Mike Clark has been appointed deputy editor of the Bristol Observer series.

Mike, (36), joined the Bristol Observer in January 2004 as acting chief sub-editor to cover a maternity leave and was confirmed chief sub in the middle of the year.

Before joining the Observer Mike was the editor of The Riviera Gazette, France's only English-language weekly. He has also worked in B2B publishing, having run SJB Research from 1992 until it was sold to Reed Elsevier in 1999. He started his career as a designer and writer of computer games in 1986.

Mike said: "Newspaper folk traditionally look down their noses at free papers, but I believe they should be taken very seriously.

"I'm full of ideas and looking forward to contributing even more to the success story that is the Bristol Observer."

The Bristol Observer is Northcliffe Newspapers' largest free weekly, publishing five editions and printing more than 180,000 copies every week.

Editor Peter O'Reilly said: "In the year since Mike has joined the Observer he has proved vital in bringing about the massive changes in design and content which have made it a first-class journalistic product."

Aside from making great newspapers,
Mike's passion is his 1200cc Harley-Davidson