Two former regional press journalists have been named as joint managing directors of a Bournemouth-based PR company.

Deep South Media was formed by former Bournemouth Echo editor Gareth Weekes and is mainly made up of former journalists.

Now Gareth is stepping up to the role of executive chairman, having been MD since the company’s formation in 1998.

Replacing him as MD are Andrew Diprose, previously the company’s operations director, and Ron Wain, formerly commercial director.

Andrew Diprose, right, and Ron Wain have been promoted to joint managing directors at Deep South Media

Andrew, 52, was previously business editor at the Bournemouth Echo and was also a corporate affairs spokesman for its parent company Newsquest.

Ron, 46, was business editor and deputy news editor at the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton and has also worked as a reporter at the Bournemouth Echo and Nottingham Post.

Said Gareth: “DSM has grown organically thanks to Andrew and Ron’s business acumen and hard graft, delivering trusted and affordable support to clients with exacting standards across the country.

“What they have achieved to date is even more impressive, given that for six years DSM operated resiliently during the severest UK recession since the 1930s.”

“With a strong pipeline of work, we are about to embark on another recruitment drive and the aim is to at least double staff numbers over the next few years, positioning DSM as the go-to experts for multi-media content in southern England.

“Interestingly, we are also seeing an increasing number of marketing companies utilising our services under ‘white label’ agreements because they don’t have in-house expertise to do what our team does.”

In a further appointment, former Dorset Echo business editor James Tourgout, 42, has also joined the consultancy.

His appointment brings the number of professional journalists to six. Other members of the PR team are Scott Sinclair, Ed Baker and Rachel Read.