Top names topple as Sunday Mirror and People merge

By RICHARD DISMORE

More carnage at Reach, publisher of the Mirror and Express titles. I understand Nigel Nelson, the veteran Political Editor at the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People, has been given his marching orders.

Nelson, who can often be seen reviewing the papers on TV, joined the Mirror Group in 1986 and is said to be Fleet Street’s longest-serving Political Editor.

Also going, I am told, are Deputy Picture Editor Charlie Hall, who has spent almost 11 years with the group, and Phil Smith, the Deputy Art Editor, who has been there for nine years.

The sackings seem to follow the usual pattern of picking off those who have been on their papers for a long time and are presumably earning decent salaries.

All are casualties of the effective merging of the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People. This is the cunning plan by which the two papers share content apart from Pages 1, 4 and 5. So sub-editors work for one operation while Reach sells the Mirror and People as two newspapers.

January’s ABC figures, as reported in the Daily Drone, show that the Sunday Mirror is down 20 per cent year on year at 212,046; while the Sunday People is selling 75,521, having lost 23 per cent year on year.

The cull at Reach comes as Press Gazette reports that the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday are to be brought “much closer together”. It is part of the inexorable move towards digital news and will mean staff cuts on the papers.

“Some roles will be placed at risk of redundancy, while other staff may see a change in working pattern, job title, line manager, or duties,” Editor Ted Verity wrote in an e-mail to staff.

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