LONDON: Paul Dacre, editor of Daily Mail and one of the most influential Fleet Street editors of recent times, said on Thursday he would step down after more than a quarter of a century in the role. Dacre will become chairman of Associated Newspapers, which is owned by the company Daily Mail and General Trust, and its editor-in-chief.

“After 28 years as an editor — 26 of them at the Mail — I have decided to step back from the responsibilities of day-to-day editing by my 70th birthday in November in order to take on broader challenges within the company as Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Associated,” Dacre said in an announcement on Wednesday night. Under Dacre’s editorship the Daily Mail has taken a staunchly pro-Brexit line.

He started out editing the student newspaper while studying English at Leeds University and joined the Daily Express in Manchester after graduating. During a stint as New York correspondent for the Express, Dacre was recruited by the Daily Mail and returned to London in 1983 as the paper’s news editor. After just over a year editing the London Evening Standard, he succeeded Sir David English as editor of the Mail in 1992.

“Very few people since 1945 have done more damage to the UK than Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail — years spent pouring falsehood and spite into the mainstream of public debate. His smug dishonesty on retirement is nauseating,” tweeted Nick Davies, Guardian veteran who was behind unmasking of the hacking scandal.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2018