A former regional press digital chief and Society of Editors president has launched his own public relations and social media agency.

Nick Turner has joined forces with former CN Group colleague and social media specialist Helen Statham to set up the Intro agency with offices in the centre of Carlisle.

Nick was made redundant by CN last year where he was digital strategy manager, having spent 25 years in the business where he had been chief reporter and deputy editor among other roles.

He was SoE president in 2015-16.

Nick Turner, left, and Helen Statham

Nick admitted he had joked in the past about colleagues going to the “dark side” when they moved into PR, but was “pleased” to finding a new use for his journalistic skills.

He said: “Essentially what we are doing is finding great stories to illustrate our clients’ work.

“So one week that might be writing about a chihuahua puppy that was stillborn and saved by Vets Now staff and the next week we might be helping the Cumberland get coverage in the national press for helping older people get mortgages.

“It does seem odd sometimes to be having meetings about how to promote a hotel or an engineering firm rather than worrying about hard news, but I still have time to do some freelance journalism and we have a range of community email newsletters that are read by nearly 3000 people a week,.

Helen, who worked in digital marketing for app developers Fika Apps after leaving CN, said: “We see PR and social media as being very much interlinked. They are both powered by great stories and effective social media means those stories reach the widest possible audience.”

“Many people in our situation might be tempted to work from home, but getting office space has made a big difference to Intro.

“We’re able to hold workshops and social media drop-in sessions which has helped raise our profile – and the view looking out on [Carlisle] cathedral isn’t bad either.”