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May 10, 2016updated 25 May 2016 9:37am

Editors of Bath Chronicle and Western Daily Press join wave of exits from Local World since Trinity Mirror take over

By Dominic Ponsford

Two more Local World editors are to step down in the wake of the take-over of the company by Trinity Mirror.

Lynne Fernquest (pictured) is leaving the Bath Chronicle and Rob Stokes is to leave Western Daily Press.

Their departures follow a restructure by Trinity Mirror across the Bristol, Gloucester, Somerset and Dorset region which will see a number of websites close and 14 editorial jobs lost.

Six editors have now had their departures announced Local World titles since the company was bought by Trinity Mirror in a deal which valued the group at £240m in Novembeer last year.

The others are: David Atkin at the Scunthorpe Telegraph, Neil White at the Derby Telegraph, Kevin Booth at the Leicester Mercury and Paul Brackley at the Cambridge News.

Other cutbacks by Trinity Mirror at former Local World titles include the closure of the Nuneaton News daily edition with the loss of four editorial jobs and the merger of the newsrooms of bi-weekly Exeter Express & Echo and Tiverton-based Mid Devon Gazette with the loss of eight jobs

Fernquest joined the Chronicle as editor in 2012 after two years as editor of the Western Gazette in Yeovil.

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Stokes has been editor of the Western Daily Press since February 2015, joining after more than 25 years with sister paper, the Bristol Post, where he worked as investigations’ editor, news editor, assistant editor and deputy editor.

Trinity Mirror said that both roles will be replaced.

The merger of Trinity Mirror and Local World creates by far the biggest regional newspaper publisher in the UK.

Trinity Mirror has said that it is targeting cost-saving “synergies” of £12m a year following the buyout.

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