Former newspaper editor Geoff Elliott is to retire from his role as head of the department of journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

Geoff, (pictured), has previously edited three newspapers – The News, Portsmouth, the Coventry Evening Telegraph and the Kent Messenger.

The 57-year-old has been in his current role at the university for three years, and is responsible for the leadership and management of the journalism department as well as teaching on several of the newspaper journalism modules.

He will leave his post at the end of August, when he and his wife Lyn intend to settle in the West Country.

His distinguished 40-year career in journalism began on his home-town paper, the Coventry Evening Telegraph, as a trainee reporter.

He rose through the ranks to become deputy editor at 27 and left in 1979 to edit the Kent Messenger.

In 1981 he returned to Coventry and was editor for almost 10 years before joining The News, Portsmouth, as editor in 1990, where he worked for almost 10 years.

He has served on the Press Council, the Editors’ Code Committee, the Press Complaints Commission and the DA Notices (formerly D Notices) Committee, and, now, the Broadcasting Standards Commission.

He is also a past chairman of the Guild of Editors’ parliamentary and legal committee and a past president of both the Guild and its successor, the Society of Editors.

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