An outgoing regional daily editor has been awarded the MBE for services to journalism.

Alastair Machray, editor-in-chief of the Liverpool Echo, has been recognised for his work in the industry in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The honour comes as Alastair, pictured, prepares to leave the Echo after his departure was announced during a restructure by Reach plc earlier this year.

The 59-year-old ran the Daily Post’s Liverpool and North Wales editions from 1995 to 2002, then the North Wales Daily Post when it became a standalone title from 2002 to 2005, and the Liverpool Echo from 2005 onwards.

He told the Echo: “I regard this as an honour for the Liverpool Echo and the generations of brilliant and committed journalists who have worked there.

“I am touched and delighted. I have had an amazing career, which is reward enough in itself.

“It has been a privilege to serve communities and I will continue to do so in whatever I do next.”

Alastair began his career in 1979 as a trainee reporter with the Sunderland Echo, before moving to The Journal and then The Chronicle, both in Newcastle.

He worked for Today in London before returning to the Chronicle then joining the Echo as assistant editor in 1994.

Alastair added: “I am extraordinarily proud to have edited the greatest brand in regional journalism.”

His father Douglas Machray was editor of the Daily Herald in Fleet Street and of the Scottish Daily Record, while his mother, June Hulbert, was a Fleet Street columnist and feature writer.

A lifelong Newcastle United fan, he is married to a nurse, Lynne, and has two children – Harry, 27, a theatre director and daughter Morgan 17, who is studying A-Levels.