Swindon Advertiser editor Dave King is standing down after four years at the helm of the Wiltshire daily.
In an interview with local community news website Swindon Link, King said he was quitting to relocate back to the south coast, but the report also said:
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Unfortunately, Dave was not able to bid farewell to colleagues and friends. Having made the decision to leave, Dave was told by Newsquest management not to return after the Whitsun Bank Holiday – although he was due to depart on 6 June.
According to Swindon Link, King is being replaced by Gary Lawrence, the current editor of the group’s Wiltshire weeklies, who has been appointed group editor for Newsquest Wiltshire.
The website also reports that Newsquest is undertaking a ‘major reorganisation’and creating a publishing hub in Oxford.
It added:
The features department is being folded into news and all the sub-editors jobs are being moved to Oxford where they will be expected to work on a range of titles covering Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Quite a few staff have chosen to take redundancy rather than make the 30-mile trek to Oxford to work on non-area specific publications.
King dismissed rumours that the Advertiser could become a bi-weekly or weekly title.
Newsquest was asked to comment on King’s departure but the regional managing director for Newsquest Oxfordshire & Wiltshire, Shamus Donald, yesterday did not return calls.
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