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Deputy news editor quits for charity PR role

Jenny Makin018Asmall_JPG_thumbA regional daily deputy news editor is leaving the paper after 15 years for a PR role with Cancer Research UK.

Jenny Makin is working her last day at the Southern Daily Echo today before joining the charity as senior press officer for Southern and Central England.

Jenny, pictured left, joined the Newsquest-owned title in 2001 as a general news reporter and has also worked as its crime reporter.

She described her new role, which will see her covering the Hampshire and Oxfordshire areas for the cancer charity, as “an exciting new challenge and change of direction.”

Said Jenny: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Southern Daily Echo where I am lucky enough to have had some amazing opportunities over the years, from covering incredible stories as a crime reporter to travelling to report on Hampshire soldiers on the frontline in Iraq.

“It’s been a privilege to work for a great paper and website alongside  some of the most talented people in the industry but I leave with a lifetime of memories and good friends I’ve made along the way.”

Other recent job moves in the regional press include the following.

  • Blackpool Gazette football reporter Rob Stocks has become deputy news editor at the Lancashire Telegraph. His former brief covering League One side Fleetwood Town FC has been taken on by Rosie Swarbrick.
  • Sheridan Robins has been appointed reporter at the Weston Mercury
  • Richard Bean has left his role as chief reporter at the Wigan Evening Post and Wigan Observer
  • Bolton News sports reporter Claire Cameron has left the paper to start a new role as editor at Builder & Engineer.
  • Tim Nelson has been appointed as freelance features editor working across magazine titles Your Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wedding and Your South Wales Wedding.
  • The Press Association has appointed Jane Kew as head of content (entertainment data). Jane first joined the agency in 1994 and previously served as the deputy on the entertainment listings desk.
  • Birmingham Mail education correspondent Emma McKinney has left the title to join PR agency Clarke Associates.
  • The Worcester News has appointed Sebastian Richards as a reporter.

On the move yourself?  Email [email protected] with the details.

4 comments

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  • March 11, 2016 at 12:20 pm
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    Yet another editor / deputy editor leaving the regional press for a career elsewhere
    Sign of the times and very timely in my opinion.Anyone with ambitions needs an exit plan

    Good luck to Jenny

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  • March 11, 2016 at 5:38 pm
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    Good luck, Jenny. You will be much missed. Best interviewer I have heard in 30 years in the trade!

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  • March 13, 2016 at 10:47 pm
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    Soon only the dregs and the desperate (,too old to move) will remain in the industry. Good luck to this young woman.

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  • March 14, 2016 at 7:36 am
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    .
    Good luck to Jenny.
    Like many others senior journalists before her, she’ll still be filling news columns while enjoying much better pay and conditions.
    At what point in the future will the majority of regional content be officially outsourced to PR companies’ gratis operations?
    Do tell, Ashley!
    I hope I’m just suffering a temporary dose of Monday morning cynicism.
    But these days experience usually trumps hope.

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