A former sports editor made redundant as part of a jobs cull in Newsquest’s Midlands region says he is quittting newspapers after 28 years.

Mervyn Collins left his post as sports editor of the Evesham Journal earlier this month after nearly ten years in the job.

His role was combined with that of the sports editor of the neighbouring Malvern Gazette in the shake-up, which led to around eight redundancies in the company’s Worcester division.

After discussing the issue with his counterpart on the sister paper, he opted to be the one to go, though he remains bitter about some aspects of his departure.

“You can understand how I feel especially after all the trauma of the last couple of weeks. Ten years of hard work and commitment not even recognised,” he said.

He says that although his line manager, Worcester News editor Kevin Ward, handled his case sympathetically from a personal point of view, he regrets not being given the opportunity to say farewell to his readers.

“On the Friday prior to my departure, I uploaded an article on the Journal website telling people that I was leaving and thanking them for all their help over the years. That was wiped off within the hour,” he said.

He added: “I’m not looking for another job in newspapers. I’ll be looking elsewhere, I’ve been in newspapers for nearly 30 years and I’ll be 51 next birthday so I think a change might do me good.”

Mervyn began his career at the Bury Times in the 1980s before moving to the Oxford Mail in 1996 and finally the Journal in 1999.

HoldtheFrontPage contacted Mr Ward about his comments but he declined to respond.

Comments

regionalhack (30/12/2008 15:17:17)
All the best for the future to Mervyn. He will not be the only experienced journalist to be dumped in the coming year by local paper management… But I also suspect he will not be the only experienced journalist to find life outside journalism to be rather better than they expected in the world of regular hours, lunch breaks, and maybe even appreciation for your work!

steve d holt (02/01/2009 13:49:04)
Remember Mervyn from his times at the Bury Times.Great lad…Best of luck for the future Merv..

Balakrishnan Iyer (05/01/2009 08:21:35)
Eventhough I have come from a poor financial backgrond my sports has helped me to reach great height in society in my career so my entire life revolves around sports and all life style but in todays scenero things are changing drastically and we tend to loose our importance due to technology which consist of all interaction thru the computer and media and less on the ground or socialising, so where is place for respect for sports or sports activities which was full of thrill, sports man spirit and team work and cooperation selflessly.