The incoming president of the Society of Editors last night pledged to “reinvigorate” its links with the regional press.

Ian Murray, editor of the Southern Daily Echo, succeeded Press Association boss Jonathan Grun at last night’s annual general meeting of the Society.

In his inaugural address, Ian acknowledged that the links between the regional press and the SoE have become “weakened” as editors struggle to justify the cost of attending the conference.

Ian was one of only a handful of regional editors to attend this year’s gathering at the Tower Hotel, London, with several of the major regional publishing groups not represented at all at the conference.

Said Ian: “I will seek to reinvigorate the links between the regions and the Society of Editors which have become weakened of late due to financial and other pressures.”

Ian also reaffirmed his opposition to the government’s proposed Royal Charter on press regulation and warned that attempts to split the regional press from the national press over the issue were futile.

“We in the newsroom of the Southern Daily Echo need to be as free from political interference as our colleagues in the national media,” he said.

Ian is the first regional editor to be elected to the presidency since Donald Martin, who was then editor of The Herald, Glasgow, in 2009.