Ed Asquith is to be the new editor of the Scarborough Evening News following the departure of Paul Napier, who left last month to edit the Hartlepool Mail.
Asquith, currently editor of the Wakefield Express, will also be editorial director of Yorkshire Regional Newspapers, responsible for the Whitby Gazette, Bridlington Free Press, Malton & Pickering Mercury and Driffield Times & Post.
He said: “I am looking forward to building on the newspaper’s strengths and the talents that exist there. The Wakefield Express’s circulation is at its highest level for 22 years and when I was at Whitby the circulation also rose. I am hoping I will be able to deploy what I have learnt here.”
Asquith was previously editor of the Whitby Gazette and deputy editor of the Scarborough Evening News.
His first editorship was at the Bromsgrove Messenger/Advertiser. He has worked as a sub-editor at the Birmingham Evening Mail and the South Wales Echo and as a reporter at the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
He has also worked casual subbing shifts on The Sunday Times and was a chief stone sub at The Observer.
Asquith is chairman of the NCTJ’s northern region NCE panel and he recently gave evidence to the Commons select committee inquiry into privacy and the media.
As editorial director of Yorkshire Weekly Newspapers, a post he held while editing the Wakefield Express, he oversaw the Pontefract & Castleford Express, Selby Times, Dewsbury Reporter and Morley Advertiser & Observer.
Both groups are part of Johnston Press.
He starts his new job on 30 June.
By Mary Stevens
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