The shakeup at the National Enquirer has extended to its West Coast bureau, whose top editor was replaced earlier this month as part of an effort to get away from routine celebrity gossip.

The Enquirer, whose circulation has plunged from its 1997 high of 2.5 million to about 1 million, recently moved its headquarters from Boca Raton, Fla., to New York, and under new editor Paul Field, a veteran of the London tabloid scene, the paper has been redesigned and bulked up.

British-born David Gardner, who had been West Coast editor of London’s Daily Mail, replaced American-born Jerry George as the Enquirer’s West Coast editor. Gardner said he is bringing in two veteran British tabloid reporters to augment the bureau, but insisted that none of the existing reporters were being laid off. A number of staff members of the American Media Inc.-owned Enquirer were dismissed before the move to New York.

Field has said he is redirecting the Enquirer from softer celebrity gossip toward more investigative reporting and true-crime stories. Gardner said the West Coast bureau will continue to cover celebrities, but with a harder edge.

“The Enquirer is going back to its core values of real stories, real investigations, reported in depth,” Gardner said. “It’s not going to be about the color of Britney’s underwear or what sort of bag Paris Hilton is carrying.”

Gardner said he is hiring British journalists because they are aggressive and steeped in tabloid culture, although the majority of the bureau’s 16 reporters will be Americans.