Boss leaves media company as part of regional shake-up
National publisher Reach, formerly Trinity Mirror, has announced the departure of Manchester Evening News and Huddersfield Examiner managing director Paul O’Halloran.
His exit from the business is part of a shake-up by Reach of its Northern publishing division.
This will see regional managing director Carl Wood taking control of Reach’s North Wales, North West and Yorkshire papers.
Mr Wood was appointed managing director of the Liverpool ECHO and Trinity Mirror North West and North Wales in 2014.
He replaced Steve Anderson-Dixon, who moved to the role of group managing director of Reach’s regional titles across the UK.
Mr Wood will now oversee Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, Manchester and Huddersfield for Reach.
Mr O’Halloran joined Reach in 2010 as commercial director of the Manchester Evening News.
He had been managing director of the MEN and Huddersfield Examiner since 2014.
Reach announced its latest half year figures at the end of last month, covering the six month period to July 1, 2018.
They showed a rise in revenues, on a statutory basis, from £320m last year to £353.8m, driven by the group’s acquisition of the Express and Star newspapers in February.
On a like-for-like basis, stripping out the acquisition, revenues fell 7.2%.
A pre-tax profit in 2017 of £38.2m was followed by a pre-tax loss of £113.5m this year, due to a non-cash impairment charge of £150m, which the group said was because of a “more challenging outlook for our regional businesses”.
