A regional daily business editor has quit to launch her own PR firm together with her former journalist other half.

Husband and wife team Amy Bould and Mark Waugh, both former Shropshire Star journalists, have founded Be Bold Public Relations.

Amy, left, spent 15 years at the Star and was its business editor for four years until deciding to launch the new venture.

Already the Telford-based duo have got off to a storming start by landing a contract with Muller Dairy, one of the UK’s biggest dessert brands.

Amy told Birmingham-based business website TheBusinessDesk.com: “I loved being a journalist and I learned so much. Business news is a very different animal from regular news and I really enjoyed doing it.

“I had done a lot of speaking engagements about how businesses can get their messages out there. It came to the point where I thought I could do that better from the PR side of the fence.”

Added Mark: “We are looking to help companies build on their profile and reputation through their achievements and experiences, from contract wins to their corporate social responsibility agenda.

“We are aware from our time in the newsroom how many businesses actually fell at the first hurdle because no-one ever really knew who they were, what they did and how they did it.”

Mark’s own newspaper career spanned nine years during which time he worked as the Star’s first internet editor and also included a stint on the Tamworth Herald.

Meanwhile the Star has appointed a new business editor in the wake of Amy’s departure.

Thom Kennedy arrives in Shropshire from the News & Star and Cumberland News in Carlisle, where he has been a senior reporter, providing back-up support to the business editorial team, since June 2008.

Asssistant editor Carl Jones said: “We’re delighted to welcome Thom to the team. His previous experience in Cumbria – a county not dissimilar to Shropshire – will be perfect for the challenges of handling business stories in a diverse county which blends large rural and richly agricultural areas with bustling New Towns such as Telford.”