The Editorial Director of NWN Media Barrie Jones is to step down at the end of the month after a total of 32 years with the company.

The local media group which publishes the Oswestry & Border Counties Advertizer as well as the daily Leader newspaper in Flintshire and Wrexham, and twelve further weekly titles across North Wales and Mid Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire was acquired by the Newsquest group in September this year.

Barrie will step down from his role as Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief of all the company's print tiles and websites.

Nick Fellows, Managing Director for Newsquest North West & North Wales said “I would like to thank Barrie for his support and professionalism during the initial integration of NWN Media with the Newsquest Media business. His wealth of knowledge has been invaluable. I would like to wish Barrie every success in his future career”.   

A philosophy graduate, he started his career as a reporter with the broadsheet weekly The Wrexham Leader in 1983. Later in the eighties he spent time working with the then independent North Wales Weekly news group and then edited newspaper titles with Thomson Regional Newspapers at Chester.

He returned to NWN in 1989 as editor of the Wrexham Leader before being appointed assistant editor and then editor-in-chief of the Evening Leader in 2005.

He also worked with Glyndwr University to develop a training course for journalists. The NCTJ accredited course was seen then as the first partnership of its kind in the UK between a news organisation and an academic institution. He was appointed editor-in-chief of NWN in 2008 and to the NWN board of directors in 2010 as Editorial Director. He is also a board member of The Society of Editors.

Barrie said: “During my time the news industry really has changed beyond all recognition. My memories of the early eighties are still of clanking metal typewriters, carbon paper and cigarette smoke – no newsroom computers in sight! There have of course been ups and downs over the years but I have always enjoyed the tempo and the unmatchable thrill of dealing with a big breaking story. I look forward now to finding a new challenge.”