Jane Bruton, The Telegraph’s deputy editor is unexpectedly out. With the latest figures showing print circulation down 14% the paper is upping the news quotient. Bruton, who was Grazia’s editor-in-chief before joining the Telegraph in 2015, was director of lifestyle and deputy editor. The news came as a surprise to the newsroom. Senior Telegraph sources are keen to tell Guido that she is going of her own volition.

UPDATE: Chris Evans emailed Telegraph staff the following:

After seven glorious years, Jane Bruton has left The Telegraph to pursue new challenges. We’ll miss her enormously and we’d like to thank her for her marvellous contribution in helping us reach 750,000 subscriptions, with the target of 1 million firmly in sight. Paul Nuki will act as temporary replacement for Jane, reporting to me. Kath Brown will continue to run the Lifestyle half of Features and she will also report to me. Anyone interested in replacing Jane, and helping to lead The Telegraph in its digital transformation, should apply to Adam Sills.

Thanks.

No mention of what Bruton’s new challenges might be and strange that if she had, as Evans claims, decided to leave presumably after having given her notice as normal, that no permanent replacement was lined up. According to a source, struggling editor Chris Evans’s “reign of terror” is also the explanation for Jane Bruton’s deputy, Victoria Harper, being on sick leave. It will be interesting to see how the paper is doing when their annual figures are out later this month…