A former editor of the Yorkshire Evening Press and Northern Echo has died at the age of 74.
David Kernek, better known under his adopted surname of Flintham, enjoyed a successful career in the regional press and as recently as 2020 launched his own local news site in Bath.
London-born, he edited a number of newspapers including the Yorkshire Evening Press, the Brighton Evening Argus and the Northern Echo, and was also Lobby Correspondent for the latter.
He lived in Bath with his wife, journalist Diana Cambridge, and their daughter Clare.
Former Northern Echo editor Peter Barron said: “I’ll remember David Flintham – as I knew him when he edited The Northern Echo in the nineties – as one of the best writers I ever worked with.
“He had the highest standards when it came to the use of English and never wasted a word.
“It was my privilege to be his deputy and he taught me a great deal, principally about the art of ‘leader writing’ – the daily task of giving The Great Daily of the North an opinion about whatever was happening in the world.”
Another former Echo editor, Allan Prosser, added: “David was on the side of ordinary people, and against the pompous, the self-interested, and anyone he regarded as anti-democratic. He had an outstanding grasp of history and an impressively economic writing style in which every word earned its place.”
