YEP business editor dead at 47

The business editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post, Nigel Scott, has died, aged 47.

Nigel died early on Boxing Day morning after fighting cancer through much of 2009.

He was determined the whole way through his battle to make the most of his time, to write his weekly Life in the Middle Ages column and to keep in touch with his colleagues and friends in the office.

After several months’ absence, he was back at his desk, albeit only for a short time, hardly six weeks ago.

Nigel was adamant that he wanted his weekly column to show the struggles he was facing as much as it had reflected his life in happier times. He continued to write, delivering on time every time, until the very last few weeks of his life.

Nigel was born on June 19, 1962, in Scunthorpe. The young Nigel and his parents Malcolm and Margaret moved to Leeds five years later and he attended Woodlesford Primary School, Langdale School, and Silcoates School in Wrenthorpe.

He left school at 17 and decided to follow the same career as his mother, who was a journalist.

He undertook a year-long course run by the National Council for the Training of Journalists at Richmond College in Sheffield.

In 1981 he joined the Pontefract and Castleford Express as a reporter, moving a few months later to the Wakefield Express where he worked as a reporter and later as a sub-editor. In 1987 he joined the Leeds Weekly News as a senior reporter and sub-editor and then joined the Yorkshire Evening Post as a reporter in 1988.

In 1996 he was appointed business correspondent and later became business editor.

As a business and financial journalist he won a string of awards including the title of UK Press Gazette Financial Journalist of the Year in 1998. He was also named, at various times, Northern Business Newspaper Journalist of the year, BT Business Reporter of the Year and Yorkshire Bank Northern Business Journalist of the Year.

Through the course of his 21 years with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Nigel was responsible for many thousands of stories, most of them keeping readers up to date with the latest business developments in the city and region he had come to know so well.

Nigel was immensely proud of all his family, taking particular pleasure in sharing with readers of the Yorkshire Evening Post the achievements of his two daughters, Emily and Eleanor, and domestic life with his wife Melanie – ‘Mrs S’- through his weekly Life in the Middle Ages column.

As well as writing on everything from the perils of being a domestic James Bond to the active wildlife in the garden of ‘Normanton Towers’to the simple pleasures of walking on the sands at Whitby, Nigel chose not to hide his illness from readers.

Many of them, themselves or their loved-ones going through the same health battle as Nigel, took much from his descriptions of the soaring highs and desperate lows of cancer treatment.

Away from the office, Nigel enjoyed theatre, music, literature and travel, was a keen cricketer and served for a time as a governor of Normanton Common Primary School.

Paul Napier, editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post, said: ‘Nigel was a great colleague and a friend to so many on the Yorkshire Evening Post, Yorkshire Post Newspapers and in the wider business community.

‘He was well-known and well-liked – there can’t be many people in the Leeds business world who’ve not at some point spoken with Nigel. He made time for everyone.

‘He carried his health troubles of the last few months with great dignity and seemed set on making the most of every minute of every hour.

‘He was so obviously proud of his family, often writing in his column of home life with Melanie and of the delights of being a dad to his two girls.

‘The thoughts of us all are with his family now.”

Nigel is survived by his wife and two daughters, and by his father and mother.

Nigel Scott’s funeral service takes place at Pontefract Crematorium next Tuesday, January 5, at 10.30am.

Friends should meet at the crematorium and family flowers only are requested. Donations in memory of Nigel can be given to Prince of Wales Hospice, Pontefract and Macmillan Cancer Support for which a box will be provided at the service, or sent to R J Burgess funeral director, 18, Market Place, Normanton WF6 2AU.

Press Gazette carries this piece courtesy of the Yorkshire Post.