Susan Douglas (journalist)
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Susan Margaret Douglas (born 29 January 1957) is a British media executive and former newspaper editor.


Early life

Born in London, she was educated at Tiffin Girls' School in Kingston. Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p.207 After graduating with a first-class Honours degreeRebecca Fowle
"Is hers the toughest job in Fleet Street?"
''The Independent'', 6 February 1996
in Physiology and Biochemistry from Southampton University, she began her career in 1978 with management consultants
Andersen Consulting Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentur ...
. She then became a
medical journalist Medical journalism is news reporting (as opposed to peer-review publication) of medical news and features. Medical journalism is diverse, and reflects its audience. The main division is into (1) medical journalism for the general public, which incl ...
with
Haymarket Publishing Haymarket Media Group is a privately held media company headquartered in London. It has publications in the consumer, business and customer sectors, both print and online. It operates exhibitions allied to its own publications, and previously o ...
. In South Africa (1979–81) she worked for the South African ''Sunday Express'' and '' The Rand Daily Mail''.


Career

Returning to Britain in 1981, she began writing for the ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' and ''
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 ...
'', and in 1982 she joined the '' Mail on Sunday''. Initially a medical correspondent, she was promoted to associate editor of the newspaper, then assistant editor of the ''Daily Mail'' in 1987. Joining '' The Sunday Times'' in 1991, she became deputy editor. Douglas launched the newspaper's Style & Culture sections, relaunched ''The Sunday Times'' magazine, ran the Insight investigative team and introduced many writers and columnists including Julie Burchill, Jeremy Clarkson, Taki,
Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, (born 6 October 1939), is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is best known for his work with ITV as editor and presenter of ''The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010), and for the BBC Radio 4 documenta ...
and her then husband, historian Niall Ferguson. At the beginning of 1996, she took up her appointment as editor of the ''
Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...
'', then owned by Lord Stevens. Just under two years later, Clive Hollick bought the Express group and rolled the Sunday into the Daily title, rendering all Sunday Express journalists redundant. Douglas was chosen by former ''Sunday Times'' superior Andrew Neil to assist in relaunching '' The Scotsman'', ''Scotland on Sunday'' and the ''Edinburgh Evening News''. At the same time, she diversified into magazine publishing, working on the US launch of men's magazine '' Gear'', then the UK websites Vogue.com, Traveller.co.uk and after she helped launch the new title, ''
Glamour Glamour may refer to: Arts Film * ''Glamour'' (1931 film), a British film * ''Glamour'' (1934 film), an American film * ''Glamour'' (2000 film), a Hungarian film Writing * ''Glamour'' (magazine), a magazine for women * ''The Glamour ...
'', in the UK, she ran the contract publishing division of Condé Nast, with titles such as ''tate'', ''Trader'', ''Mandarin Oriental'', ''Harrods'' and the Post office magazine. ''Glamour'' was one of the most successful magazine launches ever, and Douglas, as President of New Business with Condé Nast, became a director.


Later career

After a severe horse-riding accident which led to a brain haemorrhage, she became a freelance executive and in 2008, joined literary agency PFD as a director and engineered the management buyout by Andrew Neil. The acquisition ultimately led to Douglas being forced to leave. Consultancy deals with Harper Collins, Future publishing and television company, Luxe.tv and Lingospot followed. Douglas, as part of a consortium, was reported in January 2013 to have been in talks with Trinity Mirror to purchase a majority stake in ''
Sunday People The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881. At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...
'' and rebrand it as ''The News of the People'' (Douglas had attempted to buy 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 ...
'' after its closure). In May 2013, these plans were reported to have been dropped, although Phoenix Ventures, her company, remained in talks about other collaborations. Early in the following month it emerged that she was to head a wholly owned subsidiary of Trinity Mirror called Sunday Brands. The leading publication would be the ''Sunday People'', with other titles from the group, but these would not include the ''Sunday Mirror''. The Sunday Brands was soon dropped, with Douglas' role changing to offering a digital version of the ''Sunday People''. In the end, the new website, launched in November 2013, did not meet Trinity Mirror's financial targets and closed in January 2014 when Douglas left the company.


Personal life

Douglas is divorced from historian Niall Ferguson with whom she has three children.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Sue 1957 births English magazine editors English newspaper editors English women journalists Living people Medical journalists Alumni of the University of Southampton People educated at the Tiffin Girls' School