The editor of the Reading Evening Chronicle, Simon Jones, has announced he is to leave the paper after 18 months in charge to begin a career in PR.
Jones will turn his back on an 18-year career in newspapers next month when he becomes head of communications for the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
He admitted it would be ‘hard to leave behind’the Trinity Mirror-owned title but said the offer of a new job, without having to commute to Reading from his Harrow home, had enticed him.
But Jones said it would not ‘be the end of journalism’for him. ‘Moving is something that has been in the back of my mind,’he said.
‘I’ve been in newspapers for 18 years now and it’s time to look atnew opportunities and new challenges.
‘It’s not the end of journalism for me – they [local authorities] have their own publications and websites. I have always enjoyed running our campaigns, so I will get to do that.’
Jones began his career on the Bishop Stortford Herald and Post in 1989 and spent three years working on newspapers in New Zealand.
At the Chronicle, he became the UK’s first newspaper editor to launch a Polish edition, Kronika Reading.
The paper’s deputy editor, Jeremy Drakes, is coincidentally also leaving the paper after 15 years with the company, but to pursue a very different career – as an actor.
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