Former Midlands newspaper editor Don Goggin has died, aged 83.

During a newspaper career which spanned more than 30 years, he edited the Sutton Coldfield News, where he stayed for four years before being appointed editor-in-chief of its parent comany, the former West Midlands Press group, in 1971.

The group’s titles also included the Walsall Observer, Solihull News and the now defunct Warley News Telephone, and he became editorial director in 1973.

Don had begun his career at the Birmingham Post in 1950, and also served as chief reporter of the Walsall Observer before taking on his first editorship.

Throughout his career he also had an interest in the training of journalists and was a member of the West Midlands Advisory Committee for the Training of Journalists, the National Council for the Training of Journalists and of the Guild of British Newspaper Editors.