One of Ireland’s biggest publishers has appointed new editors to lead its Irish Mirror and Belfast Live titles.

Reach’s new Audience and Content Director Chris Sherrard announced the changes which will see Cormac O’Shea become editor of Irishmirror.ie as Colin Brennan is promoted to group SEO editor, working across the publisher’s entire digital portfolio.

In the north, Ryan Smith takes on the role of editor of Belfast Live and alongside Cormac, at the ages of 26 and 25 respectively, puts the two new editors amongst some of the youngest in Ireland to take on the editorship of a major news brand.

Meanwhile, Demelza de Burca is now editor of the Irish Daily Mirror newspaper, the first female editor of a tabloid newspaper in Ireland for a number of years. Working alongside her will be Sylvia Pownall, news editor of the Sunday edition of the paper. Ronan McManus has been appointed to a new sports news editor role working across print and digital titles.

On announcing the changes to his top editorial team, Chris said: “Both Cormac and Ryan have done exceptional work on other digital news brands within our group, making them the perfect people to lead Irishmirror.ie and Belfast Live. Their creative and collaborative work ethics will, I’m sure, further transform our incredible brands.

“Add to that the brilliant appointments of Demelza, Ronan and Sylvia to continue to deliver our brands, each of whom are passionate about the power of news brands and journalism. 

“I’m delighted that Cormac, Ryan, Demelza, Ronan and Sylvia have accepted these crucial roles.”

Ryan started his career as a reporter with the Fermanagh Herald in 2012 before moving to Belfast Live and the Daily Mirror NI in 2015 where he worked as a reporter for close to five years. He then worked as a content editor from March 2020 at Reach’s MyLondon website and is returning to Belfast Live as editor at the end of September.

Cormac was previously instrumental in the launch of Cork Beo as deputy editor, a role he also held on Dublin Live, two websites that are also owned by Reach, and he has been a key figure in the success of the Irish Mirror website in recent months.

Speaking about his new role, Cormac said: “I am very proud to be taking on the role of online editor at Irishmirror.ie after more than four years working in various roles in Reach. The website has been thriving in recent years and we hope to build on that and make it even better in the coming months and years. 

“We have a great team of talented journalists who have been working hard to make the website what it is and will continue to do that. 

“The site is known for its breaking news and while that won’t change as editor, I hope that readers can come to the site and see original, interesting stories that you won’t find anywhere else be it in news, sport or showbiz.”

In terms of Reach’s other titles, Aengus O’Hanlon remains editor of Dublin Live, Jane Lundon is editor of RSVP Live, Paula Lenihan is editor of RSVP Magazine and Joe O’Shea is editor of Cork Beo.