The former editor of Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle has moved into PR as a director of one of the city’s biggest communications agencies.

Paul Robertson quit as Chronicle editor earlier this summer after nine years at the helm in what proved to be the first of a series of high-profile editorial departures from the industry.

Now Paul has been appointed as a director of Newcastle communications agency MDA, whose clients include Procter & Gamble, Tesco and BAE Systems.

A miner’s son from Ashington in Northmberland, Paul began his journalistic career at the Morpeth Herald and went on to edit the Teesside Gazette before joining the Chronicle as editor in 2002.

Said Paul: “As an editor I have dealt with MDA for a very long time and know them to be highly professional across all their communications disciplines and tremendous to work with.

“They are the flagship communications agency in the region – totally committed to working for the benefit of the North East, and have played a significant part in working with companies and public sector organisations to win jobs, contracts and inward investment.”

MDA was founded in 1993 by Mary Dryden, now the firm’s managing director.

She said: “We are proud that Paul has joined us. He is one of the most respected media professionals in the North East and will be part of a great team that also includes directors Andrew Lambert, former editor of BBC Look North and Alex Latimer, who joined us from the international advertising agency WPP.”