Rachael Campey is to bring her experience of editing regional newspapers and working on The Times to her new job as editor of the Yorkshire Post.
The former editor of the Express & Echo, Exeter, and the Evening Herald, Plymouth, currently deputy news editor on The Times, told Press Gazette this week: “Having had a long career in regionals and a marvellous two years on The Times, I think both those elements of my career have come together perfectly for this job.”
Of her time on a national, she said: “It gave me a much-needed new dimension on content, national news and national politics.”
Related
She does not regard her return to a regional as going back: “This is very much going forward to a paper I hold in the highest regard. It’s a paper I have long held ambitions to edit.”
Johnston Press, owner of the Post, has been searching for an editor since Tony Watson resigned last November. Tim Bowdler, chief executive of Johnston Press, said: “It was the most important editorial appointment Johnston Press has ever made. It demanded that thorough approach and that’s what we have given it.”
Brought up in Yorkshire, Campey, the first woman editor of the 239-year-old Post, said: “It’s one of very few papers that would bring me back from London to the regions because it has a reputation for quality journalism. That really was a strong motivating factor, so I went for it.”
Content from our partners
She said Johnston had wanted to hear what she had learned from her regional and national experience and how she could use that to contribute to the next phase of development of the Post – in content, strategy, sales and development of people.
“The Post is a top regional but it is also a national paper for Yorkshire. I have always felt it is a very campaigning, issue-led paper, with a strong voice for Yorkshire and I really want to build on that,” pledged Campey.
Campey, 48, was deputy editor at The Northern Echo. She started off as junior reporter on the Solihull News.
Yorkshire Post deputy editor John Furbisher has been named editor of the Halifax Courier.
By Jean Morgan
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
