A newly-appointed weekly editor has stood down after less than two months in the job.
Jeremy Smith, left, returned to publisher NWN Media after a 14-year absence in June to take over as editor of the Oswestry and Border Counties Advertizer.
However the move did not work out and the post has since been readvertised.
NWN Media has declined to say any more about the circumstances surrounding Jeremy’s departure last month.
Jeremy, 58, originally joined the Advertizer as a sub-editor in 1982 and also worked as the paper’s features editor.
Other roles during the course of a 17-year career with NWN Media included chief sub-editor of the group’s Chester titles and deputy editor at the Evening Leader.
He left NWN in 1999 to go freelance and has also worked on newspapers in Worcester, Birmingham, Plymouth, Hemel Hempstead and Fleet Street
Prior to taking up the role in June he said: “I am looking forward to being part of the excellent ’Tizer team who are all committed to bringing its many loyal readers all the local news, pictures and sport from around the area.”
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Seems brief but I have known quite a few journalists leave newspapers after shorter stints. When I worked on a Yorkshire daily, one very senior journalist there told me of a nightmare first day he’d once had working for a big Midlands evening paper – after which he’d quit following a bust-up with the news desk. Elsewhere, a well-known ex-Fleet Street journalist got the job of features editor at a coastal daily paper I was working for at the time. He came in on the first day, said a few hello’s, then vanished – apparently quitting by lunchtime. My own briefest stint was two weeks at one place – I quit for a rival paper when promises on salary/car etc were not adhered to. Mind you, that was in the days when there were jobs aplenty..
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I’ve also come across a few 1st day odd-bods.
I remember meeting a new reporter on the corridor at about 9.50am on his first Monday in the 1970s, also on a south coast weekly. I introduced myself, as he did the same and he said he’d just been sent to cover local mags. courts. When I mentioned him to the editor at the end of the afternoon we both noted that he was nowhere to be seen. Then he left a message at about 5.30 that he’d changed his mind about the job and wouldn’t be coming back. We never saw his court copy….. Court staff and policeman said they saw him leave court at about 11am.. Often wonder what happened to him and where is is now.
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I know someone who handed in their notice on their first day. Had gone for an interview at a couple of places and got an offer so accepted it. On his first day another (much better paying) job called him back and made him an offer so he handed in his notice.
The editor was so annoyed that he just told him not to come back rather than working his notice.
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I find this story most intriguing. Jeremy Smith is held in very high regard across Wales and the west Midlands. He is a sound and steady pair of hands with vast experience in newspapers. It would have taken something major for him to leave the editor’s job at his home town rag so soon.
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In the interests of accurate reporting, can I point out that I was Editor of the Border Counties Advertizer and Whitchurch Herald for three months, not ‘less than seven weeks’, though for the last eight days of that I was taking holiday I had accrued.
Why did I stand down? Well, there’s no mystery, no scandal, no conspiracy. It simply wasn’t the job I thought it was going to be. In the 13 years I had been out of mainstream journalism the world of provincial newspapers has changed beyond recognition. It’s a world where advertisers now call the shots and dictate the rules and it didn’t take me long to realise I had no appetite for such a set-up.
Also, after being my own boss for 13 years I found it impossible to return to the hoop-jumping, box-ticking corporate world.
I’m glad I took the job, if only to prove to myself that it wasn’t for me. I wish my former colleagues and the new Editor every success.
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Good for you Jeremy. Quite right too. They are not editors at NWN Media and haven’t been for 15 years. The Advertising Director and advertising managers run all their weekly newspapers and call the shots. Editors just fill the gaps between the ads – the current bunch of editors know it and tow the line – the ones that stood up for editorial have gone. Absolute disgrace!!!
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