A weekly editor who spent 40 years with the same newspaper group has left for a new PR role.
Richard Batson worked his last day at the North Norfolk News after four decades of service with regional publisher Archant and its forerunner Eastern Counties Newspapers.
Richard worked at the Cromer-based NNN for 23 years, initially as chief reporter, before taking up the editor’s role.
Colleagues bade him farewell at a surprise leaving party earlier this month attended by Eastern Daily Press editor-in-chief Nigel Pickover.
He described Richard, pictured above left at the party, as “a great journalist and a gentle man”.
During his 40-year stint with ECN and Archant, Richard divided his time between its newspaper offices in King’s Lynn, Wisbech, Dereham, Swaffham, Diss and Great Yarmouth.
Richard has now moved to his position as director of news at PR at the Newsmakers agency in Norwich.
At the party he received gifts from colleagues, and Cromer Pier staff presented him with a plaque for a seat of his choice in its pavilion theatre for use in future visits, plus a lifetime’s Friends of Theatre membership.
Pier spokesman Bruce Stratton said Richard had been a loyal supporter, and a fair, frank and honest reviewer over many years.
Archant colleagues presented him with a watch and a spoof EDP front page at a later gathering in Norwich.
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How come there are so many PR roles available in PR companies that all these people keep moving to? Who and what are they PR’ing to? How are they making money? I don’t understand
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I wonder how many of today’s tyros will see out 40 years of service with the same company. In the current environment 40 weeks seems a good stretch.
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Ahh, there’s hope for me yet…
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I worked with Richard many years ago. He’s a proper local newspaper man of the old school. Good luck with the new career!
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I’m a fresh face on the newspaper scene. Why do so many journ£s crave c£reer advancem££t in the murky w£rld of PR?
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Richard was the heart and soul of Archant in North Norfolk for many years. I hope they treated him well.
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I would imagine, Scoop, that they are making their money from clients eager to fill the column inches in newspapers left vacant by departing staff.
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I notice Richard isn’t quoted in this piece so i wonder what the reason was that drove him to leave after 40 years at good old ECN and latterly the business known as Archant?
Whilst PR or localised magazines seems to be THE place to head to after Archant,surely the pay, conditions and continuous development of the weekly papers would have been enough to keep Richard happy one would have thought?
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Why not use the skills you earned to have a better work/life balance and higher standard of living for your family? Anyone who thinks newspapers are not businesses first and foremost are living in a very shaded coop. PR fits many guises but it is not an easy life so Richard will have some interesting times ahead for sure. Good luck.
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@Scoop – the truth is that a huge chunk of PR activity targets trade media, which are generally in pretty robust shape. And whilst print circulation declines, digital platforms attract more and more readers so PRs happily aim to get online rather than print coverage. A big part of most PR work is also about sharing content via social channels. Just because regional print is on its backside doesn’t mean people aren’t consuming information, content, news, whatever, in ever growing numbers. They’re just not buying regional newspapers to get that content. Latest industry figures show PR is a vibrant, growing business sector. It’s much more lucrative than journalism but nowhere near as much fun…. as I can attest!
@Stan Myerson – for a journalist to describe PR as a murky world is just a bit pot & kettle, no?
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A top operator. The company should have bent over backwards to keep someone of Richard’s ilk on board. But did they? I doubt it. Probably glad to have one of the “higher earners” off the payroll.
Look at the breadth of his experience. There is no one left in the company who can match it. Interesting that the job advert for his successor carries a wage of between £20,000 and £25,000. In my view peanuts for such a key role and the huge amount of responsibility and unpaid hours it entails. The last time I checked £25,000 was the average wage for a dustman (no disrespect to dustmen intended). Tells you all you need to know about Archant’s priorities. In the meantime large wads of cash are thrown at people with fancy titles who take months to come up with the idea of ice rinks and pet supplements as the way forward. Staggering.
Good luck Richard. You deserve it. You served Archant/Eastern Counties Newspapers with distinction. WIP (Work in peace).
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@archantlifer – Thanks for the info. I’ve decided I don’t want to be a PR person any more. I want to be a dustman. Less garbage to move.
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Richard’s departure is another big nail in the coffin of Archant’s fast dwindling news coverage. A major loss to the people of North Norfolk in particular.
However, good luck to Richard in his new job.
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Archantlifer, it may have been advertised internally with a salary quoted, the external adverts – no surprise – said nothing at all about the money. Presumably out of embarrassment, given the long list of things the job description and person specification required of a successful candidate to fill Richard’s shoes.
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prman hits plenty of nails on the head. And if News International wasn’t murky then I’m an 18th century rationalist gentleman of letters.
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Shame to turn a story about a great journalist into another Archant-bashing thread, so I won’t. But it is a sad that today’s crop of young journalists can’t and won’t aspire to recreate such longevity, no matter what company they work for. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.
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£25,000 for dustbinmen…and by implication senior journalists should be on far higher…such pure fantasy could only be penned by a media person.
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It’s all about the money at Archant these days that’s why many of the more experienced and respected people,not just in editorial but also in advertising,are no longer there either having left or been sidelined for a chetaper replacement, incredible short sightedness on the suits part but driven by the desire to make quick cost savings and to surround themselves with easy to manage yes men and women.
We don’t know from this why RB left but it’s really ironic that with the way the company’s struggling on all fronts and in light of the dreadful losses and lack of direction there at the moment that these are just the calibre of person needed in high level positions to turn things round but who now are thriving and in most cases working on competitor publications, against those very same people who let them go.
The cost of dumbing down a business is a short term gain but with longer term pain.
Good luck to Batters and to all the other long serving and highly respected professionals no longer suffering the slings and arrows of life at Archant but who can now, if they want to, just sit back and watch the implosion from a distance.
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I too dont intend to turn Richards leaving piece into a chance to knock Archant but it’s very very difficult not to given the way they let go/ cast aside/ manage out ( delete as applicable) good staff in favour of the cheapie cheapie option.
It’s difficult to put a price on experience and contacts but these days neither are of value to the top floor/ hub dwellers when all that’s of interest is getting the job done as quickly and cheaply as possible.
Anyway good luck Richard the world of PR is very different to that of community news reporting so I hope it all works out well for you.
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ECNders – who calls Batso, Batters?
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Batso wasn’t pushed nor did he jump – it was an opportunity that came up at the right time. No question that working for Archant would eventually sap the will to continue, but he tried to make it work for him – a loyalty to an outfit that once looked after its own with honourable intentions. Those intentions were subverted by the bean counters.
Batso was Mr North Norfolk – well respected, loved and a great personal contributor to his patch’s development and welfare.
He’s a top man and I wish him well.
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Indeed, Citizen. When I worked with Richard the firm was one of the better regional newspaper employers. The pay was decent and we even had a bonus scheme. That was before the bean counters gained ascendancy. I had a look at my old local Archant weekly the other day and was thoroughly disheartened to see how pathetically thin it was. It also read as though it had been written by a child. No wonder readers are leaving. No one likes to have their intelligence insulted.
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@blackshuck
If you look at the copy sale figures hidden away in the bottom right corner in small print in the on line media packs you’ll be shocked at just how bad the sales figures of the weeklies are, so bad that they bundle them up with other ‘ platforms’ in an attempt to bluff potential advertises but which only emphasises how few people now buy them, papers which are little more than ad grabbers padded out with supplied content, and they have the nerve to put the price up too!
With quality no longer a key factor it seems there’s never been a better time to jump ship than now, albeit into the choppy waters of local PR
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