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February 1, 2007updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Myler: A life in newspapers and no stranger to controversy

By Press Gazette

From Widnes, Myler, 54, began his career at a news agency in Southport. By the age of 22 he was working on Fleet Street as a reporter at The Sun before moving to the Daily Mail. He was eventually made news editor on the People, but switched to Eddie Shah’s Today newspaper when it launched in 1985. He was first made Sunday Mirror editor in 1992 when he was brought in to replace Bridget Rowe. Within months he caused huge controversy by printing revealing pictures of Princess Diana working out at an exclusive gym. He moved to the Daily Mirror in 1994, but failed to improve sales figures and in 1995 he was replaced by Piers Morgan. In a brief career change, Myler left journalism altogether to run the newly formed Super League Europe, a marketing organisation for rugby league. But within 15 months he came back to newspapers, taking charge at the Sunday Mirror in 1998 for a second time.

Myler may be best remembered for his decision to publish an interview on 8 April 2001 that led to the collapse of a high-profile trial of Leeds United footballers Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer. Both were accused of assaulting student Sarfraz Najeib outside a Leeds nightclub.

In the interview Najieb’s father said the attack was racially motivated. The judge ruled that the paper had broken the Contempt of Court Act by potentially prejudicing the trial’s outcome and ordered a re-trial – at a cost of about £8m. Myler resigned, admitting an error of judgment, and the Sunday Mirror was fined £75,000.

The Mirror released a statement in April 2001 which explained that the paper had printed the contentious interview after advice from its lawyers. The paper admitted ‘a serious error of judgement”.

Myler resigned and took the post of executive editor at the News International-owned New York Post in November 2001.

He was replaced at the Sunday Mirror by its current editor, Tina Weaver.

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