Martin Clarke, the editor of MailOnline, has announced he is leaving the website amid ongoing turmoil at the top of parent company DMG Media.
The journalist will step down after 13 years in charge of the outlet, having built it into one of the world’s biggest news websites. He took a small site that republished content from the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday print newspapers and turned it into an aggressive global tabloid with an enormous audience attracted by tales of celebrity and scandal.
News of his departure shocked staff at MailOnline, who only two weeks ago assumed that Clarke had emerged as one of the victors in an internal power struggle. The last month has seen the promotion of Clarke’s right-hand-man, Richard Caccappolo, to the position of chief executive of the wider media business, the departure of Daily Mail editor Geordie Greig, and the return of former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre in an advisory role.
In a statement Clarke said he was leaving “to pursue new challenges” but will “remain available to the company until the end of 2022”, meaning he is unable to join another publisher until that time.
There have been persistent rumours that Clarke had been approached by Rupert Murdoch to join his News UK outfit but multiple industry sources strongly denied this is on the cards.
Instead, one source claimed that – despite his large salary – Clarke had become increasingly ambitious and wanted to have a larger personal financial stake in any media business that he ran. This would never be possible at MailOnline, which is run by controlling shareholder Lord Rothermere, who is in the process of delisting the company from the stock market and returning it to family ownership.
In this telling, Clarke decided some time ago to leave the company in order to seek autonomy and a big financial payday – whether by running his own start-up media business or as part of a bigger tech company.
This left Rothermere believing he needed a strong editorial voice within the company, prompting him to retain the services of Dacre – who then publicly ruled himself out of the race to become chair of media regulator Ofcom. One source suggested this cascading chain of events – starting with Clarke’s resignation from MailOnline and the creation of a new role for Dacre – contributed to the decision to remove Greig as editor of the print Daily Mail.
The rapid series of changes has blindsided many executives at the company’s west London headquarters, where staff have also been dealing with a high-profile legal case against Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
The latest announcement comes just over a fortnight after changes at the Daily Mail appeared to point towards closer cooperation between the daily newspaper, its Sunday sister paper and the website. As part of the changes Ted Verity, the editor of the Mail On Sunday, was also put in charge of the daily newspaper.
Clarke will not be universally missed within MailOnline office, where he was known as a workaholic with a sharp temper. Even staff who respected his eye for a tabloid news story describe how he regularly shouted at staff. Many other employees who felt unable to keep up with the demands for a rapid turnaround of stories ended up leaving the outlet.
In response to Clarke’s exit, Rothermere said: “I have had to reluctantly accept Martin’s resignation as he is without doubt one of the greatest editors of his generation; and I am eternally grateful to him for all his immense hard work and genius over the years.
“The Daily Mail is great because of the hard work of many, not just the few. Martin leaves behind him a legacy of an impressive number of highly talented and committed people across the company who will continue to build upon what he has created and keep the Daily Mail a huge success across the globe.”
