A new editor of the Bristol Observer series of newspapers has been announced following the retirement of Patrick Randall.

Simon Harding has taken up the post after 19 years with the company.

Simon, (42), joined the Bristol Observer series in 1983 as a sub-editor and was made deputy editor the following year.

Now 18 years on, Simon has taken the helm of the series and is enjoying his new role, which he says is even bigger than he first expected.

He said: “Obviously I’ve covered in the past when the editor has been on holiday but now that I’m finally doing it officially it has become a lot more hectic.”

He also has ambitious plans to take the paper forward.

Simon said: “We’re looking to make some new appointments – at the moment we have four reporters and two subs covering six newspapers. We try to make the papers as local as possible and only have four common pages.

“Our research shows that our readership is generally middle aged and upwards. I want to get people into the newspaper habit younger so we are going to target schools in the area.

“We get tons of stuff from local public schools as many of them have their own PR departments and often the parents of these kids are involved in the media and that creates a big imbalance.”

He explained that some of the comprehensives had not been so forthcoming in the past and he was hoping to be able to make more contacts and even involve sixth formers on a correspondent basis.

He also said he was keen for younger people to feature in the paper for the right reasons instead of just in negative stories such as crime.

He said: “I have lived in Bristol for most of my life and I’m looking to building on the contacts that I already have and get people more motivated into telling us things.”

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