Her departure robs the group of a respected figure in the local digital community and marks the end of the popular Mancunian Way blog, which has been operated out of the Manchester Evening News for the past two years.

Although on her own blog Hartley likens her personal experience of leaving the group, which she has worked at for the past eight years, to "a scene being played out up and down the country" (seemingly referring to the raft of job losses in the industry) it appears she has left of her own volition.

She told How-Do that it was "a hard decision to make" but one that had essentially been made for her as "the opportunity presented to me was just good to miss."

Hartley

Hartley joined GMG in 2001 as the content editor and publisher for the digital side of the regional division, before moving up to take the role of head of online editorial in 2005.

In that time she has has helped the group launch a raft of regional websites (including the MEN site itself, which was previously part of ManchesterOnline) and collect a host of industry awards - these include winning the best daily newspaper site from the Newspaper Society in the first year of the MEN's online launch (2005) and electronic news site of the year 2007 from the Newspaper Awards.

Commenting on her time with the firm Hartley said she had "thouroughly enjoyed" her tenure and had "been proud to be a part of this city's thriving digital community."

Speaking of some of the achievements that stood out for her she noted that "helping to increase engagement with the community" had been key.

Challenging times for the MEN

On the subject of the Mancunian Way blog itself she exclaimed: "I have loved every second of it.

"My co-bloggers - Paul Robinson and Adrian Slatcher - provided a great balance to what I could bring to it as a professional journalist with their in-depth knowledge and contacts across the techie and digital arts communities.

"We've received a lot of feedback from users over the past 48 hours (since it was revealed that it was the close) and all three of us will continue to participate in the city's digital scene going forward."

She concluded by adding that she wanted "to wish everyone remaining at MEN Media all the best for the future in these difficult times."

http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com

Twitter @foodiesarah

Did you enjoy this article? Please share it!

Comments (10)

4  By Paul Fabretti , on 07-05-2009 10:41 I remain amazed that a paper-based news service continues to bin the people who are potentially the future of their business.    First Sarah, then half the Channel M team...have the board not sussed that these are the very people to develop a news service that is relevant to their fast-declining audience.    Twitter, Qik, Blogs, Mobile...these are the tools of the generation that consume news when THEY want, not when the MEN want them to. Closing down the majority of these services is short-sighted at best, a terminal shot in the arm at worst.    damn, those anti-spam questions are tough ;-) Report

5  By Sarah Hartley , on 07-05-2009 10:56 @yetanotherformerstaffer. There isn't an innaccuracy in the article. As it says, the award for best electronic news site was made in 2007. You are right that MOL won best newspaper site in 2005. Both sites were happily very successful in their times. Hope whatever you're doing now is going well. Sarah Report

8  By Simon Wharton , on 07-05-2009 11:51 If there weren't enough indicators already, Sarahs departure indicates a business in crisis. And it doesn't feel like there is anyone at the helm. Sarah is the kind of talent they should be prepared to sacrifice their collective left bollock for. Her skills, vision and experience just aren't that common. Report

9  By Martin Bryant , on 07-05-2009 14:42 I echo Paul Fabretti's point above. It's very shortsighted to get rid of the very things that will allow the company to survive in the future. After having invested so heavily in Channel M and online innovations they are being axed before they can properly bear fruit. I wrote more about my thoughts on this here: http://14sandwiches.com/2009/05/06/regional-media-takes-a-tumble/ Report