Joanne Hart, the London Evening Standard's deputy City editor and columnist, has been told she has three months to find a new job in a sweeping reshuffle of the paper's City desk.
Hart, who has been at the paper for nine years and deputy City editor for six, is reported to be talking to her lawyers in a bid to secure a payoff.
Standard insiders are shocked at the speed and brutality with which she was told her services would not be needed.
Hart was told the paper's new editor, Veronica Wadley, had decided to axe her column and that she must find a new job. It is understood she was not offered any redundancy pay.
"I think it was just a case of, for whatever reason, her face didn't fit. But it is unusual for a deputy to be sacked without the editor going first," said one source.
Anthony Hilton, the long-standing City editor and former managing editor of the paper, is believed to have another two years on his contract.
Alex Brummer, the City editor on the Standard's sister paper, the Daily Mail, has denied rumours he had been given editorial control of both titles.
However, it is believed Wadley has consulted Brummer about the merits of the Standard's City coverage.
It is thought one idea being considered is to spread business stories throughout the paper and make the City section less exclusive and linked to stocks.
The move is the most recent example of Wadley's fine-tuning of the paper's workforce since her appointment in January.
She has already revamped the paper's arts desk and appointed a number of high-profile staff including the Sunday Telegraph's political editor, Joe Murphy, and former Express deputy Chris Blackhurst.
The Standard's City operation, located in Drury Lane in London's West End, away from the main newsdesk in Derry Street, Kensington, has been the subject of intense speculation since Wadley's appointment.
Speculation she plans to bring the City desk back to Kensington has so far proved unfounded.
But her decision to base City and business writer Jonathan Prynn in Derry Street indicates a desire to keep a firmer grip on the operation.
No one at the Evening Standard was available for comment.
