Simon Fox, the chief executive of the company that owns the Mirror, Express and Star newspapers, is to step down and will be replaced by the former Ladbrokes Coral boss Jim Mullen.
Fox has led Reach, the national and regional newspaper group formerly known as Trinity Mirror, since 2012, joining after he abruptly resigned as chief executive of HMV. Fox will leave Reach on 16 August.
He will be replaced by Mullen, who left Ladbrokes Coral last year after its £4bn takeover by GVC and has previously held roles including digital strategy director at News UK, owner of the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.
“I am delighted to be joining Reach at such an exciting time and look forward to building upon its digital transformation,” said Mullen.
Under Fox, Reach’s share price has almost tripled as the business has made a series of acquisitions to build scale as the newspaper market has struggled from declining sales of printed copies and the shift of digital advertising spend to Silicon Valley giants Google and Facebook.
Last year, Reach paid £200m to acquire Richard Desmond’s media assets including the Express and Star, as well as celebrity magazine OK!. The company, which is the UK’s largest regional newspaper group, bought Local World, a group of more than 80 regional newspapers, for £220m in 2015. Fox’s biggest strategic gaffe was the launch of national newspaper the New Day, which was shut after just two months.
“There is never an ideal time to leave an organisation, but if there were it would be now,” said Fox. “The integration of the Express and Star has been successfully completed, digital growth is accelerating and our trading and cash position are strong.”
Reach said it made a pretax profit of £58m in the first half of the year, compared with a £114m loss in the same period last year. Total revenues fell 6.3% on a like-for-like basis to £352m, as advertising income fell 21%.
“I am pleased with our robust performance in the first half of the year and with the strengthening of our digital audience and revenue growth in quarter two,” said Fox. “We remain focused on cost and cash management.”
Earlier this month, Reach confirmed it was in discussions to acquire some of the titles owned by JPI Media, which publishes the i as well as local and regional newspapers including the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post.