A deputy editor whose career has seen seven editors come and go is taking early retirement at the end of the year.

Keith Gale, left, joined the Wiltshire Times in 1990 and soon stepped up to the second-in-command role, helping to oversee the title’s switch from broadsheet to tabloid in 2000.

He started his 46-year career on his hometown weekly paper in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, in the early 1960s and worked on various Westminster Press titles in Bedfordshire before being appointed news editor of the Wembley Observer in 1980.

After five years teaching journalism and local government, when he was assistant editor at the Westminster Press Training Centre in East Sussex, Keith was appointed editor of the Biggleswade Chronicle.

He later returned to the south coast as chief sub-editor at Lewes before moving to the West Country where he worked for the Bath Chronicle and Wiltshire Times.

The 62-year-said he felt privileged to have worked with so many talented individuals during his time in journalism.

“My first association with newspapers was when I delivered them as a schoolboy,” he told HoldtheFrontPage.

“I worked through the transition of paste-up but was delighted when we switched to full screen make-up.

“I’ve also been impressed with the progress of websites but quite amazed at the speed they have grown.

“My career has included newsgathering, subbing and design as well as management and I just hope I’ve been able to pass on some useful knowledge to a few youngsters over the years.”

Keith describes time at the training centre as one of the most rewarding and said he hoped to resume contact with some of the people he’d worked with.

He added that, with all the changes taking place and the current economic upheaval in regional newspapers, he felt the time was right to step down and enjoy a short break at his Somerset home before deciding what to do in the future.

Comments

HASTINGS VETERAN (15/12/2008 11:11:56)
Keith Gale = legend. You’re better off out of it mate. Enjoy your retirement. You’ll be sadly missed.

Trowbridge veteran (15/12/2008 19:22:53)
I only seem to remember him eating pork pies and holding ‘news meetings’ in The White Swan.

ageing sub (15/12/2008 19:24:39)
Isn’t that a picture of Roger Moore before the plastic surgery?

Wessex In Business reader (15/12/2008 19:38:10)
“I just hope I’ve been able to pass on some useful knowledge to a few youngsters over the years”… the best place to hide when having a fag, how to sub a supplement in 12 minutes and how to finish a council meeting in time for last orders.

ex Hastings trainee (16/12/2008 09:37:08)
“Don’t assume sod all” and “Avoid cliches like the plague” were a couple of gems I picked up from Keith as a trainee more than 20 years ago…and they still come to mind regularly! Enjoy your retirement Keith

reporter who can’t speel (16/12/2008 13:06:27)
Hope retirement at ‘Cluckingham Palace’ is all it’s cracked up to be…

Flatlander (16/12/2008 17:20:34)
Hastings 1988 – local government lessons = fag break, how to work out rates, fag break – home. Fantastic!!
All the best Keith.

Ivor Harvey (24/12/2008 14:03:55)
Packing in at your tender age! I’m still having to put up with it all in Norfolk – and I’ve a five-year edge on you! Best wishes – still have fond memories of flaps on the road to Wembley.