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Mike says so long – but not goodbye – to the Echo

The Southern Daily Echo’s Mike Ford has retired after 43 years with the newspaper.

Mike has spent much of his career commentating on the south’s economy as the Echo’s business editor and then regional business editor for Newsquest’s south coast titles.

He has also travelled widely in his role as motoring editor, appraising hundreds of new cars on test tracks, race circuits and ordinary roads from Japan and South Korea to deserts in North Africa and America.

But now, after recently reaching his 65th birthday, he has decided that the time has come to retire and enjoy life without the early starts and late evenings.

And he has already been getting a taste of life away from the office: he took a step back from his day-to-day involvement with the Echo last June.

Mike said: “I have been working from home for the last nine months on an ad-hoc basis of when I wanted to do things.

“It was an unusual arrangement and the company was pretty generous. I wasn’t sure about the idea to begin with, but when the summer came it took on a different dimension!”

And even now, after his ‘official’ retirement, Mike still plans to keep up his association with the company, and will continue with his regular wine column and some motoring articles which will be used by various Newsquest titles.

He said: “It’s nice to have free time, but after a lifetime in journalism I can’t envisage giving it up entirely.”

Mike began his career at the Farnham Herald, where he completed his early training, and in 1961 he joined the Echo’s Basingstoke office.

Soon after he moved to the paper’s Southampton head office, and after working on the newsdesk for a time he switched to business and motoring.

For the past eight years he has also been regional business editor for all of Newsquest’s south coast titles, taking on an advisory role which has seen him involved in the launch of several new publications, a role that has given him much satisfaction.

Mike said: “The job has undoubtedly changed over the years. In the 1960s and 1970s I was involved in reporting on many industrial disputes and spent days on the docks hovering on the side of strike meetings.

“In latter years computer technology has changed and I became more office bound, but I still get a buzz from journalism and wouldn’t have done it for more than 40 years if I didn’t enjoy it.”

  • Mike has also played a key role in encouraging newcomers to motoring journalism and first joined the central committee of the Guild of Motoring Writers in 1970.

    He has been honorary treasurer since 1986, and his service to motoring journalism and the Guild were recognised at a gala dinner at the RAC in London in December, with the rare honour of life membership.

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