The editor of the Blackpool Gazette is to leave the Johnston Press title after more than a decade.
According to his LinkedIn page, Jon Rhodes joined the title in 2004 and has been editor since 2012.
It is understood that former Gazette editor Gillian Parkinson, Johnston Press North West editorial director and editor of the Lancashire Evening Post, will assume responsibility for the title when Rhodes departs.
Rhodes said: “In the last two years we have seen our total audience grow to more than 300,000 readers a week, won several awards, launched many hard hitting campaigns and investigations and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local charities – none more so than the £268,000 Gazette readers gave in 2014 to transform two Blackpool-based hospices.
“But above all, I want to say a massive thank you to the dedicated editorial team. They have proved time and again what truly talented journalists they are and the reason why the Gazette is so widely regarded as a quality newspaper which shouts up for and celebrates the Fylde coast while always giving its readers a voice.”
The Gazette in Blackpool had an average circulation of 13,567 in the second half of 2014 (down 13.3 per cent year on year) and the Lancashire Evening Post (based in Preston, 16 miles from Blackpool) sold 14,047 (down 10.3 per cent year on year).
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