Mail newspapers to axe 400 jobs

The owner of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday is axing 400 jobs as it battles against plunging advertising sales.

Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said the staff cuts were being made group-wide as part of an overhaul under new chief executive Paul Zwillenberg, who took over at the helm on June 1.

The group is also looking at closing some offices where it has a number of sites, such as in London and New York, to slash costs under the reorganisation.

It said many of the job cuts have already been made among its 10,000-strong workforce.

DMGT said the move comes in the face of “challenging market conditions” as underlying advertising revenues across its newspaper division have come under further pressure.

It saw dmg media under-lying ad revenues fall by 4% over the 11 months of its financial year so far, but worsen in the five weeks since August 21, tumbling by 10% as print advertising plunged by nearly a fifth.

DMGT, which employs around 10,000 staff, said the overhaul and planned job cuts would lead to a £50m (€57m) one-off charge in the financial year to the end of September.

Details of the job losses come amid reports of more cost-cutting plans at rival the Guardian’s American operation, where it is understood to be asking senior British staff to accept worse employment terms.

DMGT is being hit by ongoing steep declines in print advertising revenues, although MailOnline has been helping offset the impact, with ad sales up 18% in the first 11 months of its financial year.