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Bob Satchwell Executive director, Society of Editors Bob Satchwell has been executive director of the Society of Editors since its foundation in 1999. He was editor of the Cambridge Evening News from 1984 to 1998. He was President of the Guild of Editors 1997-98, which became the Society of Editors in 1999. He leads the society’s research and lobbying of government and other organisations on a wide range of issues that directly or indirectly affect all sectors of the media. The society, which has nearly 450 members in national, regional and local newspapers, magazines, broadcasting, new media, journalism education and media law, campaigns on media issues, self-regulation and media freedom, freedom of expression and the public’s right to know. He was previously chairman of the Guild of Editors’ Parliamentary and Legal Committee. He was also a member of the Editors’ Code Committee, which produces the newspaper and magazine industry’s Code of Practice that is policed by the Press Complaints Commission. He helped revise the code after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. He is a member of the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee, the Cabinet Office Media Emergencies Forum, the Ministry of Justice Information Users’ Group, a member of the executive committee of the Commonwealth Press Union and a director of the London Press Club. He was a member of the Home Office Community Cohesion Media Practioner Group, the Queen’s Jubilee Communications Committee and the Home Office advisory committee for the review of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. He brokered the understanding between the media and the Chief of the General Staff that led to the news embargo during Prince Harry’s deployment to Afghanistan. He is a member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Public Interest in Poverty Issues Advisory Board and contributed to the Pitt Review of flooding in the UK in 2007. He was an advisor to the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Cambridge Futures. He is a non executive director of the Eastern Housing Partnership. He serves on a number of charity committees. He is a non executive director of the National Council for the Training of Journalists and a member of the Newspaper Qualifications Council. He is an external examiner at the London College of Communications and formerly at the Department of Journalism, University of Central Lancashire. He is a member of the print industry advisory panel at the School of Journalism, University of Lincoln. He is an Associate Press Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts He started his career with the Lancashire Evening Post in 1970 where he rose from graduate trainee to associate editor. He was Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards for 1977 and Crime Reporter of the Year in the same year. He went to Fleet Street as assistant editor of the News of the World before returning to regional newspapers as editor of the Cambridge Evening News in 1984. He was included in the Press Gazette Regional Newspapers 40 years Hall of Fame in 2006. During his tenure the Cambridge Evening News was one of the most successful regional newspapers in Britain. It was Press Gazette Newspaper of the Year in its category for 1993 and Daily Newspaper of the Year in the BT Awards for the London and Homes Counties North region for 1994. It won Newspaper Society prizes for best circulation increases in 1993, 1995, and 1996. It was also named Community Newspaper of the Year for 1996. He retired from the editorship at the end of 1998 after more than 14 years in the chair. He is a frequent broadcaster and speaker, debater and lecturer on media issues, press freedom, freedom of information, business ethics, leadership, business in the community and strategic public relations. He is an editorial consultant to various organisations including web sites, among them is CSL publishing that produces boating publications, and the Trisha Goddard Show on Channel 5. He chairs debates, seminars and question time sessions and has hosted awards presentations. Satchwell, 59, who is married with two daughters and two stepsons, was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School (president of the Old Lancastrian Club 2004-2005) and the London School of Economics (BSc Econ. 1970). His interests include rugby union and offshore sailing. |