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The owner of the Daily Mail will make job cuts across the newspaper group after revealing plans to merge its print and online teams into a single seven-day operation.
Ted Verity, Daily Mail’s editor-in-chief, and Danny Groom, chief executive of parent company DMG Media, said in a memo to staff that the Mail on Sunday publication would also be more closely integrated into the newsroom, with other areas affected where there was duplication or other efficiencies to be made.
The plans would result in fewer than 100 jobs being cut, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, with a 30-day consultation period meaning that the decision could affect a maximum of 99 staff.
Confirming the plans, DMG Media said in a statement that “like every news organisation in the world, we have been continually reshaping our business to meet the challenges — and seize the opportunities — of the new digital world”. It added that “job losses are always deeply regrettable”.
DMG Media is the latest media group to reveal a strategic overhaul as it faces the need to shift from a traditional print operation to an online future in a challenging market for advertising revenues.
The Financial Times revealed plans by Sky News to move resources from its linear television operations to premium digital platforms. Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon also told the FT this week that trusted publishers faced a “shadow ban” from social media sites that were holding back the potential to make money from news online.
The MailOnline has a global audience of tens of millions while subscriptions to Mail+, which offers digital paid-for content, are about to hit 130,000 just a year after its launch. Mail+ is being launched in the US in the next few weeks.
Rival groups such as Reach, the UK’s largest regional news group, have also been forced into cutting hundreds of jobs. Staff at the Mirror, which is owned by Reach, have recently complained in a letter to the editor after being forced to accept minimum monthly page view targets of 250,000, 500,000 or 1mn, according to people close to the situation.
DMG Media said: “We firmly believe these latest changes — coupled with our long-term commitment to investing in journalism and razor-sharp focus on delivering for our audience — will position the Mail for an even brighter future.”
