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Former Essex editor chosen for top spot at Gazette

Jo Robinson has been appointed editor of the Glenrothes Gazette.

A former editor of the Essex County Standard, she succeeds Brian Stormont who is now editor of the Arbroath Herald.

Before taking up her new post, Jo, (40), had been on an 18-month sabbatical to do some creative writing, and decided to apply for the job after spotting an advert on HoldtheFrontPage.

Jo said: “There is a really good team of people here and Glenrothes is a great place for journalists because there is all sorts going on.

“I’m going to be looking at the design and content of the paper.

“It is bucking the national trend and sales are going up so I don’t want to completely change a winning formula, but there is plenty of scope to modernise its look and I have been given a blank canvas.”

Jo began her career on the Keighley News, and later became chief sub and then associate editor of sister paper the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford.

She was launch editor of Stansted Life, a newspaper mainly aimed at employees of Stansted Airport, and later moved to edit the Essex County Standard in Colchester.

She left 18 months ago to pursue her dream of creative writing, and moved to Edinburgh where she wrote a number of short stories as well as beginning a novel.

She said: “I had always wanted to do some creative writing and I love Scotland so I decided to combine both.

“I got involved with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and had two short stories featured.

“I had originally been writing a novel but moving around there were a lot of distractions so that is on the backburner.”

  • The Glenrothes Gazette is published every Wednesday. It has a weekly circulation of 6,188 (ABC July to Dec 2006), an increase of 0.2 per cent year on year. Do you have a story about the regional press?
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