Express & Echo editor moves on to Local World a year after taking charge

The editorship of Exeter’s Express & Echo has changed hands for the second time in just over a year.

Andy Phelan, who took over at the paper in January last year, has been seconded to new parent company Local World and will be replaced by Paul Burton, who takes up the post on an interim basis.

Burton joins the Echo from the Western Daily Press, where he is deputy editor and head of content.

The story was broken by local website, the Exeter Daily, which was founded last year by the Echo’s previous editor Marc Astley.

According to the site, staff were sent the following memo:

Current editor Andy Phelan is seconded to the Local World transformation project ?

Paul Burton has been appointed as the acting editor for the Exeter Express and Echo.

Paul has been with the Western Daily Press since 2007, arriving from the Weston & Somerset Mercury.

In the past six years he has been instrumental in introducing new ways of generating editorial content, driving new revenue streams, redesigning the title's key weekend supplement West Country Life, and editing a monthly business magazine called Agenda.

Paul will join Exeter on February 4, whilst editor Andy Phelan is seconded to the transformation project where he will head up the content stream. The editorial team will report to Paul during the interim period.