Former Bristol Evening Post deputy editor Stan Szecowka has been appointed editor of the Bahrain-based Gulf Weekly.

The newspaper is published by the Al Hilal Group, which also publishes the Gulf Daily News.

It has a circulation of 30,000 in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Its website has 200,000 visitors a month.

Stan launched his own newspaper, the Clifton Chronicle, after leaving the Bristol Evening Post in 2005. The daily won the Newspaper Society’s ‘Community Newspaper of the Year’ thanks to an initiative he instigated.

The Chronicle ceased publishing after a year but Szecowka has kept the company behind the paid-for weekly. His entrepreneurial work with the Chronicle is one of the factors behind the new appointment.

One of the Chronicle’s claims to fame was that it was the first regional newspaper to include a page in Polish, a move followed by publishers in Reading, Southampton and Torquay. Since the Chronicle folded, Stan has edited the Anglo Polish Focus magazine in Bristol.

He said: “The move to Bahrain is a whole new adventure and an exciting challenge.

“I have a number of changes planned for the Gulf Weekly.”

Stan takes up his new post this month. He flies out on Sunday with his wife Kathryn and his family following on at the end of March.

His youngest children Imogen, (seven), will go to school there and Stan, (three), will also accompany them. Sixteen-year-old Louis will be staying on in Bristol to complete his A-levels. Actress daughter Charmaine, (22), is touring Germany.