Andrew Neil
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Andrew Neil (born May 21 1949) is a British journalist and broadcaster. Neil made his name at The Sunday Times where he was editor for 11 years. He is currently the editor-in-chief and Publisher of the Press Holdings group of newspapers, owner of The Scotsman, for which he writes.
Neil was educated at Paisley Grammar School and Glasgow University. After graduation he briefly worked for the Conservative Party as a research assistant before joining The Economist as a correspondent in 1973. He was later promoted to British editor of that news magazine before being offered the chair of Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Times. He was editor there from 1983 until 1994.
In 1988 he also became founding chairman of Sky TV, also part of Murdoch's News Corporation. Neil was instrumental in the company's launch, overseeing the transformation of a down market, single channel satellite service into a four channel network in less than a year. Neil and Murdoch stood side by side at Sky's new headquarters in west London on February 5 1989 to witness the launch of the service at 18.00. Sky was not an instant success, the uncertainty caused by the competition provided by BSB and the initial shortage of satellite dishes were early problems. BSkyB, the name given to the merged BSB and Sky, would not make a profit for a decade.
He eventually parted company with Murdoch on bad terms and became a writer for the Daily Mail. In 1996 he became editor-in-chief of the Barclay brothers Press Holdings group of newspapers, owner of The Scotsman, Sunday Business (now just The Business) and The European. Neil has not enjoyed great success with the circulations of the newspapers (indeed The European folded shortly after he took over).
As well as Neil's newspaper activities he has also maintained a television career. While working at The Economist he provided news reports, for example to American networks. When at the Sunday Times he contributed to BBC radio and television as well as commenting on the various controversies provoked by the paper in his role as Editor. During the 1990s Neil fronted political programmes for the BBC, notably Despatch Box on BBC Two. Following the revamp of the BBC's political programming in early 2003 Neil has been the presenter of the BBC One weekly political roundup show, This Week, and co-presenter of The Daily Politics which broadcasts Tuesday to Thursday while Parliament sits. Neil also writes a media column in the Evening Standard. In November 2004 it was announced that Neil was to become Chief Executive of The Spectator. Neil served as Rector of St Andrews University from 1999 - 2002.
Neil is not married. A photograph of him dressed in a vest and baseball cap, embracing a much younger woman, ran over several consecutive editions of satirical magazine Private Eye, after it became known that he found the picture embarrassing. It still surfaces periodically, on the flimsiest of excuses. The Eye has also nicknamed him Brillo Pad, after his untidy hairstyle and hirsute torso (as exposed in said photograph), and often misspells his surname with an extra L - which also annoys him.
External links
- Archive of Neil's recent articles at The Scotsman (http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=37)
- Observer: Biography (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,628106,00.html)
- BBC News: Biography (http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3630000/newsid_3639000/3639035.stm)
- "The Daily Politics" website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/2629405.stm)
- The infamous Private Eye photograph (http://www.private-eye.co.uk/contentimages/brillo.jpg)
