Sands leaves editor's chair at Sunday Telegraph as Times' Wheatcroft takes charge

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 07-Mar-06, 12:30

LONDON - Sunday Telegraph editor Sarah Sands, who has been at the helm of the newspaper for less than eight months, has left the company and been replaced by Patience Wheatcroft, the business editor of The Times.

In a ruthless move by Telegraph chief executive Murdoch MacLennan, Sands' reign as editor has been cut short at less than eight months and she will leave the company.

After being elevated from deputy editor in June when Dominic Lawson was ousted after 10 years as editor, Sands appears to have paid the price after her autumn revamp of the title did not have a massive effect on its circulation beyond the first month.

In January, the Sunday Telegraph sold 682,739 copies, compared with 714,992 following November's relaunch.

Wheatcroft leaves The Times after nine years as business and City editor to take her first non-business post, although she appears often on TV current affairs programmes. Her previous roles include business reporting for the Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail and Sunday Times, as well as editing Retail Week.

She said: "The Sunday Telegraph is a great newspaper and I am very excited by the challenge of the leadership at this very opportune moment of a paper that stands for so many of the things I believe in."

Sands was believed to be uncomfortable with November's appointment of John Bryant as editor-in-chief in November, above her and Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland. Newland resigned less than two weeks after Bryant's arrival.

Bryant remains editor-in-chief of both titles and acting editor of the Daily Telegraph.

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