Malvern Gazette editor Nick Howells is leaving the Newsquest weekly after six years in charge.

He has decided to take on a new challenge in communications with the NHS, in the West Midlands.

Nick, (42), has been editor of the Gazette, and sister title the Ledbury Reporter, for six years with a five year stint as deputy editor prior to that.

In total, he has worked for Newsquest for over two decades which will finally come to an end on Friday.

He said: “I fancied a change of direction and I’m looking forward to a new challenge.

“At 42, I have got many more years to work and have already done so many.

“I have time for another career and promotion opportunities for people from an editorial background are limited.”

One of the highlights of his time in Malvern was the paper’s successful campaign to prevent the sale of Malvern Theatres to a London company.

And in 2001 the two newspapers won Malvern Hills District Council’s platinum business award for their tourism and regeneration work.

Nick says he will be keeping those traditional community links in his new role as internal communications manager with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust.

He added: “I won’t be dealing with the press in the new job.

“I’ve never been interested in PR and this is internal communications.

“They produce an internal newspaper so they probably took me across because of my newspaper skills. It’s going to be quite a learning curve.

“That NHS trust serves 6,000 people – it’s all about serving a community which is what I enjoy about this job.”

His successor will be David Edwards who was deputy editor at the Gazette and Reporter for five years and is currently heading the company’s sub-editing unit in Worcester.