Former Newsquest chairman Jim Brown has paid tribute to his former colleagues after being awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours.

He was given the award for services to the regional newspaper industry, six months after retiring from a long career in newspapers.

Jim, (68), said: “It’s thrilling for your achievements to be recognised, but they were not just mine, but my close colleagues, and that must not be forgotten.”

His career started as a journalist at the Ayrshire Post, and he was news editing with Express Newspapers in Glasgow when he switched to management and joined Thomson Regional Newspapers in 1964 to become a main board director, working as publicity manager for the Scotsman and Evening News in Edinburgh, before moving to Aberdeen as circulation manager of the Evening Express and Press & Journal.

He later joined the Manchester Evening News as circulation director and chairman of two chains of newsagents shops.

He was headhunted by Thomsons as group circulation and promotion director, and later became managing director of Thames Valley Newspapers.

Jim then moved to Reed Regional Newspapers in 1986 and led a £205m management buy out to form Newsquest in 1996 and then led the acquisition in 1997 of Westminster Press from Pearsons plc.

Then the feather-in-the-cap came with the £904m takeover of Newsquest by US media giant Gannett. He was chairman of Newsquest from February 1996 and was with with the company for 17 years, serving as chief executive from April 1990 to August 2001.

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