Former agency owner, news editor and local television entrepreneur Chris Johnson has died aged 68 after a short illness.

Tributes have flooded in for the ‘gentle giant’ of journalism and a formidable teacher of rising talent, who died on Thursday (June, 25), just three months after being diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus.

Chris began his career as a 16-year-old photographer on The Catholic Pictorial newspaper, working alongside future News of the World editor Colin Myler as a young reporter, before landing a job as a reporter at Mercury Press Agency.