A weekly newspaper’s editor has bidden farewell to colleagues after more than a quarter of a century in the hot seat.

Alan Rennie, of the Stirling Observer, has left his post as part of a restructure in Trinity Mirror’s Scottish and Universal Newspapers division.

The company announced last month it was proposing to shut five offices and shed 11 editorial jobs while creating six hubs for all its weeklies in the division.

One of the six hubs is ‘Central Tayside’ which will now have one regional editor covering the Stirling Observer, Perthshire Advertiser, Blairgowrie Advertiser and Strathearn Herald.

Alan, 58, has been with the company for four decades and joined the Stirling Observer in 1979 as its chief reporter, taking the editor’s chair in 1983.

He said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank current and former colleagues, regular correspondents and, perhaps most of all, the readers for their support and, at times, their inspiration.

“The Stirling Observer is all about the everyday lives of local people. Like every family, there can be ups and downs, celebrating success and coping with problems.

“I’d like to think that we have always tried to report events in a fair and balanced way while I have been editor.”

The Stirling Observer won several awards under Alan’s leadership including Scotland’s best paid-for weekly in the Newspaper Society Awards 2000 and best local title at the Scottish Newspaper of the Year Awards in 2004.

The Observer also received a special merit award for its coverage of the Dunblane tragedy in 1996.

Alan was born and educated in Stirling and lives in the town with his wife Mary where he is a keen golfer and rugby fan.

Comments

RedundantHack (16/07/2009 12:36:56)
It’s a sad loss to the industry to see so much experience and passion being forced to leave the industry because of this shortsighted slash and burn policy.
There is sadly no room now for this kind of ‘old school’ editor and the industry is much worse off for that.

Donald Fullarton (17/07/2009 10:06:57)
Alas, there goes another very fine local newspaper editor.