The Manchester Evening News’s multi award-winning personal finance journalist Peter Sharples is leaving the paper after more than 30 years.
His decision follows the announcement by Guardian Media Group that it is proposing to axe 22 per cent of the paper’s editorial work force.
Sharples was named personal finance journalist of the year three years in a row at the Regional Press Awards, making him the only triple winner.
Starting as a junior reporter on the weekly Blackburn Times in 1967, Sharples, 56, moved on to the Express & Star in Wolverhampton, the West Lancashire Evening Gazette and The Journal in Newcastle, before moving to Manchester in 1975.
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After regular casual shifts for The People during the 1980s he became European correspondent for the Hong Kong-based business magazine Asian Inc.
A painful disability hindered his career, leaving Sharples newsdesk bound for many years, but following surgery he resumed his career in financial journalism and in 2005 took his tally of financial journalist of the year awards to nine in as many years.
He said: "It’s very sad to see so many jobs disappearing across the industry and, naturally, I shall be sorry to be severing my ties here after all these years.
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"But I feel it’s the right time for me to make a clean break and move on, and the redundancy deal offers an ideal opportunity for me to do so."
Sharples is now considering freelancing or a career in corporate work.
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