Geordie Greig steps down as Daily Mail editor and replaced by Ted Verity

Geordie Greig has been replaced as editor of the Daily Mailafter three years.

Mail of Sunday editor Ted Verity will take over the running of the daily newspaper, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) chairman Lord Rothermere told staff in an email on Wednesday afternoon..

Mr Verity will take over as editor of Mail Newspapers, with responsibility for Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and You magazine, at the end of this week as he takes charge of a new seven-day operation.

Lord Rothermere wrote that Mr Greig “will be stepping down” from the position and taking on a role new role as consultant editor.

The announcement is understood to have come as a surprise to the newpaper’s staff, who believe Mr Greig - the successor to long-time Mail editor Paul Dacre - was effectively ousted.

Lord Rothermere praised Mr Greig in the email for helping make the Mail become “the most-read UK newspaper” and to win “Daily Newspaper of the Year an impressive three times.”

He also applauded him for having set up the Mail Force campaign, during the Covid pandemic, that raised more than £25 million and flew in PPE for healthcare workers.

Lord Rothermere said: ”Ted is a Mail journalist to his core and uniquely placed to oversee the next chapter for our newspapers.”

Mr Greig, 60, was editor of the Evening Standard from 2009, director of the Standard andThe Independent from 2010, and editor of Mail on Sunday from 2012 before he took over from Mr Dacre as editor of the Daily Mail in 2018.

Mr Verity had succeeded Mr Greig before when he became the editor of Mail on Sunday in 2018 after Mr Greig took over from Mr Dacre.

After attending Eton and Oxford, Mr Greig had began his career at local papers and joined the national papers in the 1980s. He was made editor of Tatler magazine in 1999.

In remarks reported by trade publication Press Gazette, Mr Greig said: “I am grateful to Lord Rothermere for 10 extraordinary years as editor of his newspapers.

“I thank everyone who has worked with me; my colleagues have been heroic and inspiring. I wish my successor Ted Verity good luck and also continued good fortune to the Mail.

“I look forward to new opportunities ahead and will bring the best of what I learnt from my years at the Mail on which I first joined in 1983 as its most junior reporter on the graveyard shift.”

DMG Media chief executive Kevin Beatty announced his plan to step down, and that he will be replaced by Mail Online chief operating officer Richard Caccappolo.

The editorial and commercial shake-ups come as Lord Rothermere works towards taking the 125-year-old company private after nearly 100 years on the stock market.

Shareholders have until 16 December to approve a takeover deal.