Athanasiou’s role has been made redundant as part of changes being made at the business because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In June some 100 employees at Telegraph Media Group (TMG) were told their roles were at risk of redundancy.
Athanasiou joined the Telegraph as production manager in 2000, and became head of operations nine years ago.
Her responsibilities included overseeing production of the newspapers and related supplements and magazines, and managing the Telegraph’s substantial print, paper and events spend.
Her last day is Thursday (6 August).
“I am leaving The Telegraph having had some of the best years in my career. I am incredibly proud to have worked on such an incredible company, alongside some very talented people and wonderful minds,” she said.
“Whilst it is a difficult time, I am excited by what the future could bring and am ready to get stuck into a new opportunity."
Athanasiou said she would like to find a new role within the industry, but was “keeping my options open”.
Prior to joining the Telegraph, she spent 17 years in magazine production at VNU Business Publications.
Over the years she has also been a much-respected member of the judging panel at the Printweek Awards.
Her responsibilities will be taken over by other members of the ops team, overseen by operations planning director Paul Shorey.
Telegraph Media Group has reported a “very strong” digital subscription performance during the pandemic, to the extent that it stopped participating in the government’s Job Retention Scheme at the end of May.
In June, chief executive Nick Hugh announced that all staff had returned to a five-day week and the group would reimburse HMRC with the JRS money it had claimed.
He said: “Whilst, like many other businesses, revenues and profits have been hit significantly, the business has remained profitable and cash generative throughout the period. Our subscription strategy goes from strength to strength which is testament to our outstanding journalism.”
Telegraph Media Group had not commented on the current round of redundancies at the time of writing.
In its most recent results, for 2018, TMG had sales of £271.4m and made an operating profit of £7.8m (prior to £4.7m of exceptionals and writedown costs), down from £21.4m the prior year. It said the results were “entirely expected” as part of its digital transformation strategy, which has a goal of 1m subscribers and 10m online registrations by January 2023.
