Joe Owens is ending his recent stint as a freelance and is taking up the post of group chief reporter at the Highland News in Inverness.
Owens has been freelancing in Glasgow for the past year and a half but is now moving north to take up the staff role. Owens said: “I’m delighted to have been given this opportunity by the Highland News, which is an award-winning and respected newspaper. It is a privilege to be involved in the paper’s future development.”
The Highland News, part of the Highland News Group (HNG) is the biggest-selling weekly in the Highlands. The group includes the Lochaber News, the North Star and two free titles – the Inverness & Nairn Herald and the Ross-shire Herald.
Group Editor Helen MacRae said: “We are delighted that someone with the background and experience of Joe Owens is coming to join us in the Highlands.
“But it is no surprise that he is attracted to working for one of the most go-ahead weeklies in Scotland.
“We have plans to develop that position even further and I am confident that, given Joe’s obvious capabilities, he will help us make the HNG even more dynamic than it presently is.”
Owens began his career in 1989, working for the Edinburgh Community Newspaper Trust, where he gained his NCTJ qualifications.
Since then he has worked at the Daily Record and a number of titles in Glasgow.
In 1999 he moved to Ireland, working as deputy night editor on the Irish Examiner. He then came back across the Irish Sea and has worked as a freelance until taking up the post at the Highland News.
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