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‘Outstanding’ editor departs after 41 years with weekly

terry-mitchinsonA local MP has paid tribute to an “outstanding” weekly editor after he was made redundant following 41 years with the same newspaper.

Terry Mitchinson, left, is leaving the Welwyn Hatfield Times, the paper where he began his career as a junior reporter in 1975.

Terry has served as editor of the Times for 22 years, and marked four decades with the paper in October 2015.

His redundancy follows a management shake-up at publisher Archant’s Hertfordshire titles.

Welwyn Hatfield MP and former Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps has paid tribute to Terry in a message on Twitter.

He posted: “Certain @whtimes will hugely miss outstanding local editor Terry Mitchinson. Good luck Terry, you’ve served Welwyn Hatfield [with] distinction.”

Terry is the third senior editorial figure to leave Archant in recent months.

Last week Eastern Daily Press editor Nigel Pickover announced he would be retiring at Christmas after 44 years in the industry while another experienced newsman, North London editor-in-chief Geoff Martin, has also recently stepped down.

During his time as editor, Terry helped launch two now-defunct newspapers, the Comet Weekender and the Leader series, and helped launch Archant’s Hertfordshire Life magazine.

The Times was one of the first newsrooms to trial Archant’s content management system, which has since been introduced across the group.

An Archant spokewoman said:  “We can confirm that Terry’s role has been made redundant following a reorganisation of the editorial management of Archant’s Hertfordshire titles.”

11 comments

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  • November 16, 2016 at 9:49 am
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    Good luck for the future Terry. Decent man. Excellent journalist. Will be missed by the community. Welcome to the Archant dedication and devotion-means-nothing-after-40-years-club

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  • November 16, 2016 at 10:03 am
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    All good wishes to Terry, another long serving,experienced editorial member of staff out the door to be replaced by a “content editor”

    sign of the times,heaven help us

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  • November 16, 2016 at 2:44 pm
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    God saves us from the desk-bound out of touch production monkey content editors of this world, often 20 or 30 miles away from the patch.They work hard enough, but the profession misses proper editors like Terry. The gaps show.

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  • November 16, 2016 at 5:59 pm
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    Another of the better editorial staff shown the door while the heavily laden ad departments continue to be overmanned by middle managers shuffling paper without actually doing anything.

    High time for an audit to cut out the deadwood and high salaries and bonuses from there as opposed to the editorial departments which are already stretched to the max and at the point of breaking
    Best wishes to Terry,in so many ways a happy release

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  • November 17, 2016 at 8:01 am
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    best wishes to Terry and its ironic that first the research /insight team is dumped then experienced editors who knew their patches are given the heave ho in favour of “content managers”

    Not sure how Archant expect to adopt an ” audience first” policy without knowing who their audiences are or with people who havent a clue about the local hyper audience?

    With even more editors on the way out the door or sideways moved before year end 2016 will go down as the year of the editor cull,2017 will see them become extinct.

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  • November 17, 2016 at 9:53 am
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    I imagine it will be news eds/chief reporters (if there are any left) next.

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  • November 17, 2016 at 10:17 am
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    I wish Terry all the best. A fine editor, but more importantly a great human being.
    He is admired and respected by all who worked with him, I’m sure, and I would like to say that he is fun, energetic – and passionate about his town.
    All the best for the future, Terry, I count it a privilege to have worked alongside you.

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  • November 17, 2016 at 11:19 am
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    Anyone on a high salary i am relaibly informed so yes Hacky Mc,youre probably right
    The earlier point about sales managers incurring high costs yet seemingly producing little is a valid point yet one which constantly seems to be ignored,presumably those making the savings decisions and deciding where the next axe is to fall know what theyre doing?

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  • November 17, 2016 at 8:47 pm
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    A true gent, Terry, thank you for being a great person to work with when we did many years back, I hope that you enjoy all you do from here on, you will always be one of the best there was.

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  • November 20, 2016 at 4:46 pm
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    “Decent man. Excellent journalist.” I can see clearly why a board of businessmen wouldn’t want a man like him around any longer.

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  • November 21, 2016 at 5:26 pm
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    DavidG

    Based on the number of old timers leaving, I suspect part of the story is a revenue hole. Cut costs to fill a hole. Will be filled by a cheap young things with an iPhone.

    They are doing what all the commentator’s on here keep calling for, cutting the top heavy management.

    Also with a big cut in salary costs the company will be far more attractive to a buyer.

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