The launch editor of a weekly print title has announced he is stepping down after nine years in charge.

Phil Creighton started up Wokingham Today in 2015 and followed it up with Reading Today in 2021.

Now he is bowing out as editor, but the newspapers are to continue with a successor due to be appointed shortly.

Although Phil was responsible for launching the two titles, they are owned by a social enterprise company headed by publisher David Riley.

Writing in the current edition, Phil said: “Now the results are known for this year’s local elections, it is time for me to make a declaration of my own.

“After nine years being custodian of Wokingham and Reading’s news, I will be stepping down as editor.

“For nearly 30 years, my life has been governed by the tyranny of daily, weekly or monthly print deadlines.

“There have been late nights, tough press days, family engagements missed, and plenty of news breaking just as we’re about to go to press. It is time to recharge my batteries.”

He added: “Cut me and I’ll bleed newspaper ink – so I hope to remain within the industry.

“I do believe hyperlocal news is the way forward for the industry, but society needs to figure out how that happens, and how it is paid for.”

Phil’s career in journalism began at the University of Reading when he edited the students union newspaper Spark between 1997 and 1998.

That year he joined the then Reading Evening Post as an ad-setter before moving into editorial.

He spent five years at the Baptist Times between 2002 and 2007, but that aside, has spent all his career in the Reading and Wokingham areas.

Phil’s last edition in the hot seat will come out next month.