Neil Leslie appointed editor of Irish Daily Star

Neil Leslie has been appointed editor of the Irish Daily Star, the newspaper's owners Reach announced on Tuesday.

Des Gibson will be stepping down as editor of the title and leaving the company at the end of 2020, the company said.

The publisher of the Irish Daily Mirror and Irish Sunday Mirror last month received regulatory clearance to buy from Independent News & Media (INM) the 50 per cent of the Irish Daily Star it did not already own.

Mr Gibson, who rejoined the Irish Daily Star in early 2020 after two years at INM, said it had been “a challenging year” for all Irish newspapers, but he was “very proud of what the team have achieved”.

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Reach audience and content director for Ireland Chris Sherrard thanked Mr Gibson for returning to "steer the Star through a difficult time for the industry", and said Mr Leslie brought "a vast level of experience" to the role with more than 25 years working in national newspapers in Ireland.

Mr Leslie is the former managing editor of INM’s Sunday World title, and has also worked in a senior editorial role at the Irish Daily Star.

“I’m delighted to be returning to what I know from experience is a first class team of journalists and a great paper,” Mr Leslie said.

Reach, which is a publicly-quoted company listed in London, also publishes the Sunday People and RSVP magazine, and operates five websites.