He is due to succeed Francesca Unsworth, Head of Newsgathering at the BBC, at the close of the society’s annual conference in Belfast on November 13, subject to the approval of the annual meeting at the start of the conference on November 11.
Editor of the Press Association since 2000, Grun, 58, joined the agency as a reporter in 1979 and progressed through previous posts of night editor, news editor and deputy editor. He is a member of the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee and has served on many industry bodies as well as playing important coordinating roles in major national events.
Grun has been nominated unanimously by the society’s board to take on the role for a second time. He held the top office previously in 2002-3.
Ian Murray, Editor of the Southern Daily Echo, is also unanimously nominated as vice president. Subject to the decision of the annual meetings this year and next year he will take over as president after Grun in November 2013.
Murray, 53, started as a trainee reporter with Berrows Newspapers in the West Midlands in 1979. Aged 25 he was Britain's youngest editor at the Kidderminster Shuttle and Times and Stourport News. Clutching the award for best free newspaper he joined Birmingham's Daily News before leaving the Midlands for Bournemouth.
Rising through the ranks of news editor and deputy editor at the Bournemouth Daily Echo he became managing editor in 1997. In 1998 he was appointed editor of the Southern Daily Echo and later became Editor in Chief of Newsquest’s Hampshire titles, which include the Hampshire Chronicle, Basingstoke Gazette, Romsey Advertiser, Andover Advertiser and Salisbury Journal series.
He sits on the Editor’s Code Committee and is a member of the Newspaper Society’s Marketing Committee. He joined the board of the Society of Editors in 2010.
After Unsworth’s year as president the new officers will lead the society through the aftermath of the Leveson Inquiry and the outcome of investigations into the Savile affair at the BBC.
Executive director Bob Satchwell said: “As head of news gathering for arguably the biggest and most respected news organisation on Earth, Fran has one of the biggest jobs in journalism. That is why she has been an unassuming but impressive and calming leader throughout a year that has been frantic for the media in more ways than one.”
Unsworth said: “Jonathan Grun is highly regarded across all sectors of the media which PA serves so well. He is just the person to steer the society through turbulent waters against a background of continuing challenge and change in all media organisations.
“He will be supported by Ian Murray who is an editor of long experience in a part of the industry that has had an especially difficult time and which is adapting to a rapidly changing media playing field.
“They will make a powerful team presenting the case for media freedom and the public’s right to know.”
The society’s annual report records a period of intense pressure and increased workload by a small team. In addition to its campaigning activities on media freedom, the society has established its role in organising The Press Awards for national newspapers and the revival of the Regional Press Awards on behalf of the industry.
The society has members in all sectors of the media plus media and journalism education. Membership is increasing and the society’s accounts reveal expanding activity on a tight budget.
The annual report can be found here and hard copies are available through the society office.
The Society of Editors conference will be held from 11-13 November in Belfast. The annual SoE lecture will be delivered by Lord Hunt, Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission with John Whittingdale delivering a keynote address.
Sessions include the world after Leveson, funding for investigative journalism and a clampdown on the flow of information between public authorities and journalists. Mick Hume, author of There is no such thing as a free press and we need one more than ever will give an after-dinner speech at the annual black tie gala dinner.
Bookings can be made on the Society’s website.
