A weekly editor is leaving his job to take up a new PR role with a local charity after three decades in journalism.

Mark Jones, who has been in charge of Newsquest-owned Gazette Newspapers in Basingstoke since February 2002, will leave the editor’s chair to become director of fundraising and communications for the Ark Cancer Centre Charity, based at the town’s hospital.

Mark already has a close relationship with his new employer after The Gazette backed a campaign to help raise £5m towards a state-of-the-art £18.5m cancer treatment centre to serve Basingstoke and other areas of Hampshire – a fight which is still ongoing.

He also received a Mayor’s Award for his contribution to the Basingstoke and Deane Community in 2012 and was a recipient of Rotary’s Paul Harris Fellowship Award in 2009 after being nominated by The Rotary Club of Basingstoke Deane.

Mark Jones, pictured front right, with fellow Gazette staff

Said Mark: “It has been my privilege to work at, and be editor of, The Gazette for so many years. I feel particularly blessed to have worked with so many wonderful people in all departments, many of whom have become good friends.

“It’s a fact that an editor is only ever as good as the team he or she works with, and I have been fortunate to work with some great and very talented people in the editorial team during my time at The Gazette.

“We have had so many good times together over the years, and I know that I will really miss my lovely colleagues.

“I am really proud of what my team has achieved, individually and collectively, over the last 13 years, particularly in the face of an incredible amount of demanding change and shrinking numbers in the team. My journalists have been a credit to themselves, the newspaper and the company.

“I am particularly proud of how we have made a positive difference to the local community by initiating, or supporting, many community-focused campaigns during my time as editor, and I am grateful for the great support we have received from our readers.

Discussing his new job, Mark added: “The Ark Cancer Centre Charity fundraising campaign is one such initiative that I have been very proud for us to be involved with, and I look forward to the continued support of the team at The Gazette, as well as the generous-spirited people in the Basingstoke and north Hampshire community, in my new role.”

Mark, who will take up his new role in early February, began his career as a trainee reporter on the Worcester Evening News in 1985.

He moved to Basingstoke as deputy editor in February 1997, after spending six years at The Southern Daily Echo, in Southampton, where he was chief crime reporter and later assistant news editor.