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Weekly news chief given charge of eight titles

A weekly newspaper editor has been promoted to take charge of a series of eight titles across two counties after less than nine months in his current role.

James Mitchinson, left, who was made editor of the Worksop Guardian last summer, will now become group editor for Johnston Press weekly titles in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire.

His new role starting on 21 March will see him take direct editorial responsibility for the Grantham Journal and Citizen, while the editors of the Melton Times, Sleaford Standard, Boston Standard, Horncastle News, Market Rasen Mail, Louth Leader and Skegness Standard will all report to him.

James joined the Worksop Guardian in 2002 as a trainee reporter and has risen through the ranks, becoming editor last summer when George Robinson stepped down after 18 years to sell antique toys.

He said: “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead the award-winning Grantham Journal and its associated titles.

“To play my part in the history of the Journal and the people it serves will be a privilege, and I couldn’t be more excited about taking up the challenge.

“My decade at the Worksop Guardian has been an apprenticeship without equal. I owe an awful lot to the people I’ve worked with, who have never settled for anything but award-winning standards in journalism.

“I wish the team good luck – but I know they don’t need it.”

James added the highlight of his time at the Guardian had been helping lead the paper’s coverage of the Neil Entwistle double murder trial, for which the paper won editorial team of the year at the O2 Media Awards for Yorkshire and The Humber.

His promotion to group editor was announced earlier this month by Richard Parkinson, managing director of East Midlands Newspapers, who James will report to.

He told HTFP: “James will have overall responsibility for some strong weekly newspapers and their associated websites. I’m looking forward to working with him in his new role.”

11 comments

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  • February 21, 2011 at 9:30 am
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    I am sure that James Mitchinson is a very good journalist and I wish him well. However, how can anyone give any more that passing attention when they are in charge of eight newspapers? This surely demonstrates the level to which journalism has descended, driven by the bean counters. Oh for the days when each newspaper had its own editor who could devote their entire working week to the title.

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  • February 21, 2011 at 9:42 am
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    MikeC – my understanding is that James will be the Group Editor of those titles, and that each title has an individual editor.

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  • February 21, 2011 at 9:43 am
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    Because he’s a group editor MikeC and seven of the individual titles have their own editors. But don’t let me stop someone on here moaning about the fall of standards in journalism…particularly someone who only reads the headlines.

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  • February 21, 2011 at 11:16 am
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    How can MikeC criticise the level of journalism when he makes a mistake in his own 70 words?

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  • February 21, 2011 at 11:25 am
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    anyone know what group editors actually do for a living in terms of producing anything? Only eight years a hack? Bit too inexperienced for such a job surely? Probably cheap though. Just how JP like them.

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  • February 21, 2011 at 12:21 pm
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    Suffolklass, I’m glad you aren’t running JP. If you had your way our papers would be run by out-of-date dinosaurs, rather than forward-thinking, dynamic, editors who get results, like James Mitchinson for example.

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  • February 21, 2011 at 2:33 pm
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    Bumfluff (or is it brownose) If I was you’d be first out because you sound too naive to be journo. I am relatively young at 35 but the best people I have worked for have been over 45 at least. I think it’s called experience and knowing what you are talking about. There are some great young hacks around, though. Most of them leave because JP mucks them about so much.

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  • March 1, 2011 at 5:15 pm
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    Technically this is not even 8 individual papers. The last four quoted are editions of a wider title known as Skegness Series. Boston & Sleaford are basically copy and paste jobs of each other. Wish i could put on my CV that I was in charge of 8 titles. Between him and his 8 editors they will be lucky to see 400 pages between them. Easy Meat

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