Changes at Belfast Tele as Gail Walker vacates editor's chair after five years

THE Belgian media group which last year bought the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life among other Irish titles has confirmed a number of changes to its senior editorial management team in Northern Ireland.
It will include seeking a new editor-in-chief at the Belfast Telegraph to replace Gail Walker, who has occupied the editor's chair for the last five years.
When her successor is in place, she will take up a newly-created role as editor-at-large, where she will bring an insight into a range of subjects relevant to life in a post-Brexit Northern Ireland.
The changes are the first since Mediahuis, a private European group founded in 2013, paid £125 million last May to buy the Tele's parent group Independent News & Media (INM), which also owns the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, the Herald and the Sunday World.
Publisher Peter Vandermeersch said: “Gail and her team can be proud of the quality of the journalism which kept Northern Ireland informed and engaged during the turbulence of Brexit and the absence of a power-sharing government, which was recognised in being awarded UK Regional Newspaper of the Year in 2019.”
Gail said: “It's been a privilege to have served as editor of the Belfast Telegraph, where I have been fortunate to work with a great team of colleagues and friends who every day produce some of the finest journalism in Northern Ireland.
“My new role as editor-at-large, coming at a time when the newspaper approaches its 150th birthday, offers a terrific opportunity to spend more time on the subjects that really matter in Northern Ireland.”