A regional press boss has resigned from a new local newspaper publisher he co-founded two years ago.

Simon Bax has terminated his directorship at Clear Sky Publishing, which he launched in 2021.

The former Archant executive chairman has also ceased to be a person with significant control at Clear Sky, according to a Companies House update published on Friday.

Chris Coward, who formed the company with Simon, is now listed as its sole director. HTFP has approached both Chris and Simon for a comment on the changes.

Simon, pictured, previously held the top job at Archant for six years until his departure in December 2020.

He and Chris set up Clear Sky the following year and purchased the Torbay Weekly and North Devon Gazette newspapers, as well as Exeter Life magazine, from Archant.

Since then, the group has also purchased The Moorlander, which covers Dartmoor and launched the Mid Devon Weekly.

Last year, Simon called for the replacement of the BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service with an expanded public interest news scheme which would see the creation of around 1,750 new journalism jobs.

Earlier this year, Lorna Willis, who worked under Simon at Archant and succeeded him chief executive after he left the publisher, joined Clear Sky to examine its digital strategy and transformation.

The move was described as a “temporary arrangement” by Clear Sky.