The new editor of a weekly newspaper has launched a year-long fundraising campaign to support an air ambulance service.

Steve Scoles, left, who joined the Northampton Herald and Post in April, has started the paper’s appeal to raise funds for the Northamptonshire and Warwickshire Air Ambulance.

As part of the campaign, the air ambulance will give Herald journalists fly-on-the-wall style access to its operations, with one journalist receiving special training to allow him or her to fly with the ambulance on its missions.

Steve joined the Local World paper from Johnston Press where he was the editorial trainer for the South and Midlands and worked closely on the publisher’s digital and video strategies.

He said: “Everyone is excited by the idea of going up with the air ambulance. I’m considering running something on the website which will allow the readers to decide which journalist goes up.

“We’ll do it a bit further into the campaign once it is lodged in the public consciousness a bit more.”As part of the campaign, the paper will carry editorial and details of how readers can donate each week, along with information about charity events such as the Northampton Dragon Boat race on 14 July.

Steve said the Herald and Post website had seen an increase of of 15,000 unique users in the first month since his arrival.

The paper is set to get a new look soon, which is being worked on by a designer.

Steve joined the paper following the departure of Chris Gill in February, who was editor of the Herald and Post series.