Wheatcroft is said to have been antagonistic towards the Telegraph’s digital revolution, which has been led by Daily Telegraph editor Will Lewis.
She was apparently against her staff working on the paper's seven-day web operation and "virtually" no-one on the Sunday had taken part in the Telegraph's successful podcasts either, according to the Evening Standard.
The Guardian reported on a meeting that took place this morning where incoming editor, Ian MacGregor - who joins from Lewis' team at the Daily - addressed staff .
The meeting was apparently also attended by Lewis, now editor-in-chief of the two titles, and Richard Ellis, the executive director of editorial of the Telegraph Media Group. Wheatcroft was briefly praised at the meeting and the reason given for her departure at the meeting was "strategic" differences.
"That was taken to mean a failure to embrace the internet," the insider told the Guardian.
While there is sure to be more to her departure from the Telegraph Group, it seems almost madness that in 2007 a newspaper editor could play the role of some King Canute, trying to resist the tide and oppose digital progress as newspaper sales shrink and newspaper editors flex there digital muscles.
The Sunday Telegraph is far from immune to this. Its six-month average figure was down by 2.57% year on year to 656,234 copies.
The Guardian for many years led the way digitally. The Times has since caught up and the Telegraph has come on in great leaps and bounds.
Telegraph Media Group gained the highest number of shortlisted entries in this year's AOP awards, with 11, including four for My Telegraph, closely followed by Guardian News & Media’s nine shortlisted entries,
In the most recent sent of digital ABCs, Telegraph.co.uk posted 9m unique users in July, almost a 2m jump on its figures from June. It also narrowly beat Times Online with 78m page impressions.
However, the Guardian Unlimited network, covering www.guardian.co.uk and observer.co.uk, is still the one to beat. It held onto its commanding position, receiving 16.1m unique users in July, a jump of around 1.5m from the month before. Its page impressions totalled 157m, while its unique users listed from the UK only totalled 5.9m or 37% of total UK unique users.
Gordon Macmillan
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