Liverpool Echo night editor Tony Martin was found dead at his home aged 61 on Sunday.
The Echo reports today that tributes have been flooding in for the veteran newsman, who began his career as a trainee reporter at the Weekly News series based in Widnes in 1976.
He became chief reporter of the Liverpool Weekly News and later a sub-editor, and joined the Echo in 1979 as the paper’s Crosby and Bootle district reporter, when he covered major stories including the Toxteth Riots.
He moved on to the production team in 1984 as assistant chief sub-editor and went on to become deputy chief sub-editor and finally night editor.
Editor Alastair Machray said:
Tony Martin was the heart and soul of the ECHO. Time after time he’d save the paper and me by spotting an error or pointing out a flaw in a plan. As a true Liverpudlian and a reader at heart, he knew better than anyone what readers expected from their local paper.
I would see him walk into the office every afternoon and I’d know that everything would be OK. He is as near as I have seen to irreplaceable.
Trinity Mirror Merseyside Weeklies executive editor Andrew Edwards said:
Tony had an unbreakable love for the ECHO and a real sense of responsibility around everything he did.
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