Meehan out and Hodgkinson in at Hull Daily Mail

Northcliffe’s longest-serving daily newspaper editor John Meehan is leaving the Hull Daily Mail.

Meehan leaves Northcliffe in mid-October when he will be replaced by the editorial director of Cumbrian Newspapers Media Group, Neil Hodgkinson.

Meehan, 47, has been an editor at Northcliffe for14 years, first at the Express and Echo in Exeter and then at the Hull Daily Mail.

As well as editing the Hull Daily Mail, he has also been regional editorial director of Northcliffe’s operation in the North East for the past five years.

During his time at the paper he scooped several awards including daily newspaper of the year and front page of the year at the Society of Editors Regional Press Awards this year.

Hodgkinson began his career at the West Lancashire Evening Gazette in Blackpool in 1979, rising from reporter to deputy news editor, before moving to the Lancashire Evening Post as news editor in 1987, where he later became deputy editor.

He is a former editor of the Lancashire Evening Post in Preston and the Yorkshire Evening Post, and became editorial director at Cumbrian Newspapers in 2006.

In a statement chief executive Steve Auckland said: “In addition to being editor of the Hull Daily Mail, John has been regional editorial director of the North East for the past five years. John felt that, when the publisher position in Hull was advertised, this was the best time for a change of direction in his career.”

In an email to colleagues Meehan said: “It has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to have been the editor of the Hull Daily Mail and to have played a significant part in the development of the brilliant business we have in Hull. I have been fortunate to have worked with so many creative, talented and hugely committed colleagues in Hull and elsewhere in Northcliffe. I wish all of you continued success.

“My 14 years as a Northcliffe editor have gone by like a flash – it has been an amazing journey, full of highlights and lots of fun. I will be sad to say goodbye to Northcliffe and to Mail, but at the same time I am hugely excited by the opportunity to take my career in a new direction.

“I am also delighted by Neil Hodgkinson’s appointment as my successor. He is a very talented, vastly experienced and much respected editor who will be an excellent leader of the editorial operation.

“I won’t be leaving for a couple of months yet, so I will have the opportunity to thank you properly for your support and camaraderie over many years. In the meantime, it’s very much business as usual.”