A new editor has been appointed for Sheffield daily The Star as part of an internal reshuffle among Johnston Press editors.
James Mitchinson, left, who currently leads the Derbyshire Times, will become group editor for Sheffield with direct responsibility for the Sheffield Star and Sheffield Telegraph.
Group editor of the Derbyshire Times for the past two years, James succeeds Jeremy Clifford who left The Star last month to take up the reins at the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post.
He will take up the role on 7 October and will continue as the editorial director for the South Yorkshire and North Midlands publishing unit, while also sitting on the group editorial board.
James’s appointment has triggered a wider shake-up among JP editors with his old job in Chesterfield going to Graeme Huston, currently editor of the Doncaster Free Press, South Yorkshire Times and associated titles.
As well as the DT, Graeme will have direct responsibility for the Matlock Mercury and, as group editor, overall responsibility for a series of other local weeklies including the Ripley and Heanor News, Belper News and Ilkeston Advertiser.
He will take up the new post on 30 September and all staff who previously reported to James will now report to Graeme.
Phil Bramley, who is currently assistant editor of the Derbyshire Times, will move to Mansfield to become the new editor of the Mansfield Chad, Ashfield Chad, Alfreton Chad and Hucknall Dispatch from the end of this month.
His appointment follows the departure of editor Tracy Powell, who left to become a journalism lecturer at Nottingham Trent University.
The announcement of the appointments was made by regional managing director John Bills, who said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ben Green, who has done an excellent job in his capacity as acting editor of the Chad since the departure of Tracy Powell.
“Graeme’s move means that there is now a editor vacancy in Doncaster and this will be advertised immediately.
“I’m sure you will join me in congratulating James, Graeme and Phil on their new roles and challenges and wish them every success for the future.”
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If they’ve got any sense at all the recently deposed editor of the ‘sold to its competitor’ Selby Times; one Chris Page, should be put forward for the top job in Doncaster!
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This sounds like musical chairs … except that at JP there’ll eventually be more empty chairs than people!
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Crazy to think it could be done . . .
Once upon a time when NEWSpapers were published and people read them, an editor had his or her hands full editing one newspaper. The community demanded the editor be answerable for what it did – so how can one person edit multiple titles? Not at all or not very well perhaps. But who cares about that, clearly not Johnston Press – Richard Tear ex editor of the Doncaster Free Press, news reporter on The Star Sheffield and editorial director Reed Newspapers (Yorkshire) Ltd.
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Life seems rather incestuous in JP these days. No recruitment of outside talent, no looking beyond the realms of what they already have. Just a tendency to shuffle and reshuffle.
It may be that they believe they have everything they need in the people they already have, but that seems to be dangerously complacent. New talent can bring new ideas and ways of working – and that is not always a bad thing.
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Think an injection of new management talent was what was really required here . All four papers are losing sales and it is surprising they haven’t taken the opportunity to introduce some fresh blood.
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Constant internal promotions by the handful of big publishers will just produce more Yes Men. You need a variety of publications UNDER DIFFERENT OWNERSHIP for journalism–and democracy– to flourish. What we see today is the the death of newspapers and the growth of Pravda.
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