The editor of six weekly newspapers is leaving the regional press after almost 15 years in the industry.

Bede MacGowan, left, will finish at Mid Somerset News & Media next month to take up a new role as online editor with Select Science, a global online publisher working with scientists and manufacturers across the world to “make the future healthier”.

Bede has worked in Somerset since April 2013, where he is currently responsible for Trinity Mirror-owned weeklies the Wells Journal, Central Somerset Gazette, Shepton Mallet Journal, Cheddar Valley Gazette, Frome Standard and Somerset Guardian.

Prior to that, he spent four years as editor of the Llanelli Star.

Said Bede: “During my time in Wells I had the huge privilege to lead a brilliant team into and through a period of great change and opportunity, exciting yet equally challenging. We redesigned, modernised and breathed new life into the Wells Journal, Shepton Mallet Journal, Central Somerset Gazette and Cheddar Valley Gazette.

“We’ve launched the hugely successful Next Generation Somerset and We Believe in Somerset campaigns, produced some superb special editions and learned a vast array of new skills in areas such as social media, SEO and video.

“Through all of this, I have been surrounded by a fantastic team of people who have shown incredible resilience, ability and attitude, not to mention a great sense of humour. It is saying goodbye to them which will be the hardest thing as I move in a new direction with my own career.”

Bede began his career with a year-and-a-half spent as a trainee reporter on the Yeovil-based Western Gazette, which he joined in 2002 after completing his journalism course at Highbury College, Portsmouth.

He then spent two years at the News Shopper in South-East London, before moving to Swansea-based daily the South Wales Evening Post as a senior reporter.

Bede became district news editor in 2008, before taking on the Star a year later.

Mike Norton, Trinity Mirror regional editorial director for Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Dorset, will inform staff of “future plans” when he returns from holiday next week.

Mike said: “I would like to thank Bede for his contribution to the Somerset business and wish him well in his new career.”

Bede will leave the company on 15 November.

Sarah Pullen, the region’s managing director, said: “Bede has been very committed to the Somerset business from both a content and commercial perspective. I know that his team and colleagues will miss him and I wish him all the very best in his new venture.”