Former Cambridge Evening News editor Colin Grant is to return to his old paper as group editor-in-chief, it has been revealed.

Evening News editor Murray Morse quit suddenly last week, saying he had taken the paper as far as he could.

He cleared his desk on Friday, as we reported on Friday afternoon.

Shocked staff are said to have stood and applauded after he had briefed his senior team on the news he was to leave.

His departure prompted lively debate among holdthefrontpage readers about the Evening News and Murray’s tenure there and rumours that someone was about to be appointed above him.

And editorial staff passed a vote of “no confidence” in the management, about the handling of the matter.

Now, the company says Colin Grant’s first job will be to find a successor for Murray.

Colin, (left), will be responsible for all the company’s editorial output, both printed and digital, and he will be seeking to put in place a management structure to “build on the successes of the editorial function” and “enhance the portfolio of products” across the board.

He is joining from Herts & Essex Newspapers, where he has been the group editor-in-chief since leaving the Evening News in 2004 after six years as editor there.

In a memo to staff, Cambridge Newspapers managing director Graham Ayres said: “Colin brings a wealth of editorial and management experience to our business and will be joining the company on Monday May 12, where amongst his first duties will be the recruitment of a new editor for the Cambridge Evening News.

The no-confidence motion from staff asked: “Why does the company feel it necessary to introduce a further tier of editorial management in this way? Surely the extra cost of the additional post will put unwarranted pressure on the budget, which we are repeatedly told is already stretched?”

There has still been no official company comment on the developments.

Comments

Dave Colville (24/04/2008 08:55:58)
hahahaha – you couldn’t make it up!!!

Adam Hirst (24/04/2008 09:34:38)
The legend returns!!

Martin (24/04/2008 11:56:06)
Deckchairs. Titanic.

The ghost of Grunty Fen (24/04/2008 13:58:38)
Back to haunt you, everyone….

Herr Flick fan (25/04/2008 13:01:48)
Where is herr Flick’s comment on this?

Media Mann (26/04/2008 22:07:20)
The newspaper has ditched an award-winning editor with a very strong track record and have replaced him by a man held in low esteem by the workforce, or so one of them tells me. There has been no official company comment both to yourself or to the staff who work on the floor about why these decisions have been taken. Nor is there any news on the appointment of a deputy editor – at the moment the newspaper is rudderless.

A Yattendon employee (28/04/2008 20:22:27)
Just another typical Yattendon decision that makes no sense at all. Still, as long as the Iliffe family stay in the Rich List, that’s all that matters, isn’t it….

Voice of the People (28/04/2008 21:01:57)
The problem with the Cambridge Evening News management is they haven’t got the first vague clue what their own readership looks like. Its not the bloke with no chin next to you on the links at the Gog Magogs golf course mate – its Mr Chips in Kings Hedges and he wants to read some news. You know, about things happening in Cambridge. Never mind all the smug, middle class illiberal liberals who run the city by constantly tutting at anything with a whiff of controversy about it. That’ll be why you gave Morse the push. He was actually getting them to write news. That’s why he was appointed one assumes. Then cold feet set in didn’t they? Once the vice chancellor of Moribund College disapproved. Now you re-appoint Mr Grant – the bloke you shoved out to install the man you just shoved out. Genius. Your ‘new’ editor people of Cambridge heralds a return to the good old days of ‘local news’ that is not news and news in briefs about stolen Ifor Williams trailers. I weep for the future.