New Trinity Mirror boss makes his mark with cost cutting push
TRINITY Mirror boss Simon Fox said yesterday he would streamline the newspaper firm’s operations, announcing a wave of cost-cutting measures after just over a month in the job.
Fox, who relinquished the reins at HMV in September to replace long-serving Trinity Mirror head Sly Bailey, said he would merge the national and regional newspaper operations, shake up the firm’s management, focus on digital publishing growth and get rid of daily deals service Happli.
The restructuring, announced to staff in an internal email yesterday, comes as the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror and People titles struggles with declining print circulation and advertising revenues.
“It has… become increasingly clear that we have a disconnect between what we all want and what our financial projections are showing,” Fox wrote yesterday. “What I have largely seen is a scattergun approach to digital which has neglected the development of our core newspaper brands.”
Fox said Georgina Harvey, who has run the regional newspaper division since 2005, would be let go, while nationals head Mark Hollinshead was promoted to chief operating officer.