The Gazette, Blackpool, has a new editor, David Helliwell, assistant editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post.
The announcement was made to staff the day after the Johnston Press title was named as Newspaper of the Year in the Newspaper Society Awards.
It came as something of a shock to journalists, who had believed the award was largely down to the efforts of acting editor Neil Hunter, who has been doing the job for almost a year. They had expected him to be confirmed in the post.
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Helliwell, 34, spent five years as Evening Post news editor before he took the wider editorial role two years ago.
He started his career as a trainee on The Gazette’s sister paper, the Lancashire Evening Post, where he became crime reporter and news editor before moving to the Leeds title.
He said: “It is one of five daily regionals to increase sales in the last six months. I shall also be looking at content and how we can strengthen and improve that.”
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