After a newspaper career spanning 49 years, two centuries and two millenniums, Barry Hartley, editor of the Lowestoft Journal, is preparing to retire.

Barry has spent the last 16 years at the helm of the weekly title and his whole career on East Anglia newspapers – starting off in 1953 as a trainee at the Cambridge Evening News.

Barry’s happiest times were in Lowestoft

After 10 years as a reporter on the Evening News, Barry moved to the subs desk where he spent another five years.

In 1968 he moved to the Norwich Mercury Series where he worked his way up the ranks to take up his first editorship.

In 1985, after five years in the editor’s chair at Norwich, he joined the Lowestoft Journal – becoming only the sixth editor in the paper’s 130 year history.

Barry said: “I could have taken early retirement three years ago but I decided I wanted to take the paper into the new millennium. It’s been a long career but it has flown by!

“It has been extremely enjoyable and fulfilling.”

But now at 65 – he retires on March 15, the day after his 65th birthday – he has decided to put down his notebook and pen.

“I’m looking forward to retirement, but I can look back on a very happy career,” said Barry.

When asked about the high point of his career in Lowestoft, Barry recalls a time just a few weeks into his editorship there.

The newspaper launched an appeal to replace the local RNLI lifeboat with the aim of raising around £70,000.

However, with weeks of continuous covereage of various fundraising events and updates of how the appeal was going, it snowballed and within 27 months £450,000 was raised.

“It was the first time a town had raised enough money to pay for its own lifeboat – it had never been done before and it has never been done since,” said Barry.

“The appeal enabled me to meet so many people and was a springboard for the rest of my time in Lowestoft.”

The Journal shares its office with district reporters for the Eastern Daily Press, and as such Barry has seen countless trainees pass through during his 16 years as editor.

He said: “I’ve lost count of the number of reporters who have spent time here and learnt new skills. It’s nice to think I’ve played a small part in their development.”

Barry admits the newspaper world has changed dramatically during his career and says the world of digital photography is a far cry from when he first started when the newspaper office only had one typewriter and most of his work had to be handwritten.

“There was always lots of noise,” said Barry.

“The atmosphere of the newsroom has gone, but the job is still the same. I’ve never lost my appetite for it. It’s always been interesting and has got to be one of the best jobs there is.

“I’m going to miss the hands-on role on the paper most – meeting deadlines, planning the paper and seeing the finished product.”