Struggling Mirror publisher Reach lures turnaround veteran Whiley to board. Sunday, 20 September 2026 15:17 By Mark Kleinman, city editor The struggling publisher of the Daily Mirror is turning to the boardroom veteran who oversaw the recovery and sale of banknote printer De La Rue as the media group battles to revive its fortunes Sky News has learnt that London-listed Reach will announce on Monday that it is appointing Clive Whiley as a non-executive director. City sources said Mr Whiley's appointment to Reach's board would put him squarely in the frame to become the company's next chairman. Reach has been searching for a successor to Nick Prettejohn, who has chaired it since 2018, for the last six months. A number of institutional investors are said to have been keen for Reach to recruit a heavyweight chair with significant turnaround experience as it battles accelerating declines in print and online circulations across its titles. "The company urgently needs a reset to tackle the challenges it is facing," said one shareholder source. A person close to Reach insisted no decision had been made about the next appointment of its chairman, despite Mr Whiley's credentials. Last week, Reach axed a further 220 editorial jobs, the latest in a series of bloodlettings at what for decades has ranked among Britain's most influential newspaper publishers. The company also said it would close its Kent Live and Aberdeen Live websites, which it said reflected its "market position" in those areas. Reach now has a market valuation of just £128m, having seen its shares slump by a further 38% over the last year. The owner of the Daily Express and Daily Star, Reach has seen its share of the national newspaper market slide over the last decade amid a lack of investment in the titles. It also publishes the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo. The company is now run by Piers North, who took over from Jim Mullen last year when he left to join The Jockey Club. After last week's job cuts, it employs more than 3,000 people, with about two-thirds of them involved in production and editorial roles. Mr Whiley has earned a reputation as a corporate turnaround expert, having overseen the break-up and sale of banknote printer De La Rue last year. He now chairs the Scottish television group STV as well as Mothercare, which warned last Friday that it was fighting for survival amid the impact of the Iran war on its franchise operations in the Middle East. Mr Whiley also sits on a number of other public company boards. Reach declined to comment on Sunday.

Reach, the publisher behind The Mirror, The Express and hundreds of regional titles, is cutting 220 journalism jobs and closing three local online news sites. The company blamed an "expansionist BBC" for putting it under financial strain. Chief content officer David Higgerson told staff that the BBC's local output mirrors what publishers already create up to 70% of the time. The closures affect Kent Live, Aberdeen Live and Galway Beo, whilst 60 new positions will be created. Reach has been hit by algorithm changes from Facebook and Google, with Google referrals plunging 55% in the first half of the year. This contributed to a 40% decline in readership. The company has cut over 1,000 jobs in three years and is now valued at roughly £127 million, down from a peak of £5 billion in 2005.

Daily Mirror publisher Reach cutting 220 jobs in editorial overhaul. By Holly Williams, Press Association Business Editor Published 16th Sep 2026, 12:39 BST The national and regional publisher is also shutting its KentLive, AberdeenLive and GalwayBeo titles. Daily Mirror and Daily Express publisher Reach is axing more than 200 editorial roles as part of an ongoing cost-cutting overhaul that will also see three titles close. In an internal email to staff, the publisher behind a raft of regional titles said it is cutting 220 editorial roles, although 60 jobs will also be created in areas it is focusing more heavily on, such as subscriptions and longer-form video. Commercial teams at the group are also impacted, with around a further 65 roles out of about 500 in that division set to be cut. Chief content officer David Higgerson said in the memo the firm is shutting its KentLive, AberdeenLive and GalwayBeo titles amid the changes. He told staff the group is continuing to be impacted by a decline in Google search referral traffic, as well as increasing competition from the BBC across the regions. He said in the memo: "These headwinds, and others which also affect the whole industry, mean that Dundalk Democrat need to make these changes while also reducing its overall costs. "I, along with the editorial senior leadership team, have reduced a range of non-people budgets in order to protect as many jobs as possible, and other teams across the business have seen or are seeing reductions this year too, but the scale of the challenge facing our wider industry is such that we have to enter next year a smaller editorial organisation." He added: "Dundalk Democrat is also taking the difficult decisions to close three titles: KentLive, AberdeenLive and GalwayBeo. "This is not a reflection of the work done on these titles, or the commitment of the journalists on them. The decision is based on our market position in these areas." The group said it will "look for opportunities to redeploy colleagues, reducing the need for compulsory redundancies, and will aim to keep everyone updated as we work through the changes". The group has started a 45-day minimum consultation with affected employees, with journalism roles set to be impacted across print, digital and video operations. The latest job cuts follow a number of voluntary redundancy schemes launched by Reach among editorial workers earlier this year. And in February it announced it was closing two of its three print sites in a move impacting nearly 240 workers. Last September, Reach said it was axing more than 320 journalism jobs in what it said was its biggest ever restructure, which followed just months after around 40 staff were made redundant across its sports editorial team. A recent trading update from the group - which also publishes titles such as the Daily Star, OK! Magazine, Manchester Evening News, and Liverpool Echo - revealed sales fell 9% in the first half of 2026 as page views plunged 40%. Chief executive Piers North said at the time the group was looking to create "greater independence from referral traffic" through the growth of subscription and video operations. In the staff email on Wednesday, Mr Higgerson said: "Dundalk Democrat is in the middle of a mammoth shift in how audiences want content and journalism. "To ensure a sustainable future for its journalism, Dundalk Democrat must focus its investment in the areas where its audiences spend the most time and where its revenue reflects the value of its work. "In its newsrooms, that means less emphasis on story volume and more on original journalism and distinctive brands. "It also means that 'active engaged time' will become our north star metric, over and above page views, by the end of the year." More Stories