New Mirror editor appointed

Friday, 18 June 2004 12:00 AM

Richard Wallace has been appointed as the new editor of the Daily Mirror.

The position has been vacant since Piers Morgan was sacked after he decided to publish pictures, which were later proved fakes, of UK soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

At the time the Mirror's board said it would be "inappropriate" for Mr Morgan to continue.

Since the sacking Mr Morgan has been out of the public eye.

The new editor, Mr Wallace, has been Acting Editor of the Sunday Mirror for the last four months whilst the Editor has been on maternity leave.

Previously he was the Daily Mirror's US Editor and has also been Show business Editor and Head of News.

Des Kelly, who has been acting as editor since Mr Morgan's departure, has decided to leave the Mirror.

Mr Wallace said: "I'm absolutely delighted to be given the opportunity to lead this great newspaper, especially as I'm going to be working with the most talented team in Fleet Street.

"The greatest challenge for national newspapers is circulation. I'm confident that we have the team, the talent and the will to tackle this challenge and I look forward to even greater success for the Daily Mirror."

After the publication of the fake abuse pictures the Mirror's circulation dipped by around 41,000 to 1,846,734 leaving its circulation down by 5.5 per cent over the year.

It has been predicted that Mr Wallace will abandon Mr Morgan's attempts to reposition the Daily Mirror in the serious news market, but Mr Wallace himself has given no indication of his vision for the paper.

In the 1960's the Mirror had circulation of around eight million and was a respected left wing campaigning newspaper.

However, it suffered with the decline of its working class audience, losing its second place circulation position to the Daily Mail, after being overtaken by the Sun in 1977.

In 2002 Mr Morgan decided to focus more on campaigning news, notably direct opposition to the war in Iraq, however the paper did not see the upsurge in circulation which had been hoped for.

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