Comments on: Two more editors depart in North-West shake-up

By: Jon Brown

Jon Brown — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:41:06 +0000

I’m another one who worked with Steve as a nipper. 15 years later, as deputy editor on the liverpool echo, I’d find myself repeating advice, verbatim, which Steve & then news editor Chas Stewart had given me. The industry diminishes this rich repository of expertise at its peril. Good luck Steve.

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By: Glen Cooper

Glen Cooper — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:08:40 +0000

“It means JP’s new-look senior team in the region is now in place, with Nicola Adam moving to the combined role of editor of the Lancaster Guardian and Garstang Courier”

I’m hoping the omission of The Visitor, Morecambe, is an oversight on your part…. or do you know something we don’t??

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By: Justin Allitt

Justin Allitt — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:58:02 +0000

Interview with Ashley Highfield, November 2011 “The trick is to help move those brands (local newspapers) into the digital age and get the right balance between print and digital.”
Ashley, it isn’t a trick, you need great Editors like Steve Singleton for success.
Cost cutting and short term gains may help your career, but won’t help local communities.
Opinion from a local estate agent who has advertised with Johnstone Press for 22 years.

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By: David Birtill

David Birtill — Tue, 29 May 2012 09:08:53 +0000

How many more “proper journalists” such as Steve Singleton can this declining industry afford to lose? Our weekly newspapers are supposed to represent the community but the deplorable number of inaccuracies, sub-standard writing and sloppy editing has turned some of them into Comic Cuts. Where will it all end? Sadly, the waste bin.

David Birtill
54 years in the profession and still going strong

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By: redundant hack

redundant hack — Mon, 28 May 2012 16:17:45 +0000

Ahh….Barry Stocks. What a legend. The Fylde coast employed and produced some great journalists – many of whom have gone on to top jobs. Good memories. Good luck Steve.

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By: Stuart Laundy

Stuart Laundy — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:14:02 +0000

Steve was on the Gazette news desk when I was a trainee based at Lytham St Annes in the late 80s – with the late Barry Stocks as editor of the Express. The pair of them knocked me into shape and I couldn’t have wished for a better pair of mentors.
Sadly, Barry is no longer with us and I wish Steve all the best for whatever the future brings.

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By: View from Stonebridge

View from Stonebridge — Mon, 28 May 2012 11:15:03 +0000

Any news on what’s happening to the Longridge News? Is it to be edited from 30 miles away now? Or is it just another title destined for the dumper?

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By: John Lynott

John Lynott — Mon, 28 May 2012 09:47:22 +0000

I wish Steve well for the future. He was news editor when I started my career with the West Lancashire Evening Gazette/Lytham St Annes Express in 1980.
Along with my first editor, the late Barry Stocks, he guided me through my trainee days, checking my copy thoroughly to ensure that the story – however big or small – had the who, what, why, where, when and how and hit the deadline. He prodded me, prompted me to do better, be sharper, know what was going on. And we had the staff in numbers for seniors to provide this vital role.
Barry always said a good journalist could write the story of the Bible in 14 pars and that a journalist who couldn’t sub was like a fish without fins. For his part Steve ensured that all his reporters covered everything that moved, from the council committee running Fylde’s “loss-making/money-making” blue buses to the donkeys on the beach.
Solid gold local newsmen like Steve are what we should treasure.
At least the donkeys are still around, it’s just that they don’t all work on the beach these days.

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