New Sun on Sunday columnist Tony Parsons has said he left the Daily Mirror after 18 years because the paper is “dying”.
The novelist also said that he was a “better political fit” at the rebranded News UK title.
Parsons, whose first column will appear in the paper this weekend, said: “I left my old newspaper after 18 years and it’s not something that I did lightly. I joined The Sun because I wanted my journalism to have a future.
“As much as I love my old newspaper, I felt it was over. I felt it was dying.”
He continued: “I feel that I am a better political fit here than I was at the Mirror. My attitude towards the Royal Family, Europe, immigration were very much in tune with Mirror readers but out of step with the paper.”
Parsons added that he supported News UK’s decision to make all content across its websites paid-for and said other newspapers should follow suit if they wanted to survive.
“I don’t see how I can support my family if the people I work for keep giving away their product for free.
“I kept getting this large sum of money and my colleagues kept getting sacked. People were losing their jobs so they could keep me there; it just doesn’t add up.”
Sun editor David Dinsmore said that, besides his weekly column, Parsons would be used to report on “set piece” occasions, as he did for the Mirror as part of its Royal wedding coverage in 2011.
In his last Mirror column two weeks ago, Parsons said it had been a “privilege, a joy and an honour” to write for the paper.
He told readers: “I am going now but I wish nothing but the best to this great old newspaper, to my brilliant colleagues who remain and – above all – to you, dear, beloved Daily Mirror reader
“You see, I know you, and I have known you all my life.
“You are the family that raised me.
“You are the hearts who loved me.”
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