WhatsOnStage.com Editor Terri Paddock Let Go, Looking into Legal Action vs. Theatremania

In a shock move, the editor of the WhatsOnStage website has been let go by the site's new owners. She has now told The Stage newspaper that she has handed the matter over to her solicitors.

The departure of an editor is in itself not a shock of course. But Terri Paddock often seemed the heart and soul of the website she helped to create back in 1997. It was originally founded by the Emap media group, but Paddock and her business partner acquired it three years later.

However, she in turn sold it to Really Useful Group in 2008 (when it was partnered with that company's short-lived Theatregoer magazine). It was bought by Time Out Group in 211 and two years ago by New York-based Theatremania.

Given this parade of owners the surprise is that Paddock remained in post for so long. Often a new publisher will want to bring in its own editor for a newly acquired property. That she remained will be seen as testament to the site's popularity and indeed endurance. Theatremania deny any claims of wrongdoing.