Daily Mail owner to slash 400 jobs amid pressure on print advertising

The owner of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday is axing 400 jobs as it battles against plunging advertising sales.

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said the staff cuts were being made group-wide as part of an overhaul under new chief executive Paul Zwillenberg.

The group is also looking at closing some offices where it has a number of sites, such as in London and New York, to slash costs under the reorganisation. It has said that the staff will be consolidated at a smaller number of locations.

It said many of the job cuts have already been made among its 10,000-strong workforce.

DMGT said the move comes in the face of “challenging market conditions” as underlying advertising revenues across its newspaper division have come under further pressure.

It saw DMG Media underlying ad revenues fall by 4 per cent over the 11 months of its financial year so far, but worsen in the five weeks since 21 August, tumbling by 10 per cent as print advertising plunged by nearly a fifth.

Zwillenberg, who took over from Martin Morgan on 1 June, is set to give more details on the overhaul and cost-cutting plans alongside full-year results.

Mail Online’s advertsing revenues in the eleven months were said to be up by £13 million (18 per cent), partly offsetting a decline of £20 million (13 per cent) in ad revenue at the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.

In the trading update DMGT said: “Given the challenging market conditions facing certain businesses within the portfolio, reorganisation initiatives are being implemented to protect their profitability.

“These initiatives will create a greater strategic focus and enable more effective decision making across the Group, with the aim of generating future benefits and opportunities for long-term growth.

“The reorganisation initiatives, which include headcount reductions, are expected to result in total cash-related exceptional operating costs in the current financial year of approximately £50 million, rather than the £15 million previously guided to in May 2016.

“Approximately £35 million of the expected costs directly relate to the reorganisation.”

Topics in this article : Daily Mail and General Trust