National Press

John Reynolds, mediaweek.co.uk, 04 November 2008, 10:30am

New roles for Davies, Gorman in DMGT commercial reshuffle

LONDON - Daily Mail & General Trust is continuing its commercial restructure, handing new roles to Mail on Sunday ad director Simon Davies and Evening Standard and London Lite ad chief Rosemary Gorman.

Simon Davies: to become ad director for the Evening Standard and London Lite

The company also revealed that the ongoing restructure, which last month saw DMGT unveil plans to merge the sales teams of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, would result in about 20 redundancies.

Davies will become ad director for the Evening Standard and London Lite with effect from 10 November. He will report to Evening Standard managing director Andrew Mullins and London Lite managing director Steve Auckland.

Davies replaces Gorman, who is moving to become deputy advertising director at Mail Newspapers, where she will report to its newly appointed advertising director John Teal. Gorman will also take up her new role on 10 November.

There had been speculation that Davies would leave the group after the restructure saw Teal, previously advertising director of the Daily Mail, promoted to advertising director for Mail Newspapers ahead of Davies. But sources said Davies was well-thought of within the group and DMGT did not want to lose him.

Guy Zitter, managing director of Mail Newspapers, said the switch would benefit all its titles.
Meanwhile, DMGT is expected to confirm the redundancies after the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday sales teams merge on 1 December.