Editor of Northcliffe's Exeter Express & Echo resigns

The editor of the Express & Echo has resigned from the regional title, which was switched in September from a daily to a weekly by publisher Northcliffe Media.

Marc Astley joined Northcliffe in 1989 and became editor of the Express & Echo six years ago in 2006. Prior to taking up the editorship he was group assistant editor in Hull and deputy editor in Nottingham.

Northcliffe has not announced a replacement.

Astley said in a statement: "Having successfully steered the Express & Echo from a daily to weekly title in the last three months I feel this is the right time for me to seek a fresh challenge. I leave behind a wonderful title and many friends but am happy in the knowledge that, as I leave, the business is in an exciting new phase."

Northcliffe announced last week that the Express & Echo had seen a 46 per cent increase in circulation since it became a weekly, up to 24,255 copies. It is one of several daily titles the publisher has switched to weeklies over the past few months, along with the Torquay Herald, Scunthorpe Telegraph, and Lincolnshire Echo.

Andrew Blair, managing director of Northcliffe's South West division, said today that Astley had "played a leading role in the successful conversion of the Express & Echo to a weekly title" and "championed many worthy causes on behalf of the city and the community".

Northcliffe closed two of its Kent titles – the Medway News and East Kent Gazette – earlier this month following a failed bid to sell them, along with five other newspapers in the region, to the Kent Messenger Group.

It now looks set to merge three other affected titles, the Thanet Gazette, Thanet Times and Canterbury Gazette, alongside cutbacks to various centralised departments.

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