The Guardian is to lose several prominent editorial staffers as it closes the voluntary redundancy round it opened in May.
Among those confirmed to have accepted redundancy packages are media editor Jim Waterson and special projects editor Jonathan Shainin.
Update: After this story was first published on 26 July, wealth correspondent Rupert Neate also confirmed to Press Gazette he has taken voluntary redundancy.
Press Gazette understands UK technology editor Alex Hern has also accepted the offer.
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It is unclear how many staff in total are departing.
Guardian News and Media had been aiming for cost savings of between four and five percent this year after advertising and supporter revenue both came in below budget for the 2023/24 financial year.
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[Read more: Guardian to make ‘small number of voluntary redundancies’ amid ad recession]
Jim Waterson, Jonathan Shainin and Alex Hern among departures from The Guardian
Waterson, who joined the newspaper from Buzzfeed in 2018, is not leaving the publisher immediately.
He told Press Gazette: “Working at the Guardian was my dream job and I’ve felt very lucky to spend the last six years with brilliant colleagues at an organisation that values and invests in proper journalism.
“It’s an exciting time in the media and this felt like the right time to take a leap. I’m looking forward to what comes next. More on that soon.”
Shainin, who was previously a fact-checker and later the online news editor at The New Yorker, is perhaps most famous for having launched The Guardian’s Long Reads format under previous editor Alan Rusbridger.
He has since served as the outlet’s opinion editor and, most recently, its special projects editor. His last day is on Monday.
Sam Knight, a journalist who wrote some of the most famous Guardian Long Reads on subjects including the UK’s relationship with sandwiches and what would happen when the Queen died, told Press Gazette Shainin was “a visionary editor who, in my view anyway, changed the sense of what is possible in British newspaper reporting.
“The Long Read was a game changer for a generation of writers like me. I can’t wait to see what he does next.”
Neate tweeted: “After 13 years, and some really wonderful experiences I am leaving the Guardian.” He said he is planning to go freelance.
Hern, a previous winner of a technology journalist of the year award, has been the title’s UK technology editor since 2019.
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