Fond farewell to our editor Martin

After almost 47 years in journalism JPIMedia and Motherwell Times/Cumbernauld News editor Martin Clark has decided to retire.

Martin (64) has been in charge of 22 Scottish weekly newspapers for the past two and a half years covering titles from Fraserburgh in the north down to Galloway in the borders and Carrick on the west coast through to Midlothian in the east.

Looking forward to a welcome break Martin said: “I’ve had an incredible career in newspapers and I’ve worked with some amazing people during that time. But it is the thousands of people I have met covering stories along the way that has made the journey so memorable.

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“The best part of the job was meeting people from so many different backgrounds and covering their wide and varied stories - many of whom have become friends.”

Martin left Uddingston Grammar in 1973 aged 17 and took a summer job in Glasgow Evening Times/Glasgow Herald as a copy boy - office gofer - to gather some money before becoming a student.

However three months turned into 18 months as he caught the reporting bug. During that time he took on extra work in his own time gaining valuable experience working alongside the reporting team at the Evening Times. He also covered football games, worked on press releases and became their music columnist covering concerts in the world famous Glasgow Apollo.

Martin was offered a trainee journalist position at the Rutherglen Reformer within Scottish and Universal Newspapers. Three months later he transferred to the Wishaw Press where he worked for 26 years starting as a local community reporter and eventually becoming deputy editor.

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He was also sports editor for 10 years. During that time he covered Motherwell FC as they lifted the Scottish Cup in 1991 and along the way met some of the greats in Scottish football, such as Davie Cooper, Andy Goram, Chris McCart, Tom Boyd, James McFadden and Phil O’Donnell.

He also had the opportunity to follow The Wishaw Wizard John Higgins’ rise to fame in the world of snooker from a youngster standing on a box to reach the snooker table in Wishaw’s Master Snooker Club to taking his first World Championship title at The Crucible.

Martin became deputy editor at Wishaw in 2000 but decided he needed a new challenge and in 2001 took over the helm as editor at The Lanarkshire People and helped reshape it into The Lanarkshire Extra as part of a major overhaul within the Archant newspaper group.

In 2007 Archant’s Scottish titles were taken over by Johnston Press which included the ‘free’ Extra newspapers along with Aberdeenshire titles in Ellon, Peterhead and Fraserburgh.

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As well as heading the Lanarkshire Extra, Martin took over as editor at Motherwell Times and Bellshill Speaker. Over the years the titles he looked after grew to include the Cumbernauld News & Kilsyth Chronicle, and he was appointed deputy editor at the Falkirk Herald and Linlithgow Gazette splitting his week between Cumbernauld and Grangemouth offices.

Then in another reshuffle two and a half years ago he was appointed Editor of the Small Scottish Weeklies leading the ACH team and looking after 22 titles across the country.

Martin has been married to his wife Gina for almost 34 years and they have a daughter Fiona and a Westie called Dougal.

Over the years he’s been involved in a number of sports including badminton, cricket and retired from playing hockey only a couple of years ago. He also gained his FIH international umpiring for hockey and is now planning to help coach and mentor young umpires at Uddingston Hockey Club.

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Looking ahead to his retirement Martin said: “I’ve had a fantastic career but now it’s family time. My wife and I hope to be able to get away more and see different parts of Scotland that we’ve never visited before. And I’m sure she’ll have already started a list of jobs for me to do around the house.”