Four new editors, all aged 32 or under, have been appointed in a wide-ranging shake-up of Northcliffe’s South East weeklies division.
Editorial director Alan Geere has seized the opportunity to promote a clutch of talented young journalists following the departure of Frank LeDuc as editor of the group’s Surrey titles earlier this month.
Those on the way up include Nev Wilson, who only two years ago won the best newcomer category in the EDF Energy London and South of England Media Awards after just over a year as a trainee on the Surrey Mirror.
Nev, 28, moves from the role of news editor of the Mirror to the editorship of the Brentwood Gazette.
Meanwhile moving in the opposite direction from Essex to Surrey is Deanne Blaylock, 29.
Deanne moves from the No 2 role at the Essex Chronicle/Brentwood Gazette under Alan to succeed Frank as editor of the Surrey Mirror Series.
The other two senior appointments see the editors of the Croydon Advertiser and the Crawley News swapping jobs.
Advertiser editor Andy Worden – a relative veteran at 32 – becomes editor of the News and the East Grinstead Observer – while its current editor Glenn Ebrey, 28, takes over in Croydon.
Said Alan: “We are fortunate to have in our midst such a go-ahead bunch of young editors and these appointments further strengthen our commitment to bringing on talent from around our region.”
Alan is now inviting internal applications for a series of news editor and chief reporter roles which have arisen as a result of the reshuffle.
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Editor at 28? Talented, probably. Young, for sure. Experienced? No idea why Frank left but had done his time on daily news, not just on weeklies. All the same I wish them luck in their promising careers and congratulate them.
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Not wishing to decry the talents of these young journalists in any whatsoever but I do wonder whether the line “promote a clutch of talented young journalists” should read “promote a clutch of talented (and cheap) young journalists”.
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Glenn Ebrey and Andy Worden have swapped jobs – so they can’t both have been promoted. Given that until recently (with falling sales, a move to part-free and the embarrassing Brothel Advertiser splash) the Croydon Ad was considered the group’s flagship title, I’d imagine Glenn is probably happier with his move than Worden . . .
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Other point: Inexperienced editors who have never been anywhere else are, shall we say, “more manageable”. People like Le Duc were no doubt prepared to stand up to some of the dafter decisions top management make nowadays and I am not just talking about one company.
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I don’t *think* Frank was renowned for standing up to management. Good luck to all four of them. Andy shouldn’t be carrying the can for the brothel story – it was a legitimate splash, and it’s not his fault if the advertising department is happy to carry on collecting cash from prostitution.
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@Bobby D, get real! Of course he should carry the can. An editor should know every page on his/her paper. He should have realised that such a splash would be the height of hypocrisy. The Advertising dept is part of the same business, feeding in to the tit
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For “chief reporter”, read “cheaper news editor”…
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What is the going rate for an editor on a Northcliffe weekly these days?
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Well I – unlike the bitter, over-the-hill old hack who’ve left such cynical comments on this story – say WELL DONE to these four. There are young, ambitious, talented journalists like these all over the country. It is these people who are going to breathe new life into and revive a regional newspaper industry that has fallen into decline not only due to cutbacks, but also because of the past-it, older generation of journos who’s best days (if they ever had any best days) are long behind them and who refuse to adapt to change.
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I too am surprised at the cynicism of some of the posts. The only way to get experience is to experience it and why shouldn’t younger people who have commitment and enthusiasm be given their chance? As a rival editor on Nev’s doorstep I congratulate him on his appointment and look forward to watching his impact on the paper (in a positive way). I share many of the views posted on HTFP stories about some of the poorer management decisions taken by the big groups who have slaughtered much of our industry but we shouldn’t be jaundiced about everything that happens. New blood and new ideas are welcome in the industry, which has to change and adapt to survive, though I hope these young people show the good sense to weigh the counsel of some of those older (even if not necessarily wiser) people around them. Many a moon ago I was editing a regional weekly at 28 and a daily at 31. It’s probably not for me to judge, but I would say those papers prospered and I rewarded the faith of those who appointed me and didn’t see age as a hindrance. Much older now, but no less enthusiastic about this profession, I wish these younger people all the very best.
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While not wanting to disparage these people, this story demonstrates perfectly what’s wrong with the strategy of filling newsrooms with trainees and shoving older, more experienced (and better paid) journalists out of the door. If you run a business with trainees there are only going to be trainees around to promote. Every industry needs new blood, but they also need the experienced people to pass on their knowledge. My local papers are shockingly bad and never pick up on issues that effect people over the age of 30, because there are no people aged over 30 in the newsrooms to champion those issues.
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Good luck to all four of them too. They’ll need it. @Bobby D you’re overlooking that Frank was actually part of the management, although in my limited experience he did his best to look out for those of us at ground floor level quietly but effectively. Just before he left, a snapper was threatened with arrest by Surrey Police’s finest, and Frank got an apology out of them and a promise to let the snappers do their jobs unmolested. He also sorted things like court lists without a fuss and showed people how to be better at their jobs without ever belittling them. He might not have been a shouter or ranter, but he certainly wasn’t a pushover, and I’d be interested to see what happens to the circulation now he’s gone.
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