Phil Mills, long-serving crime reporter at The Argus in Brighton, has joined the city’s Southern News and Pictures.

Phil, (55), was controversially made redundant from the paper earlier this year after 26 years there, and has now taken up the role of news editor at the agency.

The move sees him join ex-Argus photographer Steven Laurence, who set up the agency as a freelance photo business.

Phil will now develop the services which the agency offers, providing PR and news and features to the nationals and TV.

A third ex-Argus staffer, photographer Darren Cool, has also joined Southern News and Pictures.

Phil told HoldtheFrontPage: “Steve had heard about my redundancy and approached me, and I accepted.

“It is a different business in the sense that there is a selling side to it and you are pursuing stories for their monetary value as well as their journalistic value, which is new to me, but I’m getting the hang of it.

“It is a learning curve which is good because you can get stuck in your ways when you reach 50-plus. You think you have been there and done that, but you really never have.

“It is a new avenue of the same profession and I’m enjoying it.”

Before joining The Argus, Phil had worked at the Eastbourne Gazette and Herald and spent six years in Canada on the Vancouver Province.

He had also done shifts on The Sun, Mirror and Today, as well as the Sunday papers.

Following his departure from The Argus he said he felt “the bean counters” had taken over the industry, but he wished the paper well.

He said: “So many other papers appear to be cutting back and journalism is suffering as a result. I hope the industry bounces back and I’m optimistic that it will.

“I have only good wishes for The Argus. It is the paper my grandfather used to send me out to fetch as a boy – it is in my blood.

“I still have a lot of friends there and I wish them well.”