CNJ, Islington Tribune and Westminster Extra editor, Eric Gordon, who died on Monday at the age of 89

ERIC Gordon – the founding editor of Camden New Journal, Islington Tribune and Westminster Extra – passed away on Monday after a short illness.

The 89-year old, who had been our newspapers’ only editor since the company was first formed in 1982, may have made him the United Kingdom’s oldest editor still regularly at work.

And still he rarely booked a holiday.

As editor of one of the last independent titles in the country, he was proud of the newspapers’ freedom from large groups and championed a co-operative-style structure, warning that papers would struggle to survive if they had to answer to faraway group executives or distant shareholders seeking dividends each year.

Eric had lived a life like few others.

In 1967, he spent two years under house arrest in China with his first wife and son.

He had been accused of being a spy by the Chinese authorities when he was found with notes about the Cultural Revolution while working in a commune.

He planned to write a book, but found himself being held for two years in a hotel room – a case which became an international incident and sparked much press interest back in the UK.

Eric never lost his thirst for the task ahead and was still sending out orders for articles to be written last week.

The leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer said: “Eric will be greatly missed.

“Under his leadership, the CNJ has been an exceptional, community-focused, campaigning newspaper and widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading local papers.”

Sir Keir’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn added: “To be an active fully engaged and iconic newspaper editor at 89 is an achievement itself.

“But Eric more than just achieved. He succeeded.

“The Camden New Journal was born in 1982. Eric became its editor and 40 years later the paper is one of the most respected in the country.”

The CNJ had been born out of a strike of journalists on the old Camden Journal, with staff and supporters making huge sacrifices to win through.

Westminster Extra, formerly the West End Extra, was launched in 1994 and recently passed the 1,400th edition.

A cast of reporters now work for national titles or broadcasters but the alumni look back fondly on their time at 40 Camden Road, the newspapers’ famously no-frills offices.

“He taught me about deadlines, local politics, community activism”, said John Wilson, a reporter on the paper at the end of the 1980s, now a presenter on Radio 4’s Front Row.

“He was terrifying and brilliant.”

Two weeks ago Eric had a fall outside his home in Primrose Hill and medical complications followed in St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington.

He was not suffering from the coronavirus.

Eric leaves his wife Samantha, sons Kim and Leigh and daughter Elly, and six grandchildren. His funeral was yesterday (Thursday).