Swindon Advertiser editor leaves after 4 years

Dave King, who has edited the Swindon Advertiser for the last four years, has decided to relocate back to the South Coast.

Gary Lawrence, Editor of the Wiltshire Weeklies, has been appointed Group Editor for Newsquest Wiltshire. In his new role Gary will assume editorial responsibility for all Newsquest Wiltshire’s titles, including the Swindon Advertiser. He will take up his new role on Monday 13 June 2011.

Unfortunately, Dave was not able to bid farewell to colleagues and friends. Having made the decision to leave, Dave was told by Newsquest management not to return after the Whitsun Bank Holiday - although he was due to depart on 6 June.

To cope with the massive downturn in advertising revenue and the rising cost of printing and distributing news on paper, Swindon Advertiser publisher's Newsquest are currently undertaking a major reorganisation to create a publishing hub in Oxford.

The features department is being folded into news and all the sub-editors jobs are being moved to Oxford where they will be expected to work a range of titles covering Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. Quite a few staff have chosen to take redundancy rather than make the 30 mile trek to Oxford to work on non-area specific publications.

There is long held speculation in the town that Swindon Advertiser would eventually become a bi-weekly paper or a weekly. The appointment of Gary Lawrence suggests that this will soon come about.

However Dave says this idea is very wide of the mark. He said, "Gary Lawrence is one of our best editors in Newsquest, and the fact that he is taking over is down to the fact that he knows Wiltshire, he knows the area, he's well respected and is a very good journalist.??

"Gary will be working closely with deputy editor, Pauline Leighton, who is Swindon through and through, having been with the Adver for more than 30 years. You've put two and two together and got your sums totally wrong.?? I can assure you that at this moment in time there are absolutely no plans for the Adver to go weekly. In fact, with the newspaper and website it's not so straightforward to turn a daily newspaper into a weekly because of the loss of circulation and advertising revenues.

"??Yes, trading is tough for the Adver, as it is for most of the media, but in April the Adver was the best performing of all of the Newsquest daily titles in terms of newspaper sales, and we had more than two million page impressions on our website for April.

"Last year we had the seventh best performing website of any regional newspaper in the UK - and this year we're doing very well.

"I'm really sorry to be leaving Swindon because it is a terrific town with wonderful people. I have made many friends here. I have thoroughly enjoyed editing the Swindon Advertiser and was privileged to work with a very talented team of journalists. But equally, I'm very excited about my own future.??I'd appreciate it if you would set the record straight on-line."

Shamus Donald, regional managing director for Newsquest Oxfordshire & Wiltshire, paid tribute to Dave King's contribution to Newsquest. "I would like to thank Dave for everything he has done for us during his time here and to wish him well."

 

Swindon Advertiser assistant editor Stephen Webb added, "Dave has made a significant contribution not only to the Swindon Advertiser during his time here, but to the community of Swindon as a whole. He is a well known figure in the town and people will miss his input into many aspects of community life, not least local charities.

"The last couple of years have been very difficult for local newspaper around the country and the Swindon Advertiser, with Dave at the helm, has done its best to weather many a storm.

"We wish him well for the future."

Above, Dave King, painting himself out of the picture (helping out at the refurbishment of Swindon Scrapstore)