Elect your new editor

THE JOURNALIST is to get a new editor, with Tim Gopsill due to retire later this year. The process to choose a successor is under way, in accordance with the union’s practice of editorial independence for an editor elected by the member­ship every five years.

The deadline for applications for the election is September 21, with the ballot beginning on October 6 and ending on November 6. Applicants must have been NUJ members for five years and meet criteria set by the national executive.

Tim Gopsill has held the job for 21 years, winning two polls and being elected unopposed twice.

He is retiring reluctantly, having applied to work on until the summer of 2010 to continue to develop the new-look magazine and a Journalist presence on the union website, but his request was turned down by General Secretary Jeremy Dear.

His bid to work on was made under a new law that allows people reaching normal retirement age to do so — a law that the union supports — but it requires that the employer agrees. To retire an employee compulsorily can constitute age discrimination but the NUJ followed a procedure that complies with the law.

Last year’s NUJ conference resolved that the Journalist should have “a more visible daily presence” on the website, but talks to achieve this have made little progress.

Tim Gopsill said: “The Journalist editorship is a fantastic job and a privilege to hold, but in this digital age it should cover work on the internet, producing the whole range of lively and diverse material that it carries in print.”