Don Hale

Don Hale OBE (born July 1952) is a British journalist.

He was the editor of the Matlock Mercury who became involved in the campaign to overturn the murder conviction of Stephen Downing. In 1973, Downing, at the time a 17-year-old with the reading age of an 11-year-old, was imprisoned for the murder of Wendy Sewell and served 27 years in jail. The conviction was declared unsafe by the Court of Appeal in 2001 and Downing was released. Hale was voted 2001 Man of the Year by The Observer newspaper, Journalist of the Year by What the Papers Say and was made an OBE for his efforts and campaigning journalism, though he was also criticised for referring to Sewell as the Bakewell Tart.^[1]

After a short spell working for the North Wales Pioneer newspaper, Hale later became editor of the newly formed North Wales Living magazine in 2005. Despite a period of outstanding success for this magazine, in which it collected seven national and regional awards, Don Hale was later made redundant in December 2007 following a re-organisation of the company, including the closure of the magazine.^[2] He then started his own publishing business launching a new lifestyle magazine for North Wales, Chester and the Cheshire borders called Coast & Country magazine^[2][3] In the autumn of 2008, he also launched a digital advertising company called Ads2Life^[4] with in-store displays at several Debenhams stores, in top hotels, and at Venue Cymru.

During the autumn of 2007, his book about the famous frogman spy mystery 'Buster' Crabb was published by Suttons/The History Press. Hale has also published Secrets of the Royal Detective about his great grandfather, James Wood, who was a notable Manchester detective from 1890 to 1914, and was the first Royal Protection Officer acting as a personal bodyguard to the Prince of Wales, following the loss of Queen Victoria, and continued threats against the monarchy. Don Hale's latest book, Mallard - How the Blue Streak broke the World Speed Record, was released in paperback by Aurum Press in May 2008 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the speed record for steam locomotives held by LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard.

References

1. ^ "Don Hale: Campaigning Editor", BBC News, February 7, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1158058.stm .
2. ^ ^{a b} Jones, Tamlyn (March 14, 2008), "New lifestyle magazine launch for former newspaper editor", Regional press news, http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080314newmag.shtml .
3. ^ Coast and Country Magazine web site.
4. ^ Ads2Life web site.

Persondata
Name	Hale, Don
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1952
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death