Sly Bailey: the newspaper chief who proved she's more than 'bangles, boobs and blonde hair'

Profile of the Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey, who has encountered a number of troubles, and seen off former Mirror editor Piers Morgan.

When Sly Bailey grabbed the top job at Trinity Mirror in early 2003, Mirror editor Piers Morgan took a typically disparaging view. She's "all bangles, boobs and blonde hair", he wrote in his diary. "Quite fun though." Within 18 months, Bailey had despatched Morgan, delivered the best figures the publishing group had seen since 1999, and was enjoying a reputation as a turnaround wizard. Since then, things have not gone her way. Last week, the group became the latest victim of the advertising slide, warning of a 10% decline in first-half advertising revenues with no sign of a recovery in sight. There is a feeling that the company is "running on empty from a strategic point of view", one analyst told The Daily Telegraph. So is the game up for Trinity Mirror's golden girl?

Whatever her troubles, Bailey, 44, retains no shortage of admirers. "Sly is the best person to run this business," noted Numis Securities analyst Lorna Tilbian last year. "It may not be the best possible business, that's all." The product of an unhappy 1999 merger between Britain's biggest regional newspaper group and the Mirror Group, Trinity Mirror was the brainchild of former chairman and City grandee, Sir Victor Blank. The deal was criticised from the outset for failing to get the best value out of either company, an accusation that has continued to dog executives. Bailey's plan repeated endlessly in the fashion of a political slogan was entitled "Stabilise. Revitalise. Grow", says The Times.

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.