Carmarthen Journal’s Jonathan Roberts named editor of South Wales Evening Post

Local World daily the South Wales Evening Post has named a new editor.

Carmarthen Journal editor Jonathan Roberts will step up to the editorship of Wales’ biggest-selling daily after six months overseeing a redesign of the West Wales weekly.

Roberts began his career as a trainee on the Llanelli Star in 1997 and has worked on numerous Welsh regional and national titles during a 17-year career.

Local World said that during his time at the Journal he had introduced “structural changes to both the newsroom and the product, while increasing pagination by an average of 25 per cent, with the majority of the extra content sourced from user generated content”.

He commented: “It’s a huge privilege to become the editor of Wales’ largest-selling newspaper.

“The South Wales Evening Post is an integral part of life in Swansea, as well as in communities to the east and west, and a newspaper the city is rightly proud of.

“To lead what is a highly experienced and talented newsroom is an honour, and the challenge for us as a team will be to continue to deliver a comprehensive news service for our readership, improving our products in print, online and mobile.

“I would also like to thank the entire staff in Carmarthen who have worked tremendously hard to deliver a much-improved product during my time at the Journal.”

Tony Dowling, managing director of South West Wales Media, said: “I am really excited about working with Jonathan.

“I think the future for the South Wales Evening Post, already Wales’ biggest selling newspaper is extremely bright, and Jonathan will add tremendous value to that future.”

Roberts takes up his new role on 4 March 2013. A successor at the Journal has not yet been appointed.

Roberts replaces Spencer Feeney, he retired from the paper last year after 10 years.