A senior football journalist at Reach plc has left the publisher for a new role at a nationwide sports and gaming website.

Sean McCormick, previously a football content editor for Reach’s North East and Yorkshire titles, has joined Dexerto as sports editor.

He becomes the third senior North East sports journalist to leave Reach in recent weeks, following fellow football content editor Joe Mewis and Sunderland writer James Hunter.

However unlike some of the other recent departures, Sean’s move is to take up a new role rather than as a result of the cutbacks at the publisher.

Sean, pictured, first joined Reach more than seven years ago as a Newcastle United for city daily The Chronicle.

Posting about his departure on X earlier this month, he said he had “loved every minute” of the role.

He wrote: “Landing a job on my local paper fresh out of uni was a dream come true. The Chronicle has always been a beacon of the region’s sports news and I’m proud to have worked on and featured in a paper that was [read] religiously in my house growing up and will continue to champion the work of the team left behind.

“From covering Newcastle United as a writer to the last two-and-a-half years covering our North East and Yorkshire clubs as a football content editor I have loved every minute of my time at the company but the time feels right for an exciting new challenge.”

In a subsequent post, Sean revealed details of his new role, which began last week.

He wrote: “Delighted to have started my new role as the Sport Editor at @Dexerto today. An exciting new challenge to lead a new sport vertical across the both the UK and USA covering all the major sports from football to F1, boxing to MMA and NBA to NFL.”