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Editor of South West daily leaves job after 20 months

The editor of a regional daily is leaving his role tomorrow after less than 20 months in the post.

Ian Wood was given the job of leading Local World daily The Herald, Plymouth, in May 2012 after his predecessor Bill Martin took over at the Western Morning News.

A former deputy editor of the Manchester Evening News, the move marked a homecoming for Devon-born Ian, who began his career as a reporter in Newcastle.

Now Ian is leaving the business tomorrow in a move which apparently left the newsroom stunned.

The move was announced to staff by Blanche Sainsbury, the current managing director of Local World’s South West Media Group who is shortly due to become group commercial director.

She said in an internal email:  “Ian Wood editor of The Herald will be leaving the business on Friday 29th November 2013.

“Ian has worked incredibly hard over the last 20 months to develop The Herald, the audience, and the newsroom.

“Please join me in wishing Ian the very best for the future. Ian’s successor will be announced shortly.”

It is understood that Ian himself also made an emotional address to the newsroom saying he was leaving.

“A stunned silence followed. Some of the staff were tearful,”one staff member told HTFP.

Ian became deputy editor of the MEN in 2010 after Maria McGeoghan succeeded Paul Horrocks in the editor’s chair in 2010, before leaving at the end of 2011.

He was appointed to the editor’s job by Andrew Blair, who preceded Blanche as MD of SWMG.

16 comments

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  • November 28, 2013 at 8:31 am
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    Monty shakes the futuristic tree and reveals with ‘visionary zeal’ what he expects low-grade replicant robots to produce manufactured news in the new ‘Local World’ and those wishing to remain human and real journalists will leave.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 8:47 am
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    Good on him. Abandon ship journalists – Local World is not interested in your profession. They just want your brand so they can close down the newspapers and launch rubbish websites in their place.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 8:59 am
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    Don’t panic – under Monty’s vision Mrs Elsie Scraggitt, of 4 Railway Cuttings, Ernesettle, is currently being lined up as the new Editor.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 9:45 am
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    Elsie Scraggitt faces quite a task replacing Ian Wood, who is a first-rate journalist and just the kind of man the regional press requires to help it reverse its terminal malaise.
    But, having said that, Mrs Scraggitt is well known for her ability to make a tea bag last a week, and her legendary ability to turn off the lights.
    In other words – the ideal candidate for the editorship of a Local World franchise.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 9:52 am
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    When I said in a previous post a few days ago,who will be next after Blanche received a new appointment…I didn’t think it would be this quick. There will be no one left in Plymouth in a few months. Staff morale must be so low there.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 10:33 am
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    What a loss for the Herald. I wish Ian all the best in the future. He is a true pro…

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  • November 28, 2013 at 10:46 am
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    I’d echo Rodger’s comments. Ian is a decent journalist and a gentleman to boot. I hope he is going on to better things because if there’s no room for people like him in the regional press, it really is a lost cause.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 11:09 am
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    Yes, it’s the now traditional pre-Christmas misery period for underpaid, unappreciated journalists, with more editors falling on swords and jobs going across the country.
    You have to be tough these days just to click on HTFP as December looms. Will the last one out the door switch off the Christmas tree lights.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 1:45 pm
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    One by one, (well respected) Editors are jumping ship. Local World had a real chance but it now seems in disarray. How long before someone really questions what is going on here ?

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  • November 28, 2013 at 4:11 pm
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    It all started a few years ago with the shock departure of award-winning editor Barrie Williams, of the Western Morning News, who did so much good work for the region and for what was then the Northcliffe paper’s circulation.The end was nigh for fine journalists and it heralded the start of the age of the Accountants, determined to employ pretenders pumping out rubbish for a pittance.There are a lot of good journalists left but they are being thinned out at an alarming rate in favour of copy clerks or empty seats. Monty’s vision is already becoming reality and how many regional dailies will survive the next five years? If people like Montgomery are so clever, why didn’t his newspapers bring in paywalls when the internet revolution started. I am sure the much-maligned visionary Christopher Pole-Carew would have recognised the need for these more than a decade ago. It is too late now that people have grown accustomed to free information and news. Wise after the event? Not guilty – journalists on the ‘shop floor’ were screaming out for them more than ten years ago.

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  • November 28, 2013 at 7:24 pm
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    Give up the paywall thing, Ian. They’re pointless for 95 per cent of regionals and always have been

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  • November 29, 2013 at 11:03 am
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    They are now, Oliver, because it’s too late. I asked my next door neighbour why he had stopped buying the Nottingham Post after 40 years. He said: “Why should I buy it when I can call up all the stuff on my phone for free?” Had there been a paywall at the time, he assures me he would have paid it. “What about now? I asked him. “Not on your nelly. In any case I can get all the Forest news free on the club website.” I know this is only one example but I suspect thousands of former readers feel the same.

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  • November 29, 2013 at 5:33 pm
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    Umpteen people now just look at websites and stop buying weeklies or even the dailies. More freesheets also prompt more people to stop buying paid-fors.
    Papers are slimmer with less news and that’s of poor quality with stories not followed up but quickly written briefly from police crime and accident reports or from the fire service.
    Example: Two par report of a fire badly damaging a house and no one calls there to find out what happened and where occupants have been forced to go etc.
    Or spectacular car crash where it’s gone off road, across garden and caved in wall. Very short report and no one sent to see household.
    Bring back Lobby Ludd too.
    My local BBC TV (from Oxford and then Southampton studios) news at 6.30 is often full of frothy stories and little hard news or follow ups.

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  • December 2, 2013 at 6:48 pm
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    Ian Wood is passionate about the job, a real grafter and someone with a great sense of humour – I know because I worked with him for over 10 years. I know nothing of how he came to leave the Plymouth paper, but if they can’t see the benefit of having someone like Ian working for them I despair for the future of regional newspapers.

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  • December 2, 2013 at 7:40 pm
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    I worked with Ian for years at the MEN. Fine, very hard-working journalist, and a decent bloke. Wish him all the best.

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