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Take Five: Doug Melloy

Each week HTFP asks a leading regional press figure five set questions about their career – including how it started, their best story or headline, and which other journalists and publications they most admire.

This week: Doug Melloy, left, editor of the Rotherham Advertiser.

If you would like to take part in the series, email us on [email protected]

What was your first job in journalism?

Junior reporter on my home town newspaper, the Blairgowrie Advertiser (circulation 3,800) in Perthshire in 1963.

Who or what inspired you to go into journalism?

No inspiration – the opportunity presented itself and I took it.

What would you rate as your best story, headline or picture?

Headline on a story about an escaped prisoner called Frost who was still at large a year on: “June again and still no sign of Frost”

Who would you rate as the best journalist you have worked either with or for?

Probably Alex Leys – we worked together at the Derbyshire Times.

Apart from your own title, which other newspapers do you most admire?

For nationals it’s always been the Sunday Times, particularly under Harold Evans and Andrew Neil, and regionally the Yorkshire Post.