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Cancer claims life of editor

Friends and colleagues have paid tribute to Ayrshire Post editor Jim Robb, who has lost his battle with cancer.

The 54-year-old was an experienced and well-respected journalist who colleagues have described as a “true professional”.

Jim enjoyed a long and distinguished career which began in 1967 when he joined the Ayr Advertiser as a young reporter.

Five years later, at the age of 22, he became the youngest serving newspaper editor in Scotland when he took the top job at the Advertiser.

In 1986 he was “head-hunted” by rival Scottish and Universal Newspapers and became editor of the Dumfries and Galloway Standard, overseeing the successful conversion of the paper’s Friday edition from broadsheet to tabloid.

John Scott, editorial director of Scottish and Universals Newspapers, said: “Jim Robb was an absolutely first class professional. He will be a terrible loss to the company and to the Ayrshire Post in particular.

“He combined a warm, friendly and caring personality towards all, a dedicated professionalism in the handling of day to day tasks, and a fearless approach to big and controversial issues.

“His was the absolute quality that you look for in an editor.”

Jim’s talent and all-round professionalism was tested to the extreme by the Lockerbie disaster in 1988, when one of the biggest news stories to break in Scotland happened just 24 hours before the Standard’s deadline.

But its subsequent coverage of the event won Jim a nomination for Journalist of the Year in the 1989 Press Awards, while his reporting team shared the Reporter of the Year Award.

In 1993 Jim left Dumfries and joined the Ayrshire Post as chief sub-editor and was subsequently appointed editor on the early retirement of Tom Workman.

Tom said: “For years Jim and I were adversaries him as editor of the Ayr Advertiser and myself as editor of the Ayrshire Post.

“He was a tough opponent with high standards and always produced a quality newspaper.

“When he left the Advertiser to join the Dumfries and Galloway Standard, I must confess I did not share the grief of his Advertiser colleagues.

“However, when Jim returned to Ayrshire a few years later I was delighted as he joined me at the Post as my chief sub-editor.”

He added: “Jim’s talent was immense. He could design pages in an exciting way which made you want to read them.

“He was full of idea and ways to tell and present stories. Although he came across as a quiet mild mannered man, he would fight vigorously for editorial values, where ever they were compromised.

“Jim was a true professional, nothing less.”

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