Scottish publisher DC Thomson has appointed a new editor at its national newspaper The Sunday Post amid an ongoing restructuring of its newsrooms.
Jim Wilson, who has edited The Sunday Post since October 2019, is stepping down and will become contributing editor, a role in which he can also take on other ventures outside the company.
He follows Press & Journal editor Frank O’Donnell in leaving his editorship after the publisher’s digital transformation plan saw it put 100 of its 270 journalists at risk of redundancy last month.
Wilson will be succeeded by Dave Lord in the role of editor (national) at DC Thomson, which will see him take the helm at The Sunday Post as well as lead politics reporting at all of the publisher’s news titles, including the Press & Journal and The Courier.
Tom Miller, DC Thomson’s chief transformation officer, said: “Dave has a deep understanding of his audiences and how to best serve print and digital packages with an intelligent mix of humour, analysis, visualisation and news. His appointment puts The Sunday Post in a fantastic place to continue its reporting, investigations and tireless campaigning nationally while also becoming a part of our journey to grow digital subscription revenues.”
Like other newspapers, The Sunday Post has suffered print decline going from a circulation of 123,196 in February 2018 to 44,036 – a drop of 64%.
Its sister newspapers the Press & Journal and Courier have surpassed 28,000 digital subscribers in their mission to reach 75,000 by 2025. But despite this success, the publisher told staff last month it needs to fill a £10m gap in its finances, with redundancies necessary “to set us up to thrive in the future and to respond to the difficult economic environment we are in”.
Lord has worked at DC Thomson for more than 20 years, including as chief reporter, news editor and deputy editor of The Courier and most recently editor of the Evening Telegraph. He said he plans to “build upon the brand’s amazing heritage while ensuring it remains at the cutting edge of UK journalism”.
Lord said: “Over the last two years I have been heavily involved in DC Thomson’s digital transformation and have learnt so much. In my many years in various editorial management roles I have built extensive experience and expertise in delivering content that really benefits audiences and that is something I am keen to further develop in this new role.
“It is also an honour to be at the forefront of delivering the very best politics coverage to DC Thomson audiences across all our news brands.
“Our politics reporters already produce an astonishing array of quality content, from podcasts to regular exclusives. I look forward to helping us build on that, to ensure we really deliver the kind of content that not only informs our audiences, but also engages and entertains them in meaningful, relevant and innovative ways.”
DC Thomson has also appointed Jayne Savva as editor (features) with responsibility over all features content across the publisher’s news content in print and digital.
Savva joined The Sunday Post as features editor in 2018 and has been deputy editor (features) since November 2019. She has previously worked as features editor at Best magazine and deputy features editor at the Daily Record.
Savva said: “It is exciting to see features placed front and centre of the future vision of our news brands. I see this as a valuable opportunity to build a creative and collaborative team, who can work together to produce journalism that will inspire, inform and delight our audiences.”
Miller said: “Jayne will be supported by a team that spans Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, and be key in leading a creative and inspired team of writers that can push boundaries and delight our readers with features that are challenging, entertaining and set us apart from our competition.”
Craig Walker took up the new role of editor for Aberdeen and the North covering the Press & Journal and Evening Express following O’Donnell’s departure at the end of February. He was previously editor of the Evening Express and managing editor for Aberdeen.
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