By Hamish Mackay
Charles McGhee took over this week as editor of Glasgow-based newspaper The Herald.
McGhee, editor of sister paper the Glasgow Evening Times, replaced
Mark Douglas-Home, who left in December after five years in the post.
Janette Harkess, deputy editor, will be acting editor of the Evening Times until a successor is appointed.
One
of the first major issues McGhee will have to tackle is whether The
Herald should follow its Edinburghbased rival, The Scotsman, and switch
to tabloid format.
The Newsquest-owned Herald sold 74,328 copies on average in December, which was down 2.4 per cent year-on-year.
McGhee
has edited the Evening Times since 1999 and guided it to a Scottish
Press Awards evening newspaper of the year award last year.
He
said: “In what is a difficult and challenging time for the newspaper
industry in general, my role will be to maintain and enhance The
Herald’s outstanding reputation for quality journalism and to implement
a product development programme that will help the newspaper to meet
the changing needs of our readers in the 21st century.”
McGhee
began his career as a reporter on the weekly Hamilton Advertiser before
moving into broadcasting in the mid-1970s, when he joined BBC Scotland
as a sub-editor.
He left after three years for Papua New Guinea
with the charity Voluntary Service Overseas, becoming founding editor
of the country’s first colour magazine, New Nation.
On his return, he joined the Evening Times as a sub-editor and went on to become assistant features editor.
In 1987, he moved to the Today newspaper in London as its assistant night editor.
He then studied the impact of new technology on journalism in the US on a Winston Churchill Fellowship.
McGhee
has also held a number of senior editorial jobs on The Sunday Times
Scotland, Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday Herald, The Scottish Sunday
Mail and the Daily Record.
He is currently president of the
Society of Editors and has recently completed a two-year-stint on the
Press Complaints Commission.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog