Newsquest’s former PR chief Andrew Diprose has returned to the Dorset business scene after an absence of ten years.

The former business editor of the Daily Echo, Bournemouth, has joined Deep South Media as a PR account director.

His newly-created position with the Bournemouth-based communications consultancy sees Andrew (left) team up again with his former editor, Gareth Weekes, who founded Deep South Media in 1998.

Together they were behind some of the Echo's most memorable business initiatives in the early 1990s - including the award-winning Dorset Fights Back anti-recession campaign and the drive to establish a single Dorset Business Awards contest.

Andrew, (44), said: "I'm absolutely delighted to be joining the talented team at Deep South Media and to be working, once again, for Gareth.

"Dorset is home to some great businesses - large and small - and, through Deep South Media, I look forward to playing my part in highlighting their individual and collective successes."

Gareth Weekes, who was named South West Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2004 Chamber Awards, added: "Andrew is a great catch. He has a top class track record in public relations and is also a superb journalist."

Andrew has 26 years' experience in regional newspapers, commercial radio and corporate affairs/PR and was the Echo's business editor from 1991 to 1995.

For the past ten years he has worked for the paper's parent group, Newsquest, in Southampton.