Oliver Duff (born 1983) is a British journalist who has been the editor of the '' i'' newspaper since June 2013. Duff was formerly a reporter, gossip columnist and news editor, before becoming Executive Editor at ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', ''

the i ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' and ''The Independent on Sunday'', controlling the newsroom.

Early life

Duff was born in 1983 in Leighton Buzzard,

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

. He is an ex-student of

Cedars Upper School Cedars Upper School is an upper school and sixth form with academy status, located in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England. Former students of the school are known as Old Cedarians. History Following the Fisher Education Act in 1918, educ ...

. Brought up in Bedfordshire, Duff had early career intentions of becoming an explorer, then

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

goalkeeper, before finally deciding on journalism, when he started writing for his local paper, the ''Leighton Buzzard Observer''. He read Politics at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

(2001–2004), He became editor of the student paper, '' Varsity'' in 2002.

Career

Before starting work in 2002, in newspapers as an admin assistant at ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

''. Then in 2003, he got a staff job as an admin assistant on the ''Independent'' newsdesk "writing odds and sods after hours" before moving up to a staff reporter role.

Simon Kelner Simon Kelner (born 9 December 1957) is a British journalist and newspaper editor. Kelner studied at Bury Grammar School. His older brother is the journalist and broadcaster Martin Kelner. He is Jewish. He started work at ''Neath Guardian'' in ...

then offered him the job of editing the "Pandora" diary column. Duff then worked as a travel writer (which he occasionally still does), and news editor. Although he was fired as a bar critic after three weeks, he (and an investigative team of reporters) was nominated for the ''Cudlipp Award'' (by

British Press Awards The Press Awards, formerly the British Press Awards, is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. History Established in 1962 by ''The People'' and '' World's Press News'', the first award ceremony for the then-named '' ...

) for excellence in popular journalism. Until 2008, when he became deputy home news editor, shortly before

Roger Alton Roger Alton (born 20 December 1947 in Oxford) is an English journalist. He was formerly editor of ''The Independent'' and ''The Observer'', and executive editor of ''The Times''. Early life and education He was educated at Clifton College and ...

replaced Simon Kelner as ''Independent'' editor in April 2008. Duff was a member of the team that launched the ''i'' newspaper in October 2010 and he has covered the Olympics, two general elections, the London terror attacks and the phone hacking scandal. In 2010 Duff moved up to become news editor and after a year in that job he was made executive editor under

Chris Blackhurst Chris Blackhurst (born 24 December 1959) is a strategic communications advisor and commentator, who is a former editor of ''The Independent''. For four years, he was a director of CT Partners, the international strategic communications, campaignin ...

(who became ''Independent'' editor in July 2011). Duff was made editor of the ''i'' at the same time that

Amol Rajan Amol Rajan (born 4 July 1983) is an Indian-born British journalist and broadcaster who has been the BBC's Media Editor since December 2016 and a presenter on the ''Today'' programme on BBC Radio 4 since 2021. Rajan was editor of ''The Indepen ...

became editor of ''The Independent'', in June 2013. Duff writes an editor's letter every day in the newspaper. Topics include nature and science, politics and diplomacy.

Other notes

He lives in central London with his partner. Away from work, he is a member of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duff, Oliver 1983 births Living people English male journalists The Independent people I (newspaper) journalists Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge British newspaper journalists