A “shake up” at the Daily Mail will see Melanie Philips step down as columnist for the paper after 12 years.
Former Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson starts a weekly column at the paper later this month and has been tipped by inside sources to take over Phillips' Monday slot of the op-ed page.
Lawson revealed last week that he is leaving The Independent as a columnist after seven years. But Press Gazette understands he will retain his Sunday Times column, which he has written since 2008.
Phillips announced in a blog this week that she would no longer be writing a weekly column for the Mail.
She said that the paper is keen for her to continue to have a “significant presence” by writing “other major pieces” but did not confirm that she would be taking up the offer.
“That’s certainly an option, although I have other plans for writing – and now, also, publishing,” she wrote.
“I am gratefully aware, though, from the many thousands of people who have written to me in passionate agreement over the years, that I have a very large following indeed amount Daily Mail readers.
“Many write to say I am the only reason they read the paper (it’s enough to turn a girl’s head!) Only today, I was stopped at a Tube station by a woman who said: ‘I love your articles; don’t ever stop writing them’.
“I can promise her, and all my many followers, that I shall indeed continue to write them. As for where – well, watch this space.”
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