Peter Norman Stuart Stephens (19 December 1927 – 27 August 2016) was a British

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and newspaper editor. Stephens grew up in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, where he attended the Mundella Grammar School. He became a journalist at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, working successively at the '' Newark Advertiser'', the ''

Northern Echo ''The Northern Echo'' is a regional daily morning newspaper based in the town of Darlington in North East England, serving mainly southern County Durham and northern Yorkshire. The paper covers national as well as regional news. In 2007, its the ...

'', the '' Daily Dispatch'' and the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'', then in 1957 becoming assistant editor of the '' Newcastle Journal''. In 1962, he moved to become assistant editor of the ''

Evening Chronicle The ''Evening Chronicle'', now referred to as ''The Comical'', is a daily newspaper produced in Newcastle upon Tyne covering North regional news, but primarily focused on Newcastle upon Tyne and surrounding area. The ''Comical'' is published by ...

'', being made editor in 1962, then editor of the ''Newcastle Journal'' in 1966. In 1970, he moved to London to become assistant editor of '' The Sun'', briefly serving as deputy editor before moving to the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

'' in 1973, where he was associate editor for a year, then editor from 1974 to 1975. He then finished his career as associate editor of ''The Sun'' until 1981.STEPHENS, Peter Norman Stuart
, ''

Who's Who ''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biography, biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a gr ...

'' In retirement, Stephens wrote several books on the history of Newark, Nottinghamshire, and an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

, ''P. S. on a life in newspapers''.

References

1927 births 2016 deaths British male journalists British newspaper editors News of the World people Writers from Nottingham {{editor-stub