Chris Sherrard, editor-in-chief at Irish News. Picture: Submitted
Editor-in-chief of Irish News Chris Sherrard has said he has taken the paper from “black and white to glorious technicolour” by transforming how the newspaper reaches its audience.
Sherrard launched Reach’s Belfast Live in 2015, becoming its editor before taking on the same role at the Mirror in Northern Ireland in 2018, continuing both jobs at the same time.
He later moved to a group-wide role for Reach in England, overseeing titles including Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo. In 2020, he launched Yorkshire Live, serving as editor before becoming Reach’s editor-in-chief for Ireland. Sherrard joined the the Irish News as editor-in-chief in 2024.
The title recently won a Future of Media award for its reader revenue strategy , with judges commending its “revenue transformation which is helping secure the future of a great regional newsbrand”.
What’s been a big breakthrough moment for you?
When I was 17, I dropped out of school halfway through my A-levels and went off to work in a hotel in the Channel Islands. At that point, I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself long-term.
The following year I was back home and working at a hospital when I walked into the local newspaper offices, the Portadown Times, and asked the editor, David Armstrong, if I could come and write stories for him. He kindly said yes, the free labour was probably appealing to him, and from almost the first day I was hooked and I knew I wanted to be a journalist.
What’s currently keeping you up at night?
Apart from my ageing bladder? There is so much that weighs on an editor’s mind and I think if you edit a daily title of some repute and pedigree, it’s even more pronounced.
There is more than a century of The Irish News in the public domain, but every morning I am sat looking at an entirely blank paper and have to produce, by the end of that day, a publication which reaches – or ideally surpasses – the standards we have produced previously.
I am very conscious of the paper’s history and the hard-earned reputation created by those who have gone before us. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t think about all that is involved in protecting and building on that at all hours of the day and night.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
When I took over as editor of The Irish News, my aim was to maintain all that has been good about the newspaper while transforming and evolving how we keep our audience informed in all the other places they now exist.
I saw it as going from black and white to glorious technicolour. We have made huge strides in that, but the day you sit back and pat yourself on the back with your feet on the desk and your hands behind your head is the day you start to go backwards. So I have bags of motivation to continue building what we are building.
How are things going right now, what’s working ?
The Irish News has been going since 1891 and has achieved many great things, so to know that we have never reached a bigger audience than we are doing today is extremely pleasing and validating.
We have had an explosion in our digital audience by every measurable metric, from scale to engagement, and off-platform our audience reach is beyond all our expectations, overtaking long-established digital-only brands. We have done that while maintaining our position as the best-read and best-performing regional daily newspaper in the UK. So we’re fighting the good fight on many fronts, but advancing at pace in each of them.
And, crucially, we have remained true to the ethos and editorial pillars which have made The Irish News what it is known for.
What has been your proudest achievement?
Setting new personal-best scores for three of the puzzles on The Telegraph app this morning and then getting Picle bang on on The Times app. All before my second espresso. If you know, you know.
Beyond that, I am proud of so many things in my career. I conceived, launched and edited Belfast Live, which rapidly became the biggest news publisher in Northern Ireland and arguably revolutionised digital news beyond this part of the world. I developed, launched and edited Yorkshire Live, which became the biggest news website in England’s biggest county within three months.
I am proud of the opportunities and roles I have given to a great many journalists over the years who have gone on to successful careers when they might otherwise not have.
And I am proud that I have worked in some of the best newsrooms you will find, notably the MEN in Manchester, the Echo in Liverpool and the Mirror in London.
Biggest mistake, and what did you learn from it?
Every day as an editor is about a series of judgement calls: some big, some small. If I got every one of those correct, I would not be human.
That’s my way of saying I try not to dwell on mistakes. You learn from them, you move on and you try to make the next call better.
When it comes to leading a team, motivating others, what works for you?
I don’t believe in micromanaging people or constantly standing over them. I’ve worked for enough editors during my time in journalism to know that approach rarely brings the best out of anyone.
I think everyone who works for me knows what I expect, and if things veer off track, I will address that. But I like my editors to have the space to experiment and be creative without me breathing down their necks. The motivation comes from seeing the results of their efforts, hitting defined goals and seeing and feeling the progress.
You have to give people responsibility if you want them to take ownership.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what is it?
Trust the process, because I wouldn’t change a thing.
I started in this industry writing for free in my local paper and now I’m editing the UK’s best-read regional daily newspaper. Everywhere I have worked, I have started at the bottom and worked my way up. But by doing that, I learned every aspect of the business. What was involved in everyone’s role.
When I reached the top job, I felt I knew it inside out, so nobody could tell me I didn’t understand what I was asking them to do if I wanted them to approach something differently.
So, to younger me: just do you.
Who or what inspires you and why?
One of the things I do every year is go out and speak to classrooms full of schoolchildren as part of our Young News Readers project, which is aimed at helping improve literacy and news awareness among children aged ten to 16.
I come away from all of those sessions inspired to continue producing journalism which matters to them now and in the future.
It is a useful reminder that what we do in newsrooms isn’t just about today’s story – it is about helping shape the next generation of news consumers and, hopefully, journalists too.
What is your work mantra?
Probably something like: never stand still. I should really Google what that is in Latin to make me sound clever.
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