Daily Mail editor Geordie Greig has said hundreds of advertisers have “come back” to the paper since he took the reins from Paul Dacre a year ago.
Dacre edited the daily newspaper for 26 years before leaving in August 2018. He was often seen as a divisive figure over his fervently pro-Brexit editorial line and the paper’s stance on immigration under his leadership.
Some companies opted to stop advertising with the title as a result of its editorial decisions and pressure from campaign groups. But Dacre was also praised for his ability to resonate with the paper’s readers.
“I’m a very commercial editor,” Greig (pictured) told the Financial Times for the paper’s popular Lunch with the FT feature.
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He said 265 advertisers had come back to the Daily Mail under his editorship, including Nationwide, Talk Talk and oil giant BP.
Asked by the FT whether Britain would have voted for Brexit were it not for the Mail’s campaign urging the country to leave the European Union, Greig said: “We’ll never know. It was a very, very potent force.”
But he added: “I’m never one to look back. The paper is moving into a new era, and it will be judged on what we do.”
Greig dismissed as “very obscure” a 2017 poll that found only ten per cent of Britons think the Daily Mail is a positive influence. “I rest very easily in my bed knowing that the Mail is a force for good, ” he said.
The former Evening Standard and Tatler editor revealed the Mail is going to support Boris Johnson if an election is called, as is widely expected.
“After Brexit, I think Boris will seem quite a centrist figure,” he said.
The FT reported that the Mail would also back no deal rather than Remain if a second Brexit referendum was called.
Picture: Daily Mail
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