A public relations company headed up by a team of former regional editors has landed a top table spot on a new government business link-up initiative.

Dorset-based Deep South Media, staffed by seven professionally-qualified journalists, is celebrating a coveted place on an online buying system.

The Poole operation has become a supplier on Communications Marketplace, a route for government organisations to buy communications services.

The system, for contracts up to £100,000, acts as a directory putting government departments, local authorities, NHS organisations and other public sector bodies in touch with suppliers including small and medium-sized enterprises.

Team success . . . back row, from left, James Tourgout, Ed Baker, Scott Sinclair and Ron Wain. Front row, from left, Rachel Read, Debbie Granville and Andrew Diprose

Agency joint managing director Ron Wain said: “This is a real feather in our cap and comes as we continue to expand our team of PR account directors and grow our client base.

“We have a demonstrable track record in providing value to government organisations as well as our business clients and we look forward to working on even more communications campaigns in both the private and public sectors.”

The agency’s place on Communications Marketplace, launched last month, reflects a continued listing for Deep South Media as a service provider to government.

Following a competitive tender process in 2009, the company became one of only eight suppliers on the Central Office of Information’s accredited south west PR framework and one of only six on the equivalent framework in the south east.

The agency later successfully registered on the Agile Route to Market, the precursor to Communications Marketplace.

Deep South Media is a 24/7 press office, multi-media content provider and publisher to companies and organisations across the south and west of England.

Its three figureheads all boast an impressive regional press background.

Gareth Weekes, former editor of the Salisbury Journal and Daily Echo, Bournemouth, founded the business in 1998 and is the current executive chairman. He believes that “trained and highly experienced journalists make the best communicators.”

Joint managing directors Ron Wain and Andrew Diprose have both been business editors of regional dailies – the former of the Southern Daily Echo and the latter of the Bournemouth Daily Echo.