David Randall was born in Ipswich, England in 1951 and educated
at local grammar school. In 1970 he went up to Clare College, Cambridge
University, to read economics, and was an frequent speaker at the Union
Society. Invited to write a weekly column for Varsity by its editor,
Jeremy Paxman, he contributed 'The Adventures of Druisilla Nutt-Tingler'.
After a brief spell as a professional comedian and assistant brand manager
for a cosmetics company (two experiences easily confused), he joined the
Croydon Advertiser in 1974 as a trainee reporter. After working as a
reporter for various editions, he became successively sub-editor, deputy
editor and, in 1980, editor, of the Croydon Advertiser, then the largest
circulation local weekly in Britain.
In 1978 he began freelancing for national newspapers, working at The Sun
and The Observer. In 1981 he joined the Observer's staff as deputy sports
editor, where he wrote the 'Sidelines' column. This led to his first book,
'Great Sporting Eccentrics', published in 1985. In 1986 he became
assistant to editor Donald Trelford, and in 1987 spent three months in
California studying computer systems before returning to Britain to take
joint charge of the paper's transfer to direct input. In 1987 his second
book 'Royal Follies' ('Royal Misbehaviour' in the US) was published and
later that year he was made assistant editor of The Observer, with
responsibility for presentation. He also wrote a humour column for The
Observer Magazine.
Between 1988 and 1993 he was responsible for the paper's news coverage,
twice winning awards for the news pages and overseeing investigations into
anapthalmia (so-called 'eyeless baby syndrome'), HIV contamination during
blood transfusions, wrongful convictions for murder (two convicted
prisoners released), and atrocities against the Marsh Arabs in Iraq. He
was also a prime mover in the paper launching several appeals for Save The
Children.
In 1990 he went to Kenya to redesign the Sunday Standard of Nairobi, and
this gave him a taste for consultancy work, which he pursued full-time
after leaving The Observer in 1993. In the next two years he edited
supplements for Universal News which appeared in The Times, Los Angeles
Times, Time magazine and Forturo in Spain; launched a Weekend supplement
for The Moscow Times and reorganised their editorial and classified
advertising departments. He also ran journalism seminars in Africa for the
British Council, and in Russia and Central Asia for the European Union.
These experiences led to the writing, in 1996, of 'The Universal
Journalist', his anecdotal text book which is now published in eleven
languages around the world. In 1994, he also ran the national Rwanda
appeal for the Disasters Emergency Committee, helping to raise £36million
in six weeks.
In late 1995 he went to Moscow to relaunch Kapital, the Russian-language
sister paper of The Moscow Times. This led to him becoming managing
director of Independent Press, publisher of both these titles, in 1995. He
introduced colour supplements, new forms of advertising and also acquired
the weekly St Petersburg Press, which was relaunched as the bi-weekly St
Petersburg Times. In early 1997, Randall resigned to resume work as a
consultant, completing projects on Moscow's evening paper, Vecherniy
Moskva, and the paper Pushkin founded, Literaturna Gazetta.
In 1998 he joined The Independent as a news executive, and in 2000 moved
to the Independent on Sunday, where he has been news editor and still is
night editor. He also writes major news stories and a column – The
Curious World of David Randall – for the paper. He has produced a
completely revised edition of 'The Universal Journalist', and become a
frequent lecturer and after-dinner speaker, making regular appearances to
speak at international conferences. In 2003 he began writing a column on
journalism for Italian news magazine Internazionale, and in 2005, ‘The
Great Reporters’, his book studying the greatest reporters who ever
lived, was published.
