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Group editor to oversee two regional dailies in Newquest shake-up

A single editor has been appointed to oversee two regional dailies after a shake-up by regional publisher Newsquest.

Gary Lawrence is to head-up the Oxford Mail as well as the Swindon Advertiser after being appointed regional editor for Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.

At the same time, two long-serving deputy editors have been made managing editors in charge of day-to-day operations at the two centres.

Sara Taylor, deputy editor of the Mail since 2008, takes on the role in Oxford while Pauline Leighton becomes managing editor in Swindon.

The series of moves follow the departure of Simon O’Neill as editor of the Mail after 11 years in the role.

Gary, pictured, has not responded to HTFP’s requests for a comment on his new role but tweeted about it earlier this week.

On Tuesday he wrote: “First day in Oxford under new role. Just hope no one beats me up in the playground or steals my dinner money.”

Swindon and Oxford are 30 miles apart by road and it is anticipated that Gary will divide his time between the two centres.

Gary took charge of the Advertiser in 2011 following Dave King’s departure, having previously served as editor of the Wiltshire Times and Wiltshire Gazette and Herald.

In his role as group editor for Wiltshire, he continued to oversee both weekly titles.

Simon, who himself edited the Advertiser from 1997 until 2004, left the Mail at the end of last month.

He was also editor of the South London Press from 1994-97.

25 comments

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  • December 10, 2015 at 8:36 am
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    I would imagine Gary is far too busy in his joint role to respond to requests for comment. But I am still a prisoner in my study waiting for NQ’s response to HTFP’s report on redundancies three weeks ago – hopefully it won’t be long now. I don’t really get “Just hope no one beats me up in the playground or steals my dinner money” but I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 9:33 am
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    It makes sense. Oxford and Swindon are both within the United Kingdom, share a common language and currency and the levels of literacy are probably comparable. There cannot be much that makes them special or unique.

    People in both communities probably like kittens, want to know what time the Lotto draw is and where the best dogging sites are.

    When you think about it, if you ditch any ideas of localism, sense of place and heritage, political consciousness, cultural fabric, social conscience and mobility, pluralism, civic society and democracy you don’t actually need ANY editors whether they be content, group, regional or in-chief. Or indeed, a ‘local’ media.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 9:38 am
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    I agree with Dick, what a pointless way for the new editor to introduce himself to his new readership.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 9:55 am
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    When I worked at the Mail offices in Osney Mead about 17 years ago we had three editors – one for the Mail, another for the Times and a third one for the weeklies. How times have changed.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 10:07 am
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    Another job squeezed out then. Still amazed the Oxford Mail has stayed as a daily, the book is only about 20 pages some days.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 10:30 am
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    That’ll work…. Just like the Norfolk and Suffolk group editor role in Archant
    Their sales figures in Norfolk and Suffolk are headed south at record levels with what always looks like a hot plate full of pans all about to boil over at anytime

    But cheap buy twice

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  • December 10, 2015 at 10:45 am
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    Next exciting announcement from the NQ suits: One editor for Bolton, Blackburn and Bury, plus a company car with plates BBB1 !

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  • December 10, 2015 at 10:55 am
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    This one’s as old as the hills. Newsquest was pulling this money-saving rubbish back in the early 90s.

    Ask yourself: would you set two newspapers up like this if you were starting from scratch? No, you wouldn’t. So why are you doing it now?

    Desperate penny-pinching nonsense.

    The last editor I worked for took redundancy rather than accept Newsquest’s kind offer of editing two papers. I did the same when my job description was changed, my pay slashed, and my place of worked moved.

    If my experience is anything to go by this guy will spend his entire time parked in his car between the two sites on the phone. His staff will certainly rarely see him!

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  • December 10, 2015 at 11:22 am
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    Why don’t they just have one editor covering the whole country?

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  • December 10, 2015 at 11:30 am
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    Hmm. still can’t believe an editor of the quality of Simon O Neill was allowed to walk out the door. Maybe he didn’t fancy the future. Rocky road ahead for everyone.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 12:18 pm
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    Ah the super group editor. In my experience with JP a lot of blather, meetings and not a lot of hands on editing with sleeves rolled up. Quality always suffers.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 12:50 pm
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    You only have to be a moderately skilled tea leaf reader to see what’s going on in with Newsquest at the moment. If you still can’t see it, compare the actions of NQ management with those of Northcliffe in the run-up to the sell-off to Local World. The picture becomes a lot clearer then.
    Let’s re-visit this forecast of mine in, say, 9 months when the word Newsquest may well no longer be part of the UK regional media landscape.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 1:12 pm
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    Yet another ridiculous decision by people who clearly have no idea what they are doing. It wasn’t so very long ago that local papers celebrated their individual appearance and content. Both were driven by the editor who was trusted by his/her employers. Editors knew and accepted the consequences if they got it wrong and sales dipped. I should declare an interest here, at one point I edited two papers myself – but at least both were in the same building! I suspect that many of the editors who now find themselves multi-tasking really have little choice. After all they too have families and big mortgages etc. And in these shocking times, a job is a job (but for how long?). On this occasion I must say that I, like others, found the ‘playground’ remarks pretty juvenile. Hope he can do better than that, for everyone’s sake!

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  • December 10, 2015 at 1:55 pm
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    Them Newquest executives have been watching too much Game of Thrones.There’s Super Ed Gary in the south, and Perry Austin Allegro, King of the North in Bradford. We all know how this ends.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 2:36 pm
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    @ Confused. Swindon and Oxford are very different – and that’s me being polite!

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  • December 10, 2015 at 3:45 pm
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    The Newsquest Oxfordshire portfolio is a shambles. The Oxford Times carries more content than it should from the rest of the portfolio, yet is clearly intended for a different audience. To herald O’Neill as a genius is flawed.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 5:06 pm
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    Having worked at both, this is ridiculous. There’s not a chance one person can do these roles properly. I’m actually speechless. I feel heart sorry for the staff.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 6:37 pm
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    Jim Adams, there is simply no comparison between the editorial resources that used to be available to Simon O’Neill and other editors across the country a decade ago and what they have to work with now. That the cracks are now showing, especially after so many experienced staff in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire were got rid of earlier this year, is hardly surprising and to suggest this state of affairs is a reflection on Mr O’Neill’s abilities as an editor is ridiculous.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 8:38 pm
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    Don’t envy him the load. And there’s no mention of what’s happening to the weeklies as the boss becomes more thinly spread than ever. I think most of the weeklies’ staff (the handful left) have forgotten what he looks like already. The ‘playground’ flippancy is typical Gary. Joking in the face of the oncoming maelstrom.

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  • December 10, 2015 at 10:42 pm
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    Call it a day Newsquest – only papers that stay in touch with their grass roots have any chance of survival!

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  • December 11, 2015 at 1:00 pm
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    As an ex Oxford Mail journalist Iook back with many happy memories of a tight close knit team that has been steadily destroyed over the last decade. Simon and Jim McClure (God bless him) were exceptional editors and also had good people skills and man management skills. They inspired us to work hard and made for a fantastic working environment in the face of the evil Newsquest empire that was beginning to shift all other titles.
    I look forward now with a huge sense of relief that I am no longer employed by Newsquest as I took the decision to get out while the going was good. I could see what was happening and wanted to control my own destiny and not be thrown out with the bath water.
    They have got rid of some incredibly talented reporters and subs in the last 12 months alone and the only way is a continued downward spiral. It’s the hard working young journalists at Oxford that I feel truly sorry for as they have no future while stuck working for Scroogequest.

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  • December 11, 2015 at 1:57 pm
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    Over in the jobs section of this site Newsquest is looking for a features editor to manage features for 200 newspapers.

    You couldn’t make it up.

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  • December 11, 2015 at 6:31 pm
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    exEDP, nice one, confirmation that our Editors aren’t responsible for anything on their watches and like you only stand up and be counted when it’s too late. You’ve proved my point brilliantly.

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