AN AWARD-WINNING editor has joined the University of Kent's Centre for Journalism and the News Industry.

Ian Reeves, formerly editor of Press Gazette, the weekly magazine for journalists, has been appointed senior lecturer.

Part of his new role will be to help set up the university's new journalism degree programme, which will be based at the university's Medway campus in Chatham Maritime and will officially launch in September 2008.

During his time in charge at Press Gazette, from November, 2002, to December 2006, Mr Reeves was voted business writer of the year by the Periodical Publishers' Association (2003), and was nominated as weekly editor of the year in 2006 by the British Society of Magazine Editors.

A journalist with more than 18 years' experience, Mr Reeves is also a media consultant and regular contributor to a range of national publications including The Guardian, The Independent and The Word.

He said his first priority in his new role was to help create a centre of excellence for journalism at Kent.

He said: "The news industry is in a period of spectacular change, which means the modern journalist has to be adept at telling a story in many different ways.

"The modern media market is fast-moving and highly competitive. Many more skills are needed than before, as multimedia, video and podcasts compete with traditional media, so we're planning an exciting new degree to train these journalists of the future."

The university also plans to equip students with a state-of-the-art newsroom, which will be based in its Gillingham Building at the Medway campus.

Tim Luckhurst, Professor of Journalism at Kent, said the appointment was more good news for the Centre for Journalism. He stressed: "Ian is a superb journalist and brings a range of skills and experience that will benefit every student we recruit.

"The best journalism education combines vocational training with rigorous academic and ethical teaching. Ian will contribute to both. He shares my determination to make the University of Kent a standard-setter in 21st century, multimedia journalism."