A Newspaper – with no staff

A regional daily, which just six years ago won the Newspaper of the Year accolade at the Birmingham Press Club-organised Midlands Media Awards, no longer has any dedicated staff. And it is being edited almost 30 miles off-patch following the departure of its editor.

Publisher Reach plc has confirmed that the Burton Mail now has no journalists solely working for the title.

Julie Crouch had been in charge of the newspaper from 2017 until last month, when she was among a number of regional editors to depart following group-wide cuts by Reach.

Following Julie’s departure, Marc Waddington, who edits Stoke-on-Trent daily the Sentinel and its companion website StokeonTrentLive, will now have overall editorial responsibility for the Mail.

Marc is also responsible for the Mail’s county-wide website Staffordshire Live, for which Julie had also retained oversight, as well as Cheshire Live, which lost its editor Frances Barrett in the same round of cutbacks.

.Other editors to leave the group include Adam Moss, who ran the Leicester Mercury, Coventry Telegraph and Northants Live; Ian McNeal from the Teesside Gazette and Hull Daily Mail chief Jamie Macaskill

In a Facebook post written at the time when her departure was announced, Julie wrote: “It’s a job I’ve been so proud to do. I’m so grateful to the dedicated team at the Mail for all their support and hard work. Over the years I have worked with some amazingly talented and dedicated people. Newsrooms are brilliant places – there’s nowhere like them. There’s too many people to thank individually for all the help and support.

“I’ve received along the way so thank you to all the teams I’ve had the privilege to be part of over the years – what memories. I’m off to do something new – not sure what yet but looking forward to the next chapter.”

Picture:  Julie Crouch (right) with colleagues Helen Kreft, Rhea Turner and Emma Turton at the 2017 Midlands Media Awards