Mason: search on for his successor
Dan Mason’s abrupt resignation as publisher and editor of the Birmingham Post has fuelled speculation that its owner, Trinity Mirror, is contemplating another attempt to combine the paper’s staff with that of the city’s Evening Mail.
The exercise has been tried twice before by previous owners and both times has been abandoned.
Speculation about possible redundancies followed news that a meeting of the Joint Business Council, involving union representatives, staff representatives and management at the Post & Mail, had been called for Wednesday afternoon this week.
A Trinity Mirror spokesman said that no such announcement was pending and that the search for a successor to Mason had already begun. Roger Borrell, Midlands editor-in-chief and editor of the Evening Mail, has assumed overall responsibility for the two daily titles in the interim.
Mason’s resignation was announced late in the afternoon on Thursday last week and he left the company immediately. It is understood that he disagreed with the company’s planned future direction for the Post.
The announcement is the latest in a number of changes being made at the Post & Mail. Assistant managing director Nicola Young is to leave the company in July to launch her own internet-based business in the autumn. She is not being replaced directly. Instead Joanne Elliott is joining as deputy managing director on 31 March. Previously with the Belfast Telegraph, Elliott became advertisement controller before moving to England as regional director of Trinity Mirror Digital in the North West.
She will report to Alistair Nee, managing director of Trinity Mirror’s titles in the Midlands.
By Andy Skinner
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