A former weekly newspaper journalist has landed a top job with Yahoo in California.

Paul Cochrane, who worked at independent weekly the Congleton Chronicle as a reporter in 2002 and 2003, has just started a role as head of Head of Video, Lifestyle and Entertainment with Yahoo, based in Santa Monica.

He joined the Chronicle as a district news reporter from a job as a news producer with Eurosport in Paris and gained his NCE qualification while at the paper.

Paul then moved to work as a producer for the ITV, where he worked for regional news programme Granada in Manchester, leading its lunchtime news programme.

He worked for ITV for five years before moving to Los Angeles as head of digital for celebrity news agency Splash News in 2008, where he remained until starting his new role with Yahoo this month.

His LinkedIn profile describes his time at the Chronicle as “the best training I ever got as a journalist, covering local court, council and trade meetings as well as the local football team.”