Tim Brooks, managing director of Guardian News & Media, is to leave the publisher after parent company Guardian Media Group made his post redundant.
Brooks, who joined from magazine publisher IPC Media in 2006, will leave GNM at the end of next month.
GMG issued a statement this morning saying Brooks’ departure came as part of the ongoing reshaping of senior roles which included the rationalisation of the management structure of GMG and GNM.
The move follows GMG’s decision revealed last November to distance the GNM nationals division from the rest of the media assets in the group. Under the plan from GMG chief executive Andrew Miller, non GNM assets are to be treated as arms-length investments. This means that all GMG’s management and operational focus will be on GNM.
Commercial members of the GNM executive committee will now report directly to GMG chief executive Andrew Miller.
Miller said: ‘On behalf of the GMG board I would like to thank Tim for everything he has done for GNM and the wider group over the last four and a half years.
‘He has been a passionate and dedicated servant of the company and its journalism, he has played a crucial role in the Guardian’s ongoing digital transformation, and he has led the business with great integrity at a time of significant change and sometimes difficult choices.
‘He leaves GNM with our best wishes for the future.’
Brooks, who is also a member of the GMG board, was paid a total of £330,000 last year, including a £64,000 bonus.
Over the last two years he has presided over cost-cutting at Guardian News and Media as it has sought to curb operating losses which totalled £37.8m for the year to March 2010, and £33.7m the previous year.
Press Gazette undestands that around 270 jobs have been cut at GNM since June 2009 and that the majority of these were commercial positions. At least 100 editorial jobs have been cut over the last three years. There is no redundancy programme currently active at GNM.
Brooks said: “The best aspect of my work here has not been husbanding two of the finest news brands in the world; it has been the chance to work daily with the extraordinarily gifted and committed people of GNM.
‘I will miss that greatly, and continue to consume their output with familial pride.”
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