Trinity Mirror ‘streamlines’ its Southern management

Graham Allen: axed

Trinity Mirror has imposed a new “streamlined” management structure at its Southern newspapers division, which has seen the axing of Yellow Advertiser editor Graham Allen.

The ten YA free weekly titles in Essex will now have no direct editor-in-chief but instead report to a group senior editor-in-chief.

The reshuffle follows news last week that 47 journalism jobs are being cut from the 380 currently employed at Trinity Mirror Southern’s 70-odd local newspapers.

The latest changes are the latest in a wave of cutbacks across the Trinity Mirror empire over the past 18 months as part of chief executive Sly Bailey’s bid to drive up profitability.

Seven centres, each with their own editors-in-chief, have been reduced to a system whereby the various papers are overseen by three senior editors-in -chief with three editors-in-chief under them.

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West London and Bucks, Yellow Advertiser and North London and Herts Newspapers will now be overseen by Adrian Seal, with Simon Jones underneath him. Seal was editor-in-chief of the West London and Bucks titles and Jones remains in charge of the North London and Herts papers.

East Sussex and Surrey Newspapers editor-in-chief Ian Carter is now also in charge of the South London Press whose editor, Hannah Walker, is now under him as editor-in-chief.

And former Berkshire Regional Newspapers’ editor-in-chief Anthony Longden is now in charge of the North Surrey and London titles as senior editor-in-chief. Editor-in-chief Kim Chapman reports to him .

According to Trinity Mirror: “The new structure creates a more streamlined and effective management team at TMS.” The changes are said to have followed a review which concluded “the current structure of editors-inchief in each of the seven centres under review should be changed, due to widely varying numbers of staff and titles in each centre”.

By Dominic Ponsford