Reach, the publisher behind the Daily Mirror and several major British news titles, plans to cut 220 editorial jobs and close three online-only brands. The changes were announced on 16 September 2026 as the company responds to falling traffic, weaker digital revenue and wider pressure across the news industry.
The closures will affect KentLive, AberdeenLive and GalwayBeo. Reach owns the Daily Mirror, Express, Daily Star, Daily Record, Manchester Evening News, Birmingham Mail and Liverpool Echo, so the planned changes reach across both national and regional journalism.
A smaller newsroom with a different focus
Reach employed an average of 3,423 staff at the end of its latest financial year, including 2,494 editorial and production employees. Cutting 220 editorial jobs would reduce the size of the newsroom operation, even as the company creates about 60 new editorial roles in areas it expects to support digital revenue growth.
Those new positions will focus on subscriptions and longer-form video. That points to a change in what Reach wants its journalism to achieve online: fewer pieces produced for volume alone, and more work designed to keep audiences engaged or persuade them to pay.
Reach is also changing the way it measures audience engagement. Instead of focusing mainly on page views, the company is shifting toward active engaged time, which tracks how long audiences spend with its journalism.
David Higgerson, Reach’s chief content officer, described the change as part of a major shift in audience habits. “We are in the middle of a mammoth shift in how audiences want content and journalism,” he said.
Higgerson added: “To ensure a sustainable future for our journalism, we must focus our investment in the areas where our audiences spend the most time and where our revenue reflects the value of our work.”
Revenue pressure and falling search traffic
Reach’s digital revenues fell by almost 1% to £128.9m in the year to 3 March. The company also recorded a 46% year-on-year decline in traffic from Google, a change that puts more pressure on publishers that depend on online audiences to support advertising and subscriptions.
Reach has 50,000 paid digital subscribers and wants to reach 75,000 by the end of its current financial year. The plan to create new roles around subscriptions links directly to that target, while the emphasis on longer-form video gives the company another way to build active engaged time.
The financial strain is also reflected in Reach’s share price, which has plunged 90% over the past five years. Against that backdrop, the job cuts and brand closures are being paired with targeted investment rather than a complete retreat from digital publishing.
“In our newsrooms, that means less emphasis on story volume and more on original journalism and distinctive brands,” Higgerson said. His comments set out the editorial direction behind the restructuring: publish fewer stories for the sake of filling pages, and put more resources into work that separates one title from another.
What the restructuring means for Reach
The three online-only closures show where Reach has chosen to reduce its presence. Higgerson said: “The decision is based on our market position in these areas.” That explanation ties the closures to the company’s position in Kent, Aberdeen and Galway, without changing the wider group’s national and regional portfolio.
The cuts and new roles also reveal a split in Reach’s strategy. The company is reducing its overall editorial workforce while building positions around subscriptions and longer-form video, areas connected to direct audience value rather than simple story output.
Higgerson said the company faces pressure beyond its own business. “These headwinds, and others which also affect the whole industry, mean that we need to make these changes while also reducing our overall costs.”
Reach now has a clear set of targets to meet: 75,000 paid digital subscribers, stronger use of longer-form video and a greater focus on active engaged time. At the same time, it must manage the loss of 220 editorial jobs, the closure of three brands, falling Google traffic and digital revenue of £128.9m.
The restructuring leaves Reach trying to build a smaller, more focused digital operation around its existing titles. Its next stage will depend on whether original journalism, distinctive brands, subscriptions and longer-form video can create more value than the page-view model it is moving away from.
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