Former Newcastle Evening Chronicle deputy editor Peter Long is packing his bags for British Columbia as a guest of the International Society of Weekly Editors.

He will jet out to Victoria, Canada, with his wife next month, for the society’s annual conference after being awarded this year’s Greenslade Bursary.

Currently the editor-in-chief of Celtic Newspapers, Cardiff, Mr Long was nominated for the honour by the Society of Editors.

He said: “Anthony Londgen from the Uxbridge Gazette Series went last time and he’s told me it was an excellent conference.

“I’m looking forward to the chance to get together with my American counterparts for the five-day conference.

“The invitation came out of the blue really. I’m expecting an e-mail any day asking me to give a talk when I get there!”

Mr Long has been in his current post since 1992, and in that time circulation of the nine-title weekly series has been boosted by 56 per cent.

Much of his early career was in the North East where he was appointed deputy editor of the Evening Chronicle, Newcastle, in 1985 and was launch editor of Chester Tonight in 1988. He went on to become group editor of the Chester Chronicle Series before moving to Cardiff eight years ago.

The bursary funds a conference visit by a British Isles editor each year. The International Society of Weekly Editors was founded in America in 1954 and has members all over the world. The trips for UK editors are paid for from the estate of an editor who went once and thought it would be a good idea to send someone every year.

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