A reunion is to be held for former staff of an evening paper which closed 25 years ago this year.

The Doncaster Evening Post, whose staff once included chatshow host Michael Parkinson, was part of the old United Newspapers’ stable which also owned the Yorkshire Post and Sheffield Star.

Another famous name who began his career at the DEP was Nick Owen, who went on to become a presenter on TVam alongside Anne Diamond.

Now former staff are staging a get-together to mark quarter of a century since the last editions rolled off the presses.

The bash is being organised by Kath Finlay, a general news reporter on the paper from 1979 to 1981, and now deputy editor of the Doncaster Free Press, and Janet Conroy, formerly Makinson, who was women’s editor in the 1970s.

Said Kath: “The circulation when it folded was around 20,000 I think – which these days doesn’t seem too bad! How times change.”

The paper was latterly based on North Bridge, Doncaster, in a building which is now a branch of Halfords.

Parkinson, who was a reporter there in the 1960s, met his wife Mary on a bus while travelling back from a reporting assignment.

The reunion will take place on Saturday, September 20, at the Mount Pleasant Hotel, near Rossington, Doncaster.

Anyone who worked at the DEP in any department is welcome. The event will kick off at 3pm stretching into the evening. There will be a private bar and a hot buffet.

For further details contact Kath at the Doncaster Free Press (01302) 347264.

Cheques for £20, to cover the cost of food, should be sent to J Conroy, The Manor, Gunthorpe, near Doncaster, DN9 1BQ

Comments

Robin Morgan (16/07/2008 01:00:31)
Parky at the Post? I think it was the Yorkshire Evening News, at Doncaster, where he worked for a while. And, as all ex-EP journos know, the News was never as good as the Post in those days! I was YP/EP joint staff at Barnsley, servicing the Doncaster edition as well as both Leeds-published titles. We took over the YEN in 1963, by which time Parky had moved on to Manchester.

Andrew Darling (16/07/2008 11:54:32)
How about marking the anniversary with a poll of ex DEP journalists, asking the questions: “Was this the crappiest newspaper, and were they the most unpleasant editorial executives, you ever worked for?” Turning it into Halfords was the best thing that ever happened to it.

Richard Clark (19/07/2008 00:09:10)
And was Andrew Darling the crappiest reporter the Doncaster Evening Post ever had ?
Not by a long chalk ! I was Chief Reporter and deputy News Editor for several years
before leaving for the Daily Mail in Manchester and am looking forward to the re-union. They were some of the best days in near fifty years in the craft..and some of the worst.
The same goes for the journos and, no, Parky was not a staffer, he worked for the Evening News , the newspaper famous for beeing scooped by the Evening Post on a shooting murder which happened within sight for the newsroom of the Evening News.
Sadkly the ru-union comes at a time when medical advice from my heart consultant says drinkie poos must be restricted . I shall have the drink the memories on the day.
Richard Clark

David Baird (21/07/2008 19:57:31)
What’s all this about t’Post being a better paper than the YEN? From what I recall, working on the News Doncaster edition in 1958-60, we regularly wiped the floor with the Post, with or without Parky. Many of our fellows went on to fame if not fortune, Philip Finn, Ivor Key, Frank Clough, Jim Davis, Eric Purnell…to name a few. But how any of us survived on the pay we received I don’t know. I was the only reporter with his own motor transport – a Vespa scooter!