Richard Butt is settling into a new role at the Manchester Metro News after being appointed as the paper’s new editor.

Richard, (35), officially took over the editorship two weeks ago, following the departure of John Jeffay, who has joined the Metro’s sister paper, the Evening News, as picture editor.

Richard (pictured) has worked at the Metro News since 1995, joining the paper as a sub-editor.

Originally from the Isle of Man, he began his career as a reporter on local newspapers the Isle of Man Courier, Manx Independent and Isle of Man Examiner.

After four years he decided to move to England where he got a job at Salford University, running an internal newspaper.

But tired of the slow academic pace, Richard decided to leave after 53 weeks – and take a pay cut to join the Metro News.

After joing as a sub-editor, he worked his way up to the role of deputy editor. He also saw the paper undergo a change in 1997, when it merged with the Evening News.

Richard said: “The Metro News is now a hybrid paper. It has three dedicated reporters and also takes the best of the week’s stories from the Evening News.”

Now settling in to his new role, Richard has plenty to keep him busy as changes to the content and layout of the Metro News are planned for the New Year.

Richard said: “Plans are still up in the air at the moment. It’s not quite a relaunch of the paper, but more of a development.

“Things were already in the planning stages before I took over and I had been working closely with John on it before he left.”

On hand to help Richard with the changes will be Dany Robson, who joins the Metro News from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, as the paper’s new deputy editor.