Changes are planned at the Oldham Evening Chronicle following the appointment of Jim Williams (pictured) as editor.

He succeeds Philip Hirst, who had been editor since 1991. Mr Hirst (48) has been promoted to managing director of Hirst, Kidd and Rennie Ltd., the company which owns the paper.

Mr Williams (56) joined the Chronicle in 1965 and admits his elevation was “somewhat unexpected”.

“Philip Hirst is several years younger than me, so I was expecting that he, as editor and a member of the family that owns the newspaper, would stay as editor until I came to retire or fell off my perch,” he said.

“But his cousin, Hubert Hirst, stood down as managing director of the company, so Philip took over.”

The new editor said there would be changes to the 120-year-old title, but not yet.

“We have a very loyal readership here and the last thing we would want to do is scare them away by doing anything too sudden or dramatic, but we are proposing to make fairly major changes over the next eight to 12 months.

“We feel there is some modernisation called for in various areas.”

Mr Williams trained with the Ashton Reporter Series of newspapers. He joined the Chronicle as a sports reporter and covered Oldham Athletic for 12 years before transferring to the newsdesk. During his time as news editor, he also worked for Piccadilly Radio and the BBC.

He was appointed as deputy editor nine years ago.

He is a keen walker whose other hobbies include “dining out and drinking wine” with his wife, Karen. The couple have two grown-up children.

Applications for the deputy editor’s job close on Friday.

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