Newark Advertiser series chief reporter Billy Phillips died in hospital on Saturday after being rescued from a canal in Walsall.
Phillips, 42, who had worked for the Advertiser for 14 years, was a former news editor and political editor.
He had been visiting friends in Walsall. On Friday evening he was pulled from the canal and revived by medics, but died in hospital the next morning.
Police say there were no suspicious circumstances and the results of a postmortem are awaited.
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