Matt Lawton, the Daily Mail’s chief football correspondent, has been promoted to executive sports editor after 20 years on the road.
Lawton takes up the new role next month. “As much as I love the job I do, it feels like the right time to embrace a new challenge,” he said. “These are exciting times at the Daily Mail and the opportunity to be in the office, right in the middle of it, was one I just had to take.”
Lawton was appointed chief football correspondent at the Mail 11 years ago, after working for the Daily Express and Telegraph. He becomes No2 to sports editor Les Snowdon, while Lee Clayton remains head of sport.
In another change on Mail Sport, Laura Williamson is the new athletics correspondent, following the retirement of Neil Wilson.
Williamson, 28, is a product of the Mail’s graduate trainee scheme. She joined Mail Online in 2008, moving over to the paper a year later.
Shortlisted for the SJA Young Sports Writer of the Year award three times, she will continue to cover football and contribute her weekly column.
Williamson worked on the Mail’s Olympic and Paralympic coverage and has also reported on the last four Wimbledon Championships.
Away from work, she is one of the founders of a charity called The Perfect Day Foundation, which supports sport development in Zambia and coach exchange programmes with the UK. It’s the cause for which Rebecca Adlington is undertaking a sponsored cycle ride.
UPCOMING SJA EVENTS
Thu Dec 6: 2012 SJA British Sports Awards. An Olympic year extravaganza at the Tower of London. Click here for more details, news of members’ discounts and a booking form.