The editor of the Daily Mirror is to have overall editorial responsibility for Trinity Mirror’s regional news brands in a bid to create a “more streamlined structure.”

Lloyd Embley has been promoted to the role of group editor-in-chief in a senior management restructure announced yesterday.

Neil Benson, the group’s editorial director, regionals, will now report directly to Lloyd while the regional editors, who previously reported to their respective regional MDs, will report to Neil.

Other changes will see Brian Aitken, due to step down as editor of Newcastle daily The Journal, leaving the business altogether. Brian had been due to take on a business development role with the group.

Trinity Mirror says the new sttructure will “simplify the decision making process for the group’s senior journalists, promote the exchange of best working practises and accelerate the growth of digital audiences.”

Chief executive Simon Fox, said: “We are making rapid progress as we accelerate our digital growth and I am confident that this new organisation will enable our editorial teams to deliver great content across multiple platforms while our commercial teams can focus solely on delivering market beating revenue performance across print and digital.”

The new regional management structure will see Simon Edgley become MD in the Midlands, Paul O’Halloran in Manchester and Huddersfield, Carl Wood in Merseyside and North Wales and Alan Edmunds in Cardiff.

Russell Borthwick is leaving his role as North East regional MD along with Brian Aitken and financial director Brian Green, with new MDs for Newcastle, Middlesbrough and TM’s South East titles still to be appointed.

The company also announced that Paul Vickers is stepping down as a director and as company secretary with immediate effect.

The full text of the company statement is as follows:

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Trinity Mirror (TM) has today unveiled a new senior management structure in a move to create a more streamlined publishing operation.

The reorganisation is designed to benefit the group’s editorial output and commercial performance. There are a number of consequential organisational changes which result from this reorganisation including the departure of Paul Vickers, Company Secretary and Group Legal Director, the details of which have been announced separately.

Under the “One Trinity Mirror” vision, the changes will simplify the decision making process for the group’s senior journalists, promote the exchange of best working practises and accelerate the growth of digital audiences.

The new structure – which is summarised below – will also enable the commercial teams to fully focus on driving revenue across the TM portfolio by delivering market leading propositions to advertisers and clients.

Editorial

Lloyd Embley is promoted to the role of Group Editor-in-Chief and takes on editorial control of the national and regional news brands (with the exception of Media Scotland).

Neil Benson, Editorial Director, Regionals will now report to Lloyd, while all regional editorial teams will report directly to Neil.

Editorial Management

Neil Jagger, currently Group Newspaper Sales and Marketing Director, is appointed to the newly-created role of General Manager MGN. Neil retains his group newspaper sales accountability but takes on budgetary responsibility across the national news brands, including editorial management.

Aidan McGurran is appointed to the role of Managing Editor, MGN reporting to Neil. As a consequence Eugene Duffy will be leaving the business. Eugene started at the Daily Mirror as a casual reporter in 1986. Ten years later he was made News Editor and was in the hot seat for a raft of huge stories including the death of Diana, Dunblane, Omagh, Kosovo and the election of Tony Blair. After a spell as Associate Editor he was appointed Managing Editor in 2004. We are enormously grateful to him for his contribution to Trinity Mirror over this time.

Regional Commercial

Steve Anderson-Dixon is appointed to the new role of Regional Managing Director. The regional structure will move from three large regions to seven regional centres, each with a Managing Director reporting to Steve. The MDs will be responsible for the commercial performance of their centres

Russell Borthwick, Brian Aitken and Brian Green (all from the North East business) are also leaving the business as a result of this new structure and we thank them for their great contribution to Trinity Mirror.

Lloyd Embley, Allan Rennie, Steve Anderson-Dixon and Neil Jagger all have new reporting lines to Trinity Mirror Chief Executive Simon Fox, following the resignation of Mark Hollinshead who leaves the business next year.

Simon Fox said: “I’ve decided to put this new management team in place ahead of Mark’s departure so that we can benefit from his vast experience and ensure a smooth transition to this new structure.

“We are making rapid progress as we accelerate our digital growth and I am confident that this new organisation will enable our editorial teams to deliver great content across multiple platforms while our commercial teams can focus solely on delivering market beating revenue performance across print and digital.”