Former local press reporter Christine Buckley has won the contest to be the next editor of the Journalist.

Christine, left, who started her career in the regional press before going on to become industrial editor of The Times, emerged victorious in the eight-cornered contest to edit the National Union of Journalists magazine.

The union announced the result of the month-long ballot this afternoon, although Christine cannot be confirmed in post until its ruling National Executive Committee formally endorses the election result on Wednesday.

She will be taking over the £51,000-a-year post from Tim Gopsill, who is retiring from the role after 21 years in the editor’s chair.

NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: “I congratulate Christine on her election win and am very much looking forward to working with her.

“I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank Tim Gopsill for all his work for the union over the years. He is NUJ through and through and his commitment to the union has been evident during all the time he has been working for NUJ members. I wish him the best of luck for the future.”

Comments

Chris Youett (17/11/2009 10:57:48)
THE NUJ’s annual conference at Southport this week will be asked to call a fresh ballot after a number of irregularities came to light.

Ex-NUJ, obviously (17/11/2009 12:04:08)
Yes of course, why would the NUJ want to waste its time worrying about journalists’ Ts and Cs or helping support unemployed journalists retrain for the modern media world when it can spend all the subs it receives endlessly contemplating its own navel, rivalling Jarndyce and Jarndyce for detachment from the real world?

Former Union Man (17/11/2009 12:05:22)
£52,000 to produce what can best be described as poor … It beggers belief. There are very senior – including myself – Fleet Street hacks who could knock this leftie rubbish out in an afternoon yet someone is going to be getting £52,000 to spend a month on it. I hope all those trainees the union robs of subs leave in disgust.

Harry (17/11/2009 15:51:36)
NUJ….the BBC of the trade union world. Outdated, irrelevant, unwanted, need I go on?

Richard Simcox (17/11/2009 15:58:42)
Harry, no you needn’t go on. We get the picture – you don’t have a clue. ‘Ex’ and ‘Former’. Keep up the good work, mate. Sniping on the internet suits you.

Ex-NUJ, obviously (18/11/2009 08:58:18)
Richard, grace is a virtue – especially in defeat, no matter how embarrassing. Having taken subscriptions from trainees and even seniors on considerably less than £51,000-a-year, the least any union should do is focus on helping them with the reality of the new economy and its effect of the media. Instead, the NUJ insists on squandering those subs fighting an irrelevant class war and obsessing about Gormenghastean ritual and procedure. It’s a stick you’ll be glad the voters have saved you from being beaten with.

hilary jones (18/11/2009 11:59:29)
For heavens’ sake you lot, let the girl do her job! £52,000 a year is not too much for a good product – you are assuming that it will not change. It should be an influential paper outside its immediate NUJ remit, and with her CV maybe it will be. But ‘irregularities’? Can none of the NEC and its cohorts see reality? It wasn’t the result you wanted, so… but the membership voted this time, not the entrenched old comrades whom I remember from when I was a baby sub. Stop fighting internecine battles from the eighties and come into the 21st century and think about your poor bloody infantry! They need you. And with luck, Christine Buckley will be their mouthpiece, not yours.

Ex-NUJ, obviously (18/11/2009 15:02:12)
Hilary, you are bang on. My beef is with the likes of Richard and Chris, whose reaction to Christine winning is to reach for a rule book rather than congratulate her.

Richard Simcox (19/11/2009 12:31:29)
‘Ex-NUJ, obviously’ I think Chris’s response is totally wrong and have told him so. And please read what I posted immediately after the result: http://richsimcox.co.uk/news/congratulations-to-editor-buckley/

Richard Simcox (19/11/2009 12:44:58)
hilary jones – I hope you appreciate that the NEC (and pretty much everyone else) will not be backing Chris’s motion if it makes it onto the order paper.