Paul Mortimer has been appointed as the new group editor of the Richmond and Twickenham Times series.

Currently editor of the Staffordshire Newsletter, he joins the paper on March 31, and will officially take up his appointment a month later following the retirement of Malcolm Richards on April 30.

Aged 52, Paul is chairman of the Midland Region of the Society of Editors. His partner is a teacher and he has a 24-year-old daughter.

He has been actively involved in the Stafford business community through the chambers of commerce and Stafford borough SRB.

His interests include mountaineering, mountain biking, art, poetry and fly fishing.

Paul was born in North Wales and as his father was in the services lived abroad during his childhood in places such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Cyprus.

He joined the Staffordshire Advertiser as a trainee reporter in 1967 at 18 and worked there for five years. He later edited the Tamworth Trader. He was appointed editor of the Staffordshire Newsletter in 1996 and in his first year collected the Newspaper of the Year Award.

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