His arrival in Halifax from Leeds, where he was sales and marketing director at the Yorkshire Post, will strengthen further the Courier's commitment to campaigning for its readers and supporting its advertising partners, particularly in the current financial climate.

Mr McLoughlin, 44, aims to meet as many people in Calderdale as possible and to gauge their opinions of the newspaper and its relationship with the community.

He said: "I enjoy being part of a team, whether it is sport or work. It is probably my biggest single interest apart from the family.

"I am looking forward to meeting as many people as possible and to play as big a role as I can in helping the community move Halifax forward, using the brand of the Halifax Courier and our very strong weekly titles to support that.

"We have to develop further our efforts in being a campaigning newspaper and look at the big issues affecting business, to help them thrive, and from the reader's point of view, on subjects like post office closures."

He plans to help develop the relationship between the Courier and the new board running FC Halifax Town.

"I think it is important that we have successful football and rugby teams, both in league and union," Mr McLoughlin said.

"And there is definitely an opportunity for us to become more involved in grass roots sport."

He was part of a team that organised a Yorkshire Day Festival at Harewood House, Leeds, earlier this month – a three-day celebration of all that is great about the county.

"The plan is that Leeds will continue to develop that over the coming years and I would like to think the Courier will get even more involved with events like Halifax Agricultural Show.

"It benefits us for the local community to be vibrant and, for me, the more we can get involved in that kind of thing, the better," he said.

Mr McLoughlin started his career at the Hull Daily Mail as a trainee sales representative and went on to hold senior managerial positions there and in Tunbridge Wells and London.

He was newspaper sales director at the Stoke Sentinel and Leicester Mercury newspapers before returning to Yorkshire four and a half years ago.

Married to Penny, he has two young daughters – Ellie, four, and Evie, one – as well as a 20-year-old daughter, Claire, who lives in Hull.

Mr McLoughlin takes over from Mike Pennington, who has been appointed commercial director at Yorkshire Post Newspapers, Leeds.