Editor of Northcliffe's Exeter Express & Echo resigns

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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.