Alex Brummer, financial editor of the Guardian and one of its most
senior journalists, is to end a 26-year span at the paper with a move to
Associated Newspapers in January.
His initial role is as consultant editor at the Mail on Sunday, where he
will be responsible for overseeing the Financial Mail section.
’My role is to bring in fresh talent and reorganise the section, move
away from features and create a stronger news focus,’ he said.
In May, Brummer will succeed Andrew Alexander, the longstanding City
editor of the Daily Mail, when he retires. ’I will then relinquish the
Financial Mail role,’ added Brummer. ’Part of that remit will be to find
a new editor for the section.’
Brummer was named financial journalist of the year at the British Press
Awards in March. He joined the Guardian as a financial reporter in 1974,
and spent a ten-year stint as Washington correspondent between 1979 and
1989, when he won the best foreign correspondent award.
Former executive editor of the Financial Mail, David Sinclair, left the
newspaper in April to join Eve Pollard, former editor of the Sunday
Express and Sunday Mirror, at her new magazine company Parkhill
Publishing, as editorial director. Since then, the most senior
journalist at the Financial Mail has been Bill Kay, who is City
editor.
Brummer leaves the Guardian at a time when its financial coverage has
been shaken up by the arrival of Paul Murphy as executive financial
editor from the Sunday Business earlier this year.
The Guardian is currently looking for a senior financial journalist or
editor and commentator to replace Brummer, and the position has been
advertised internally. Brummer’s final leaving date has yet to be
confirmed.
