Bill Hagerty (born 23 April 1939) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

former newspaper editor, now chairman emeritus of ''

British Journalism Review ''British Journalism Review'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal covering the journalism genres, field of journalism. The journal's editor-in-chief is Kim Fletcher. It was established in 1989 and is currently published by SA ...

''. Born in

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

Roy Greenslade Roy Greenslade (born 31 December 1946) is a British author and freelance journalist, and a former professor of journalism. He worked in the UK newspaper industry from the 1960s onwards. As a media commentator, he wrote a daily blog from 2006 to ...

, ''Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda'', p.574 Hagerty attended Beal Grammar School, where he developed an interest in journalism, although his headteacher was dismissive of the idea. Despite this, he entered journalism with local newspapers before joining ''

Reynolds News ''Reynold's News'' was a Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom, founded as ''Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper''Joanne Shattock, ''The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature'', p.2908 by George W. M. Reynolds in 1850, who became its first edit ...

'', soon to become the '' Sunday Citizen'', in 1962.Bill Hagerty
, ''

Debrett's Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company and publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John ...

'' He then moved to the ''

Daily Sketch The ''Daily Sketch'' was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet. The ''Sketch'' was Conservative in its politics and populist in its tone during its existence through all its ch ...

'' and then ''Mirror'' group, where he worked for many years that included spells as Assistant Editor of the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'', ''

Sunday Mirror The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marked ...

'' and ''

The People The People may refer to: Legal jargon * The People, term used to refer to the people in general, in legal documents * "We the People of the United States", from the Preamble to the U. S. Constitution * In philosophy, economics, and political scienc ...

''.Bill Hagerty
",

London Press Club The London Press Club was established in 1882 as a London gentlemen's club. For much of its history, it occupied premises in Wine Office Court, near Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east fro ...

Hagerty left the ''Mirror'' group in 1985, joining ''

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'', serving as managing editor and, from 1987, editor of '' Sunday Today''. He returned to "Mirror" group to become deputy editor of the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1988, then deputy editor and subsequently acting editor of the ''Daily Mirror'' in 1990, before becoming editor of ''The People'' the following year. This last move was a surprise to Hagerty, who had believed that, already in his fifties, he would not be appointed to the editorship of a major national newspaper. In 1992, following the death of proprietor

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, politician and fraudster. After escaping the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, ...

, Hagerty was among many journalists in the company sacked from their editorial postsJames Lambie, ''The Story of Your Life: A History of the Sporting Life Newspaper'', p. 539 and took a variety of positions, including theatre and film critic for ''

'', and subsequently other publications before becoming theatre critic of ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

''. He was appointed editor of ''

'' in 2002, and Chairman of the journal a decade later. Hagerty was interviewed by

National Life Stories National Life Stories (NLS) is an independent charitable trust and limited company (registered as the "National Life Story Collection") based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork. ...

(C638/13) in 2007 for the 'Oral History of the British Press' collection held by the British Library.National Life Stories, 'Hagerty, Bill (1 of 5) National Life Stories Collection: 'Oral History of the British Press', The British Library Board, 2007
Retrieved 28 October 2017. In 2011/12 he was chairman of the Journalists’ Charity, of which he remains a trustee, and is a director of the

. He edited eight volumes of

Alastair Campbell Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster, and activist, who is known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman an ...

's diaries for publication. and wrote a centenary history of the ''Daily Mirror'', '' Read All About It''. In October 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Journalist Laureate prize by the London Press Club. It was awarded for his lifetime of outstanding work both as a journalist and in his role as an active and passionate ambassador for journalism. He is married to the journalist Liz Vercoe.

References

Who's Who entry '' Read All About It'' (First Stone Publishing, 2003) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hagerty, Bill 1939 births Living people British newspaper editors People from Ilford Writers from the London Borough of Redbridge