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Sportswriter turned Rangers PR boss leaves role

A sportwriter who quit the industry with an attack on journalists to become director of communications for a football club has left his new role.

Daily Record sportswriter Jim Traynor left the title last December after 37 years in the industry with a controversial final column which criticised journalists for how they reported on Rangers Football Club.

The following week, it was announced that he was to become the new director of communications at the football club, a role he took up in the New Year.

However, Jim has now left the role after less than a year, which is understood to be due to cost-cutting at the club.

A statement on the Rangers website said: “Rangers today announce that director of communications James Traynor has left the club.”

STV reports that a board spokesman said his departure was part of cost-cutting measures at the club.

In his final Daily Record column, Jim wrote that his “conscience” would not allow him to remain in journalism and he criticised the accusations made against the football club by journalists and bloggers over its financial problems.

He wrote: “For the last couple of years some of the most bilious types have been allowed to emerge from the shadows and spew invective that sadly became regarded as fact, even though what they were saying and writing wasn’t even close to being definitive. Or honest.

“Overnight all sorts of anonymous bloggers became experts. These champions of decency had all the answers. They knew better than anyone else. They said over and over Rangers would be done for cheating the tax man.

“Even now so many – and I include some fellow journalists – still cannot bring themselves to accept Rangers did not cheat the tax man by using EBTs.

“One journalist declared it to be ‘a government conspiracy’ when he heard the ruling in Rangers’ favour.

“Perhaps in time more will be written about this kind of hack and the rabid desire to help bring down Rangers, a fierce desire that, sadly, was widespread. Actually, I’m sure more will be written about them.”

After joining the football club earlier this year, Jim issued a warning to journalists to “be very careful” when writing about the club, saying  “no one will attack Rangers with impunity”.

During his journalism career, he worked at The Herald, the Daily Express and the Daily Record, as well as being a presenter for BBC Radio Scotland.

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  • November 5, 2013 at 11:20 am
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    Sounds like he had as much success as director of communications as that woman (her name eludes me) at Newcastle United.

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