Press Gazette has tracked Reach editorial departures announced on social media during an ongoing restructure which saw 600 journalists put at risk of redundancy across its national and regional titles in September.
The company planned a net cut of 186 editorial roles, with 321 to be made redundant and 135 roles created.
Press Gazette understands that the final net reduction of staff is expected to be less than the expected 186 but that the process is still ongoing.
Senior editorial staff have been hard hit by the cutbacks with 43 people in senior or editor roles among 55 announced departures confirmed by Press Gazette.
New hires are expected for a central team being created to cover general news, including breaking news, events and diary stories, across the UK and Ireland. The network will feed news coverage into Reach’s national and regional brands, which include the Mirror, Express, Daily Star, Daily Record, Liverpool Echo and dozens of regional ‘Live’ sites.
Press Gazette has found 63 examples of editorial staff announcing they have either been made redundant or left amid cuts, including eight who have moved into new roles within Reach.
Editors appeared to be those most impacted across senior roles, with 31 revealing they have left the business.
At the time of the redundancy announcement, chief content officer David Higgerson said: “For our editorial teams, we will need to adopt a different way of working from top to bottom, as we match our resources to our ambitions. It will mean that some jobs will sadly no longer exist, many will change, and around 135 new roles will be created, many in our live news network and video teams.”
However, three video journalists are among those announcing their departure from Reach. A number of staff at the Reach central video team were put at risk of redundancy.
Reach has also made deep cuts to print production – with the Mirror and Express titles set to share some pages for the first time.
Former Reach Scotland editor-in-chief David Dick is now head of print (nationals) and, under him, the design, production and subbing teams for the English and Scottish nationals are being brought together.
An Express staff email newsletter announced on Friday that the title was saying goodbye to “half of the print production team”.
“Yesterday as mentioned above we said goodbye to half of the print production team as the paper moves to a new way of working. In future there will be a combined subs’ team working on both the Express and the Mirror. We will also be sharing a certain number of pages a day across both titles. I’m sure you will join me in wishing our former colleagues good luck in what will be a difficult time for many of them.”
[Read more: Express editor-in-chief moves into wider role in Reach leadership reshuffle]
On cutting print production staff, Chris Morley, NUJ national Reach coordinator, told Press Gazette Reach has “sought to cut around 70 print production staff in the UK nationals and eight print production staff in Ireland – including over 50 sub-editors whose job is to preserve standards of accuracy and clarity”, despite “making most of its revenue from print”.
He added: “Jettisoning specialist writers will result in a poorer product for readers as the company uses artificial intelligence to duplicate content across different national and regional publications.
“The NUJ continues to urge Reach to consider sustainable approaches to protect the company’s public interest journalism.”
Morley also said the cuts will “jeopardise quality journalism and blur the distinction between different titles”.
Reach had an average of 2587 production and editorial staff in 2024, down from 2994 in 2023.
Roles cut include health editor for Wales Online (previously held by Lydia Royce) and BusinessLive’s (and connected titles) West Midlands business reporter, formerly carried out by Tamlyn Jones.
Long-serving staffers hit by cuts
Hundreds of years of experience will be leaving Reach as a result of the cuts.
Stuart Gillespie, journalist for The Galloway News, shared on Linkedin: “After nearly 20 years, today is my final day at The Galloway News and the Dumfries and Galloway Standard as I’m taking voluntary redundancy from Reach Plc.
“I came here in 2007 with the aim of getting a few years of experience under my belt before moving on to the next stage in my career. Things didn’t quite work out like that!
“I’m nervous but mainly excited to see what the future holds.”
Lee Wilmost, head of Football.London for Reach, joined the company in 2005 – “my entire working life”, he shared.
“I am sad to be leaving, but it is the right time. I don’t know what comes next, Reach has been my life, but it is time for a change, time for something different and I am excited for what the future holds.”
Sports reporter Andrew McGilvray announced his departure from Lanarkshire Live after almost 30 years with Reach – he previously wrote for Hamilton Advertiser.
Christina Savvas, executive editor of the central distribution hub, spent almost 18 years at Reach before leaving her role in October. However, this is not confirmed to be a redundancy.
Sport has also been significantly affected, with ten sports roles announced as redundant on social media. Six of these were included in senior cuts.
This follows an announcement in July about the creation of one Reach sports hub by merging many of its national and regional teams with about 40 redundancies (down from an earlier estimate of 50).
New roles are expected within Reach’s content hub, which was created last year and saw about 300 journalists move into a central team aimed at creating traffic-driving content about verticals like trends, wellbeing, screen time and money. The hub is now expanding to also cover travel and gaming.
Jess Flaherty – who became a senior journalist for the social newsdesk as part of Reach’s central hub last summer – was among those to announce her departure on Linkedin. She has only confirmed she is at risk.
She said: “The team is lovely, talented and supportive. A genuinely good bunch of people.
“I’ve always tried to go above and beyond, doing whatever the company may need while continuing to learn, grow and develop my journalism skills as best as possible. I’ve made friends for life at Reach and, to be honest, I’m absolutely devastated it could all be coming to an end. I don’t want any of this…
“To my fellow Reach colleagues in the same boat, I’m sorry we’re all in this situation. It’s deeply unpleasant, anxiety-inducing and stressful. We don’t deserve it.”
Reach response
A Reach spokesperson said: “While we wouldn’t comment on individual redundancy outcomes, we would flag that a social media tally is unlikely to be wholly accurate.
“We are however able to confirm that we have been able to reduce our original number of proposed redundancies significantly, by redeploying over 100 people at risk to other roles in the business, supporting our ambitions in areas including video, digital subscriptions and the Live News Network.”
Reach has previously made bigger rounds of redundancies – including 450 in November 2023 and around 700 that year in total. But this restructure is reportedly a more fundamental change in the way the editorial teams across nationals and regionals are structured.
Press Gazette understands restructuring has also taken place between June and August in non-editorial teams like commercial, HR and other central functions.
Press Gazette has collated a table of those known to have either been laid off by Reach or placed at risk of redundancy. If you know of someone who should be added to this list or relevant updates, email alice.brooker@pressgazette.co.uk.
Reach redundancies announced on social media / left amid redundancies
Senior roles
Nada Farhoud, environment editor at the Daily Mirror.
Pandora Forsyth, head of social at Daily Express. Previously central editor (distribution) for Reach and assistant head of social and present for Mirror.
Leo Edworthy, engagement editor at Mirror. Almost ten years with Reach, previously newsletter lead and social media editor.
Zoe Delaney, assistant entertainment editor at Mirror. Four years with the Mirror after joining as reporter in 2021.
Tommy Wathen, sports social media editor at Mirror. Almost nine years with Reach, previously engagement producer.
Lee Wilmot, editor/head of audience at Football.London. Almost 20 years with Reach, including a role at the Mirror for eight years.
Megan Archer-Fox, What’s On editor at Reach. Four years with Reach, moving to freelance.
Zasha Whiteway-Wilkinson, overnight editor at Reach. Seven years with Reach.
Mia Jockins, engagement editor. Previously at the Mirror and Liverpool Echo.
Peter Walker, editor for Scottish Business Insider. Five years running Insider.co.uk website.
Joe Rimmer, head of sport, Liverpool Echo. More than 11 years at Liverpool Echo.
Amy Browne, deputy registered audience editor at the Mirror. Almost three years at Mirror, previously nine years at Liverpool Echo.
Keifer MacDonald, senior journalist at Liverpool Echo. Four years at Liverpool Echo.
Jane Warren, senior feature writer at Daily Express. Thirty-four years at Express.
Alan Galindo, sports editor at Reach. More than three years at Reach.
Harry Rutter, audience editor at the Mirror. Previously senior reporter and engagement editor, three years at the Mirror.
Ann Gripper, head of audience development. More than 20 years with Reach.
Beth Harwood, senior commercial writer at Reach for four years.
Christina Savvas, executive editor. Seventeen years with Reach.
Tamlyn Jones, Midlands business editor. More than 11 years with Reach.
Tom Doyle, network engagement editor (sports) at Reach for four years.
Aaron Stokes, Newcastle United editor, previously assistant sports editor. Left in August but post cites “structural changes”.
Marco Giannangeli, defence editor/diplomatic editor at Sunday Express for nine years.
Lydia Royce, health editor at Wales Online for almost three years. Not returning after maternity leave.
Emilie McMahon, senior video journalist, at Reach for almost three years.
Naomi Desouza, senior reporter at Birmingham Live/The Birmingham Mail. Previously at Coventry Live. More than six years with Reach.
Adam Aspinall, south west correspondent (senior reporter) at the Mirror, 13 years with the publisher
Nic Brook, art editor at the Mirror
Jenny Green, assistant chief sub-editor at the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. With Reach more than five years.
Katherine Derbyshire, deputy chief sub editor at the Mirror.
Matt Roper, senior features writer at the Mirror. More than six years with publisher.
Chris Eary, night editor at the Mirror, formerly deputy night editor at Daily Express.
Robin Porter, news sub-editor at the Mirror for 12 years. Also employed at Mirror between 1988-2010.
Savvas Eleftheriades, night editor at Sunday Mirror for more than 24 years.
Martin Fricker, senior reporter/news editor at the Mirror/Reach, at Reach for 20 years.
Matthew Young, senior reporter at the Mirror for nine years.
Karin Wright, chief sub-editor at the Sunday Mirror/Sunday People, at Reach for 21 years
Mickey Burke, sub-editor for Mirror.
Jessica Boulton, contributing editor of the Mirror and Sunday Mirror, as well as other Reach titles.
Chris Lucock, sub-editor at Sunday Mirror.
Dean Aldridge, news sub-editor at the Mirror for more than 16 years.
Andy Reed, sub-editor at the Mirror for more than six years.
Sean Garnett, sub-editor at the Mirror.
Other announced Reach editorial departures
Four in Daybreakers/Night Owl team, including two that have been offered new roles with Reach. This team produces content for Reach’s Live network of regional websites from 6am until midnight.
Joseph Kime, news writer for Mirror Gaming / All Out Gaming at Reach. Over one year with Reach.
Iona Young, reporter at Reach for four years.
Catherine Shuttleworth, trends and newsletter writer. Less than a year at Reach.
Ewan Gleadow, social newsdesk reporter. More than three years with Reach.
Danni King, reporter – Screen Time. Previously digital reporter, more than a year with Reach.
Tom C, football writer. Previously central audience writer and US audience football writer. Three years with Reach.
Thomas Munns, site & social media video journalist. Nine years with Reach.
Stuart Gillespie, journalist at The Galloway News. More than 18 years with Reach.
Andrew McGilvray, sports reporter at Lanarkshire Live. Previously at Hamilton Advertiser, 27 years with Reach.
Redeployments within Reach announced on social media
Rob Currell, general audience unit at Reach. Moved to Belfast Live as news reporter.
Daniel J McLaughlin, podcast editor at Reach. Moved to new podcast and series editor for Reach.
Chloe Phillips, video editor at Reach. Moved to engagement producer in social content monetisation team.
Zoe Bruce, engagement producer at Reach. Moved to monetisation engagement producer.
Kirstie McCrum, Daybreakers/Night Owl. Moved to deputy head of news.
Abigail N, Daybreakers/Night Owl. Moved to content editor on social news desk.
Lydia G, senior video journalist. Moved to video editor for London and South East at Reach.
Thomas Lynch, social media video lead. Secured an unknown new role.
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