John Clare (born 1955) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

author, journalist and chief executive of Lions Den Communications. He was a producer and reporter at

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

where he covered some of the biggest stories of the 1980s including the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Hungerford Massacre, the

Heysel stadium disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( ; ; ) was a crowd disaster on 29 May 1985, when Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by Liverpool fans while they were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of ...

and trial of the Liverpool fans, the Bradford football stadium fire, the trial of the ''Brighton Bomber'', Patrick McGee, and his associates, and the Broadwater Farm trials. He also, with reporter

David Chater David Chater (born 1953) is a British broadcast journalist. Chater has more than 35 years' experience in international television news, having worked for Independent Television News, Sky News and Al Jazeera English. He joined ITN in 1976, Sky ...

, covered Tom McClean's historic single-handed rowing across the Atlantic, a feat for which Tom still holds the world speed record. On the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' he was a feature writer and

commissioning editor In book publishing, a commissioning editor is essentially a buyer. It is the job of the commissioning editor to advise the publishing house on which books to publish. Usually the actual decision of whether to contract a book is taken by a senior m ...

. He is the author of a number of books, including ''Communicating Clearly about Science and Medicine'' (Gower, 2012), ''John Clare's Guide to Media Handling'' (Gower), and ''Organ Farm'' (Carlton Books) – the book of the TV series of which he was an executive producer.

Biography

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, Clare attended Kaskenmoor Comprehensive School in Oldham and turned down university in favour of a place on a course run by the

National Council for the Training of Journalists The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) was founded in 1951 as organisation to oversee the training of journalists for the newspaper industry in the United Kingdom and is now playing a role in the wider media. It is a self-ap ...

. His first job in journalism was on the award-winning ''

South London Press The ''South London Press, London Weekly News and Mercury (formerly South London Press)'' was a weekly newspaper published in South East London. The newspaper covered news, sports and features within the south, central and west London area from 1 ...

'', where he was indentured under legendary newspaper editor HH (Max) Wall. He left there to join the London office of

United Newspapers UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its pr ...

, publishers of the ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'', ''Sheffield Morning Telegraph'' and a number of evening and weekly newspapers in the north of England. He worked casual reporting shifts on various

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

newspapers including the

the Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

and 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 ...

, the newspaper he eventually joined as the youngest staff reporter at the time, aged 22. He joined

Thames News ''Thames News'' was the flagship regional news programme of Thames Television, serving the Thames ITV region and broadcast on weekdays from 12 September 1977 to 31 December 1992. The news service was produced and broadcast from Thames TV's headq ...

as a researcher/subeditor in 1979, then was one of the first news editors at

TVAM TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

, the first commercial breakfast TV service in the UK, joining three months before the station went on air in February 1983. He had a ringside seat as the "Famous Five"'s vision for intellectual TV was replaced by the

Roland Rat Roland Rat is a British television puppet character. He was created, operated and voiced by David Claridge, who had previously designed and operated Mooncat, a puppet in the Children's ITV television programme ''Get Up and Go!''. Character sum ...

-inspired

Greg Dyke Gregory Dyke (born 20 May 1947) is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing " t ...

revolution that quickly won the battle for breakfast viewers. Clare left there to join

in 1984. In 1987, he became editor at

LWT News ''LWT News'' was a regional news service provided by London Weekend Television, serving the Greater London area in various formats between January 1982 and 3 January 1993. History On Friday 1 January 1982, LWT began extending its broadcasting h ...

, Britain's first independent commercial news programme. In 1992, he founded LionsDen Communications and is now recognised as an expert in communications, presenting and media handling, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector. He has coached thousands of physicians, scientists and pharmaceutical executives in clear communication, and speaks on communication-related subjects at international conferences. He has coached people for Parliamentary inquiries, regulatory hearings and helped them to prepare for announcements involving hundreds of millions of pounds. In 2006, he was awarded the Communiqué Judges Award for Outstanding Healthcare Communications. He regularly writes and interviews senior pharmaceutical industry figures for PMLive. He is also the author of ''The Organ Farm and Media Handling'' and a SCRIP special report, ''Patents, Patients and Profits: Media reporting of the Pharmaceutical Industry''. His book on presenting medical data will be published by Gower in Autumn 2011.

References

External links

Features and interviews for PMLive

Patents, Patients and Profits: Media reporting of the Pharmaceutical Industry

Communique Award Winners 2006

John Clare's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clare, John 1955 births Living people Journalism academics English male journalists ITN newsreaders and journalists English science writers Medical journalists British science journalists