THE Scotsman newspaper last night parted company with its editor, Tim Luckhurst, 45 days after his appointment.
His deputy, acting editor, Rebecca Hardy, was named as the paper's seventh editor in six years.
She also became the first female editor of a Scottish daily newspaper.
It is understood Mr Luckhurst, 37, who took extended sick leave less than a fortnight after being confirmed as editor on April 11, yesterday met editor-in-chief Andrew Neil and was told he would not be returning to the editor's chair.
Mr Neil last night insisted that it had been ''a very amicable departure'', but declined to discuss the issue further.
Earlier, Mr Neil had addressed staff at the paper's offices in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, to confirm Mr Luckhurst had left and Ms Hardy was taking over.
Her appointment came just two-and-a-half weeks after a relaunch by the paper, which has seen it sold at heavily discounted prices.
Contacted at their home in Glasgow, Mr Luckhurst's wife, Dorothy, a Conservative candidate for Clydebank and Milngavie in last year's Scottish Parliamentary elections, said her husband was not available for comment and that he had ''absolutely nothing to say on the matter''.
Ms Hardy, who is in her early thirties, is a former features writer with the Daily Mail in England. Mr Neil said: ''I am delighted. I think the most important thing is she is an excellent journalist, but she is also a woman. I was at a lecture in Glasgow today where I heard women were destined to take over the world. It starts here at the Scotsman.''
Ms Hardy, who has enjoyed a meteoric rise since her arrival in Scotland only a few months ago, said last night that being a woman editor was not the main issue, it was about being a decent journalist.
She said: ''I was obviously delighted. It has been a period of change. I am working with the people I want to be working with. I am here for the long term and I hope that the team I have with me are as well.''
She added she hoped to be a stabilising influence on the paper.
q Scotsman writer Ian Bell, who on Thursday was named Joint Journalist of the Year and Columnist of the Year in the Bank of Scotland Press Awards, confirmed last night that he had tendered his resignation earlier this week.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article