David Randall (April 1951 – 17 July 2021) 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

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

of ''The Universal Journalist'', a textbook on journalism. He was assistant editor of ''

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 ...

'' until 1998, when he joined ''

The Independent on Sunday ''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 publishe ...

'' and worked there until retiring in 2013.

Education and career in journalism

Randall was born in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

in 1951. He studied economics at

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

. While at Cambridge, he was recruited to write for the student newspaper '' Varsity'' by editor

Jeremy Paxman Jeremy Dickson Paxman (born 11 May 1950) is an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and television presenter. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate ne ...

and wrote in the weekly column titled "The Adventures of Druisilla Nutt-Tingler".

Career

After a brief period as a professional comedian and a brand manager at a cosmetics company, Randall joined the ''

Croydon Advertiser ''The Croydon Advertiser'' (with locally branded editions) is a paid-for weekly newspaper with five editions covering the London Boroughs of Croydon, Sutton and two neighbouring towns and with a free up-to-the-minute maintained web presence. Ci ...

'' as a trainee reporter in 1974 and became the paper's editor in 1980.''The Universal Journalist'', David Randall's Biography
/ref> He joined ''

'' one year later as deputy sports editor. He was promoted to the post of assistant editor. Randall later joined ''

'' in 1998. He worked as its home editor, chief news writer, and commentator until his retirement in 2013.

Books

Randall was the author of ''The Universal Journalist''. In a review of the book in the ''

British Journalism Review ''British Journalism Review'' is an opinionated quarterly journal covering the field of journalism. The journal's editor is Kim Fletcher who is supported by an editorial board of journalists and journalism academics. It was established in 1989 and ...

'',

Ann Leslie Dame Ann Elizabeth Mary Leslie, DBE (born 28 January 1941) is a British journalist who writes for the ''Daily Mail''. Education Leslie was born in Rawalpindi, British India (now in Pakistan), where she spent her early years, attending an Eng ...

stated "How I wish this book had been around when I was a young reporter." In the book '' Journalism, Ethics and Society'', David Berry labels Randall a "prominent critic of the debate" concerning

journalistic ethics Journalistic ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and good practice applicable to journalists. This subset of media ethics is known as journalism's professional "code of ethics" and the "canons of journalism". The basic codes and c ...

and quotes Randall as arguing in ''The Universal Journalist'' that "the objectives and resolutions of ethical debates are unrealistic in the real world of practice

f journalism F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...

" Randall was also the author of ''The Great Reporters'', which profiles thirteen reporters he regards as being the best journalists. Among the reporters included were

Edna Buchanan Edna Buchanan (née Rydzik, born March 16, 1939)About Edna Buchanan
Fantastic Fiction. Retri ...

William Howard Russell Sir William Howard Russell, (28 March 182011 February 1907) was an Irish reporter with ''The Times'', and is considered to have been one of the first modern war correspondents. He spent 22 months covering the Crimean War, including the Sieg ...

Hugh McIlvanney Hugh McIlvanney (2 February 1934 – 24 January 2019) was a Scottish sports journalist who had long stints with the British Sunday newspapers ''The Observer'' (30 years until 1993) and then 23 years with ''The Sunday Times'' (1993–2016). Aft ...

, Ann Leslie, and

A. J. Liebling Abbott Joseph Liebling (October 18, 1904 – December 28, 1963) was an American journalist who was closely associated with ''The New Yorker'' from 1935 until his death. He was known for, among other things, the aphorism "Freedom of the press bel ...

Personal life

Randall was married to Pam until his death. Together, they had four children: Guy, Paul, Simon, and Tom. Randall resided in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

during his later life. He died during the week of 11–17 July 2021. He was 70, and suffered a suspected heart attack prior to his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Randall, David British male journalists 1951 births 2021 deaths Date of birth missing Date of death missing Writers from Ipswich