TWO former business editors have been promoted at a communications consultancy run by a team of professional journalists in southern England. Andrew Diprose and Ron Wain are now joint managing directors at expanding Deep South Media (DSM).

They were previously operations and commercial directors respectively.

Gareth Weekes, the founder of the nine-strong media relations specialist, becomes executive chairman, having been managing director since inception in 1998.

DSM works for companies and organisations in a diverse range of sectors.

Services include PR news content, press office services, stakeholder engagement, media interview training and publications design.

Andrew set up the PR arm of DSM from scratch in Dorset in 2005; Ron did the same in Hampshire the following year. The PR division now has 35 retained clients.

Andrew, 52, was previously the Southampton-based corporate affairs spokesman for regional newspaper group Newsquest and business editor at the Bournemouth Daily Echo.

He also ran a successful news agency in Buckinghamshire and was head of news at Chiltern Radio in the home counties.

Ron, 46, was business editor and deputy news editor at the Southern Daily Echo and a reporter at the Evening Post in Nottingham and the Bournemouth Daily Echo.