Daily Mirror publisher to shut London office with most staff working from home

Newspaper publisher Reach will shut one of its offices in central London to cut costs, with most staff set to work permanently from home.

The media group’s decision comes as many firms look to reduce their office space and change their policies in favour of remote-working .

Reach, which owns the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express and more than 100 other titles, will close its office on Lower Thames Street, according to City AM.

Staff were told this week that most employees would continue working from home once lockdown restrictions ease, after the company judged remote-working during the pandemic to have been a success.

A spokesperson for the publisher cited a survey it had conducted showing that the majority of its workforce favoured the move.

They added: “Moving forward colleagues will either be home based or working mainly from home with around a quarter office-based, working from one of our 15 hubs around the country.

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“This solution provides increased flexibility with the ability to have access to meeting space to recapture face to face collaboration and a social element – when lockdown rules allow.”

The company will also halve its Canary Wharf office space as part of its changes.

As a result of dwindling ad revenue and falling circulation, Reach announced last July that it would lay off 550 employees, more than 10 per cent of its workforce.

Its latest cost-cutting measure comes a month after the bank HSBC announced its long-term intention of axing office capacity by 40 per cent, following a drop in profitability.

“We believe we’ll achieve it via a very different style of working post-Covid with a more hybrid model,” HSBC’s chief executive Noel Quinn said.

A few weeks later, the UK insurer Aviva told staff that it would cut its office space by as much as 30 per cent.