Mail on Sunday ousts ad chief after sales fall

The Mail on Sunday has axed its advertising director Sue Dear as a result of stagnating ad revenues.

Dear has left the newspaper without a job to go to. She has been replaced by Simon Davies, who has been heading the ad department at sister newspaper Ireland on Sunday.

Dear was promoted from Evening Standard ad director to Mail On Sunday ad director in March 2000 (MW March 16, 2000). The Mail on Sunday and Evening Standard merged their property advertising teams in November last year in the first wave of integration at Associated Newspapers (MW November 21, 2002).

Mail on Sunday owner Associated Newspapers recently reported that ad revenues across all its titles were up only 0.4 per cent year on year for the six months to March 30. Display advertising was down one per cent over the same period. This is before the impact of the war on Iraq is taken into account; April’s ad sales are estimated to have dropped ten per cent year on year.

Circulation for the Mail on Sunday has dipped, with the Audit Bureau of Circulations average net circulation figure for April down 1.01 per cent on March to 2,375,051. For the six months from November 2002 to April 2003 the circulation is up 0.71 per cent.

Ireland on Sunday was bought by Associated Newspapers in 2001 and relaunched in May last year.