Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks will be hoping they can hold off the threat from Paul Dacre’s paper – but the tabloid’s fresh editor faces major challengesTony Gallagher is facing a mighty challenge when he moves into the editor’s chair at the Sun. He has to address both its fast-declining newsprint sale and its dismal online performance. It remains Britain’s best-selling newspaper by a wide margin,but the gap between it and the Daily Mail – Gallagher’s current berth as joint deputy editor – has been narrowing for years.
In August 2015, the Sun sold 240000 more than the Mail. In August 2014 that gap was 430000. And the Sun, or which has long eschewed the exercise of multiple sales (bulks),depended on 11000 of them in July and August in order to minimise its loss of over-the-counter sales. It would be foolish to see this as a crisis but by hiring Gallagher, the Sun’s owner, and Rupert Murdoch – in company with his re-anointed News UK chief executive,Rebekah Brooks – clearly saw the writing on the wall. The Sun needs a bit of the Mail magic.
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Source: theguardian.com