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January 20, 2020updated 30 Sep 2022 8:50am

PA managing director Tony Watson retiring after 17 years with news agency

By Freddy Mayhew

PA managing director Tony Watson is to retire after 17 years with the UK’s leading news agency.

Watson leaves in March, bringing to an end a 42-year career in media during which edited the Yorkshire Post for 13 years and also worked in TV.

Watson joined PA in 2003 and was made managing director in 2008, a year after joining the board of parent company PA Group – going on to become its longest serving member.

A PA Group spokesperson said Watson had “shown unwavering commitment to maintaining PA’s position as one of the industry’s most respected news media brands”.

“He has been the driving force behind the ongoing transformation of the agency into a digitally-focused, multi-platform news and information business,” they added.

Watson will now work with PA Media Group chief executive Clive Marshall to begin a search for his successor.

Picture: PA

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