Witherow, 70, has been in charge of the paper since 2013 but has spent much of the past year out of work due to illness. During this time, Gallagher, his deputy editor, effectively ran Rupert Murdoch’s title. An official announcement of Witherow’s departure was expected soon, but may be delayed due to the royal funeral. He is expected to return from sick leave and may be offered another job elsewhere at Murdoch’s News UK company. Gallagher, 58, was editor of the Daily Telegraph between 2009 and 2014. After being sacked from that job, he worked as a chef at Moro restaurant before a brief stint as deputy editor of the Daily Mail. In 2015 he joined Murdoch’s media empire as editor of the Sun, which he led during the EU referendum as the paper campaigned enthusiastically for Brexit. Five years later he became deputy editor of The Times, where he has long been seen as the favorite to take over. If his appointment is confirmed, Gallagher will become one of the few people to have edited three national dailies. Speculation about the Times’ editorial board has been rife in recent weeks. Rumors that former cabinet minister Michael Gove, who worked at The Times before becoming a Conservative MP, may return to the paper have been widely proven – despite speculation on Westminster WhatsApp groups. Other possible candidates for the job included Sunday Times editor Emma Tucker, who has steered the weekend newspaper in a more liberal direction since taking over and said the British press had made mistakes in its coverage of Muslims. Murdoch’s UK media interests include the Sun, The Times, struggling channel TalkTV and radio stations including Times Radio and Virgin Radio. In recent years, Murdoch has successfully persuaded the government to lift most restrictions on the ownership of The Times and The Sunday Times, allowing resources to be shared between titles and teams working on whole subjects such as sport to merge. The focus of the combined operation is now on signing up new readers to the £26-a-month online subscription rather than selling print newspapers. While traditionally the Sun was extremely profitable and cross-subsidized the Times, this has changed over the past decade. Now it is the Times that is profitable and the Sun that – covered by the cost of the phone hack – is losing significant sums of money. Both Gallagher and News UK declined to comment.
