Home Executive-Insights CRO Reach Appoints CRO Piers North...

Reach Appoints CRO Piers North as CEO After Jim Mullen Resigns

CRO

Business Honor
31 March, 2025

CRO Piers North succeeds Jim Mullen as Reach CEO, following resignation and stock decline.

After almost six years, the CEO of Reach, the publisher of the Mirror and Express newspapers, resigned to become the president of the horse racing organization The Jockey Club. According to the corporation, Reach chief revenue officer Piers North has been appointed to succeed Jim Mullen, who resigned immediately "by mutual agreement."

Before assuming the position of group chief executive at The Jockey Club on June 1, Mr. Mullen, who was named chief executive at Reach in August 2019, will be available for a brief handover period.
Following the revelation, Reach's stock fell up to 8% in Monday morning trading. In addition to numerous regional publications around the United Kingdom, Reach is the owner of the tabloids The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror, The Express, and The Star.

Earlier this month, the company reported better-than-expected full-year earnings, with its digital arm starting to expand again at the end of 2024 and cost-cutting measures helping to offset declining revenues. The firm and Mr. Mullen "agree that it is an appropriate time, following a strong full-year performance, for him to step down and for the company to take new leadership," according to Reach chairman Nick Prettejohn.

He expressed satisfaction with Piers' appointment as chief executive, highlighting his strong leadership track record at Reach and valuable experience within the company and industry. In 2023, companies like Facebook's owner Meta made the decision to put user-generated content ahead of news on their social media platforms, which severely hurt Reach and the media industry as a whole. However, with crucial page views starting to rise again in the last three months of 2024, Reach has heralded the beginning of a comeback in its digital business.

Mr. North, the new manager, has a wealth of experience in digital media. He began his career as a digital journalist and has held multiple senior digital strategy positions at Reach and Yahoo. 2014 saw him join Reach.