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BBC comeback for former daily news chief

A former editor of the Manchester Evening News who left her job ahead of a restructure has taken up a new public relations role with the BBC.

Maria McGeoghan,  left, has joins the BBC North team as external communications lead based in Salford and started her new role this week.

She left the MEN in April last year prior to a wide-ranging restructure by publisher Trinity Mirror that saw editors-in-chief appointed to its daily newspaper titles.

More recently she had been working for a Cheshire-based PR agency, The Scott Partnership, as director of strategy and operations.

Maria, who lives in Salford, said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining the BBC North team. It’s a great story for the North and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

She joined the MEN as assistant editor in 1998 having previously held a variety of senior roles at the Liverpool Echo.

Having been appointed deputy editor in 2006, she became the first woman editor in the paper’s 145-year history in 2010 shortly after Trinity Mirror took over the title from GMG Regional Media.

She oversaw the editorial move from the paper’s city centre offices to Chadderton, launched a successful weekly business magazine and presided over record online audience figures for the MEN website.

Following her departure she took up the position with The Scott Partnership, an international communications agency based in Holmes Chapel which specialises in science and technology PR.

Maria oversaw the company’s growth in its two Cambridge-based businesses during her time there and helped the agency achieve a fifth-placed position in the Prolific North Top 50 Agencies rankings published in June.