The Sun’s ex-royal editor joins Zest

The Sun’s former royal editor, Duncan Larcombe, has joined Kent-based PR agency Zest as director.

Larcombe left the paper earlier this year to write a biography on Prince William and, prior to his most recent royal reporting role, he was defence editor tasked with heading the paper’s coverage of the military, in particular the war in Afghanistan.

He first joined The Sun in 2001 as a general news reporter, which was followed by a promotion to senior reporter. He went on to become royal correspondent, and later editor, spending five years covering Princes William and Harry, before being named defence editor.

Overall, Larcombe has spent 19 years in journalism, starting his career at the Kent and Sussex Courier as a reporter. After three years at the local paper, he was promoted to chief reporter before moving to the Ferrari Press Agency.

Larcombe said: “I had an amazing time travelling the world and I built a good working relationship with Prince William. I was also privileged to visit Afghanistan to report on our troops. However, all things come to an end and I felt now was the right time to write a new chapter in my career.

“I therefore decided that this move was a no-brainer. Zest has an excellent track record, is well respected and has ambitions to grow. I have been thinking about setting up in PR for a while now and after hearing about Belinda’s plans for Zest, it helped me make that decision.”

Belinda Collins, Zest MD, added: “We are really pleased to go into partnership with Duncan. He brings something extra to our offering with his Fleet Street connections and experience in crisis and reputation management.

“This will also add value to clients by looking at the gaps in their marketing plans and seeing how PR can help fill them. This also fits in nicely with our plans of growing the agency to compete with other medium sized national agencies.”