'If Newsquest's hidden agenda is to kill the title I congratulate them': ex-daily editor

Mike Woods, the former editor of the Dorset Echo , has given a damning verdict on the way Newsquest is treating his old paper.
In a posting on the HoldtheFrontPage website, part owned by Newsquest, Woods gives a scathing comment on the redundancies of veteran Echo reporter Harry Walton, news editor Paul Thomas and other staff.
He says: "I edited the Echo from 1984 to 1996 and remember the days when people queued at the town centre office to buy it moments after the first edition rolled off the press. It then had one of the best sales records of any UK regional daily paper - mainly due to an incredibly hard-working and devoted staff led by stalwarts such as Paul Thomas and Harry Walton. If Newsquest's hidden agenda is to kill the title I congratulate them. Sacking such people is precisely the way to do it."
Woods' comment is among an avalanche of postings giving Newsquest a pasting on HTFP. Many are highly critical of the Echo sackings with some accusing Newsquest of having an agenda to close the Dorset Echo and merge it with the company's Bournemouth paper. Altogether 20 jobs have been axed at the Dorset and Bournemouth centres.