Mirror Group chief quits after ‘promotions failure’

Mirror Group Newspapers has parted company with its marketing director designate Charles Kirchner, only six months after hiring him to take charge of promotions and advertising across the group.

The group, which publishes Mirror Group’s newspapers and manages The Independent and Indep- endent on Sunday, created the role last November to spearhead a promotional drive across all the titles.

Kirchner left the company last Friday, but refuses to comment on the reasons for his departure.

One source suggests that Mirror Group has decided to ditch the promotional drive and will not replace Kirchner.

Industry sources claim that Kirchner’s departure is related to The Independent’s expensive video classics promotion, launched at the end of March. Despite supplying videos to newsagents to sell with the Saturday newspaper for 3, The Independent’s circulation in April fell to it lowest since December 1994 – 276,029.

Internal sources maintain that in the first week of the promotion The Independent produced about 400,000 videos, yet sold only 90,000. The Independent claims the video promotion was the most successful promotion in UK newspaper history.

Sources claim Kirchner’s position was not helped by the appointment of Andrew Marr as editor of the Independent two weeks ago.

Marr is understood to be unhappy with the promotions strategy being followed by the paper.

Kirchner was previously in charge of marketing at tobacco giant Rothmans, which he left in November 1994 to become managing director of sport shoe company Hi-Tec Sports, taking two other Rothmans directors with him.

The three left six months later after a restructure.