A regional press journalist who left his job lst week amid newsroom cutbacks has bounced back after landing a new role with a business magazine and PR agency.

Moose Marketing & PR has appointed Andrew Merrell, pictured, to work on its business magazine and website Punchline Gloucester.

Earlier this month Trinity Mirror confirmed Andrew had left its Gloucestershire Live news operation, along with digital editor Jenny Eastwood, as part of a restructure which could see up to 49 journalism roles cut across England.

Andrew had spent 18 years working as a journalist in Gloucestershire, and was most recently chief business reporter at Gloucestershire Live and dailies-turned weeklies The Citizen, in Gloucester, and the Gloucestershire Echo.

Of his new role, he said: “I’ve been writing about business in the county for a long time now and for me these are the success stories that we need to continue to shout about to make people realise just what a great place Gloucestershire is to work and live.

“Moose Marketing & PR and its Punchline magazine and website are built for doing that and judging by the figures for all parts of the business it has really tapped into something.”

Mark Owen, Moose managing director and founder, said: “It is great to have Andrew on board. We are growing fast and it is important we take on the right people to help us continue to achieve that and to help us deliver for our clients.

“We now have two former business editors on our books, with [ex-Citizen and Echo business editor] Bev Hawes already a well-established part of the team.

“We want to send out a clear message that when it comes to supporting businesses in the county – and beyond – and telling their stories – we are serious about what we do and investing in good journalism.”

Andrew and Jenny both left Trinity Mirror as part of theroll-out of its ‘Live’ online brand across its newspaper centres in the Midlands and parts of the South West.  Jenny has now launched her own media consultancy.