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PA man to cover Westminster beat for regional daily

JobsroundupA regional daily has raided the Press Association’s parliamentary team for its new lobby correspondent after the previous post-holder moved to a mental health charity.

Arj Singh will serve his last day as a political reporter at PA on 9 March before joining the Yorkshire Post as Westminster Correspondent.

Arj has also previously worked as a parliamentary reporter and parlaimentary editor at the national news agency.

He replaces Kate Langston who recently left the YP to join Money & Mental Health, a charity conducting research and policy development about the links between mental health problems and debt.

Regional papers have also begun the process of appointing Local Democracy Reporters following the launch of the £8m-a-year BBC-funded scheme to boost coverage of councils and other public bodies.

Tom Houghton has joined the Liverpool Echo as local democracy reporter from sister company Media Wales while Aran Dhillon has taken up the LDR role at the warrington Guardian.

Other recent moves in the UK regional press include the following:

* Heather Ness, the former model who became the Plymouth Herald’s first female sports columnist last year, has now left the paper.  She is continuing to write her parenting blog entitled ‘The Imperfectly Perfect Parent.’

* James Carney has left his role as a reporter at the Halifax Courier to join sister title the Wakefield Express in the same position.

* Craig Thompson, who was content editor at Newcastle titles the Chronicle, The Journal and Sunday Sun, has left the role while Michael Muncaster has now joined as news editor.

* Katy Hallam has moved from the role of homepages editor at the Cambridge News to join sister title the Coventry Telegraph as chief reporter. She replaces Simon Gilbert who has joined BBC Midlands Today as political reporter.

* Donna-Louise Bishop has rejoined Archant Norfolk as a senior reporter working across the Dereham and Fakenham Times and Eastern Daily Press.  Donna-Louise previously worked for the company from 2010 until 2016 before a spell as a creative writing tutor.

* Robert Bridge has joined the Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph as rugby reporter.

* Alex Ross has moved from the role of group chief reporter to investigations editor at the Express & Star, while Megan Archer has joined the paper as a senior reporter.

* Martin Wade has left his role as digital editor of the South Wales Argus.

* Shaun Reynolds has beeen appointed chief sports writer at the Swindon Advertiser.

On the move yourself?  Let us know at [email protected] or via @journalism_news on Twitter.

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  • February 28, 2018 at 10:21 am
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    Excuse me, but why would the Yorkshire Post need a Westminster correspondent? Yorkshire not enough to cover properly?

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