Alan Rusbridger

Alan Rusbridger in pensive mood in 2007

Alan Rusbridger (born 29 December 1953 in Northern Rhodesia) is the son of the late G H Rusbridger, the Director of Education of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He has been editor of The Guardian since 1995. Previously he was a reporter, columnist, features editor and the deputy editor of The Guardian. Briefly, he worked for The Observer as a critic and was Washington Editor of the ill-fated London Daily News before returning to The Guardian in 1987.

He was educated at Cranleigh School, a boys' independent school in Cranleigh, Surrey, and at Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge. His first job in journalism was with the Cambridge Evening News. He joined The Guardian as a reporter in 1979. He subsequently wrote the paper's diary column and was a feature writer. On returning to The Guardian in 1987 he launched Guardian Weekend and the paper's G2 section. As editor, he oversaw the launch and development of Guardian Unlimited. He defended the paper against a number of high-profile defamation suits, including from the Police Federation and the Conservative MPs, Neil Hamilton and Jonathan Aitken. In late 2005 The Guardian responded to the tabloid re-launches of The Times and The Independent by moving from a broadsheet format to a "Berliner" format, common in continental Europe.

He is a member of the board of Guardian News and Media, of the main board of the Guardian Media Group and of the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian. He is executive editor of The Observer, a visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and Visiting Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London. Since 2004 he has been Chairman of the National Youth Orchestra.

He has written three children's books as well as being the co-author (with Ronan Bennett) of a BBC drama, Fields of Gold.

Bibliography

• A Concise History of the Sex Manual, 1886-1986 (1986) ISBN 0-571-13519-6
• The Guardian Year (1994) edited by Alan Rusbridger ISBN 1-85702-265-3
• The Coldest Day in the Zoo (2004) ISBN 0-14-131745-0
• The Wildest Day at the Zoo (2005) ISBN 0-14-131933-X
• The Smelliest Day at the Zoo (2007) ISBN 0-14-132068-0

External links

• Guardian - Alan Rusbridger profile page
• [1] American Journalism Review article by Frances Stead Sellers on the British broadsheets
• [2] Speech by Rusbridger in May 2007 on self-regulation of newspapers in a digital age
• A Chill on 'The Guardian' article by Rusbridger from The New York Review of Books