Leagas Delaney fired from 2m Guardian

The Guardian is putting its 2m creative advertising account out to tender following an acrimonious split with Leagas Delaney, its agency of seven years.

Bruce Haines, Leagas Delaney chief executive, says: “We are proud to have contributed to The Guardian’s success over the past seven years. To say we are distressed and angry at the way we have been fired would be an understatement. We were fired on Monday without warning and without discussion.”

Camilla Nicholls, head of press at The Guardian, says: “We want to move things on and refresh what we do and we couldn’t agree on that. We are aware that a huge number of agencies would like to work on The Guardian account.”

It is understood The Guardian was looking to run a branding campaign. The agency produced a campaign to give coherence to the brand, the first execution of which broke at the end of last month in support of the launch of The Editor – the title’s Saturday supplement which covers a condensed round-up of the week’s news.

The Guardian’s media account, held by New PHD, is not up for review, and neither is the below-the-line business, managed by KLP.

The Guardian’s circulation from November 1997 to April 1998 has fallen marginally from to 401,810, compared with 401,853 in the same period a year earlier, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures. Its market share has risen slightly from 14.05 per cent to 14.09 per cent in that period.