A new editor has been appointed to lead a regional Sunday title and its sister weekly.

Stefan Bartlett, left, will be at the helm of free titles Luton on Sunday and the Luton and Dunstable Express together with its companion website www.luton-dunstable.co.uk from April.

He has been working with publisher Iliffe News and Media – now part of Local World – for the last six months as a temporary editor of MK News, while the permanent editor Cally Jenkins was on a secondment.

Said Stefan: “I’m very much looking forward to the challenge in Luton.  The titles are at the heart of the local community and I want to help build on that, particularly by engaging more widely with our users on www.luton-dunstable.co.uk.”

Stefan began his career in 1981 as a reporter and later news editor on weekly newspapers in the West Midlands and Staffordshire, including the Dudley Herald, Chelmsley Wood News and Cannock Advertiser.

He then moved to work as a reporter for the Birmingham Mail then the Sunday Mercury before going to work in a number of editorial roles at Motorcycle News, where he was later appointed head of motorcycle publishing at Bauer Media.

Steve Lowe, group editor at LSN, said: “Stefan has been working with us for six months as interim editor for Milton Keynes News.

“In that time he has demonstrated his wealth of editorial and commercial experience in the newspaper and magazine publishing world, as well as his ability to drive forward online publishing in all its forms.”

Stefan succeeds Chris Gill, who was series editor of the two Luton titles until last autumn before moving to the Northampton Herald and Post series.  Chris left Local World last month after 42 years in the industry.

Local World completed a deal to buy the titles previously owned by Iliffe News and Media and Northcliffe Media at the start of the year.