported that digital income rose 6.7% in the second quarter, compared with a decline of 8.5% in the first quarter, which it attributed to “strong multiplatform content” and increased digital advertising around events including Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, Euro 2024 and the general election.
