Incoming Sun editor David Dinsmore has spoken of the "emotional toll" of the ongoing police investigation into the paper and its journalists.
In a memo to staff on his first day after taking over from Dominic Mohan the former Scottish Sun editor said he would stand behind those caught up in police probes over phone-hacking and illegal payments to officials.
Since 2011, around 20 reporters have been arrested under operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta
Dinsmore will address staff at The Sun’s Wapping HQ at 4pm this afternoon.
In the memo, he said: “I wanted to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome on my return to The Sun this morning.
“We are in challenging but exciting times and every one of us will have a vital role to play.
“It is 40 days until we start charging for all of our digital content and roll out our Print+ initiative, linking paper sales with digital access. This will require a lot of careful thought and planning to make sure we hit the ground running.
“We will continue to support everyone who is caught up in the ongoing police investigations – and I am well aware of the emotional toll this takes on many of you.
“It is also essential that we keep thinking about the future of The Sun and how we reach our millions of readers. I have ideas – but I know that you will have many more. Over the coming days and weeks I plan to speak to as many of you as possible to help us take the right direction.
“We have a massive opportunity in front of us – but it is also going to take a huge effort from every one of us to realise that opportunity.”
Dinsmore was editor of The Sun’s Scottish edition from 2006-2010 before becoming general manager of Scottish operations.
He replaced Mohan, who had been with the paper for 17 years, following last Friday’s shock announcement. Mohan has left to become News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson’s senior advisor.
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