Lester Middlehurst, one of the high-profile writers poached by Richard Desmond for Express Newspapers 18 months ago, has quit and is returning to Associated Newspapers on contract on 6 May.
Celebrity interviewer Middlehurst was one of a number of well-known journalists who went to the Express after being offered high salaries. But he left on 28 February after the company tried to renegotiate his staff contract to make him a freelance.
He said: “I was unhappy with that, so I opted for voluntary redundancy. I am now going back to the Daily Mail on a freelance basis, on a retainer. I shall be doing what I did before and hopefully as prolifically.”
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Middlehurst was at the Mail for 10 years before leaving for the Express and had worked for the Today newspaper before that.
“I want the luxury of working from home a little bit more and the benefits of being a freelance,” he said.
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