Andrew Jaspan

Andrew Jaspan, a British journalist, was appointed in October, 2004, as Editor-in-Chief of "The Age", a broadsheet daily newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to this appointment, he was the founder and editor of the "Sunday Herald" in Scotland from 1999 to 2004. Under Jaspan's editorship, the Sunday Herald won numerous internationally recognised SND awards.

Previously, Jaspan was Editor of "The Observer" from 1995-1996 and Editor of "The Scotsman" and "Scotland on Sunday" and is also a former Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of "The Big Issue".

Jaspan joined "The Age" as Editor-in-Chief on October 18, 2004. His arrival was not welcomed by some who were offended by his gaffe in saying that he was looking forward to working in Sydney. [http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=841692004] . He has been tested throughout his tenure as British man leading an Australian institution - including a question on his first address to staff about who won the AFL final. He answered correctly.

Jaspan's newspapers tend to feature an idiosyncratic design style. In September 1995, he relaunched "The Observer", with a controversial lower case, two-tone masthead and bold, stacked sans-serif headline fonts, which was a major departure from the paper's previous, more conservative design. He made similar changes to "The Age", and as launch editor of the "Sunday Herald", he ensured that the paper featured crisp elegant headline fonts and plenty of colour. But his style isn't to everybody's taste. After barely a year at the helm of "The Observer", Jaspan was acrimoniously fired, and the subsequent editor, Will Hutton, restored the serif fonts and quickly jettisoned most of Jaspan's award-winning design flourishes. Jaspan was known to be hostile to this, and wrote in the "New Statesman" that he was unhappy both with the manner of his dismissal, and with the 'junking' of his editorial vision for the paper.

Since his appointment as Editor in Chief at The Age, circulation and readership figures - as well as online figures - have increased significantly.

Andrew Jaspan also attracted criticism of a different kind in June 2005, when he described Iraqi kidnap victim Douglas Wood as "boorish" and "insensitive" for calling his captors "arseholes." [http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1401515.htm]

In 2008 The Age's 235 journalists unanimously voted for a motion accusing Jaspan of degrading their ability to produce independent journalism. [http://www.crikey.com.au/Media-Arts-and-Sports/20080411-Age-meeting.html]

On August 27, 2008, The Age announced that Jaspan would be immediately replaced as editor by senior deputy, Paul Ramadge. The move came a day after Fairfax announced 550 jobs would go from its Australian and New Zealand operations. [http://news.theage.com.au/national/age-editor-sacked-fairfax-20080827-43gu.html]

Early life

Andrew was born in Manchester and lived in Australia, in the Hunter Valley, Canberra and Perth between the ages of seven and fourteen. After returning to Britain but before embarking on a career in journalism, he was manager for The Smirks, a Manchester band. He joined "The Daily Telegraph" as a reporter in 1980 before moving to "The Daily Mirror" and "The Sunday Times".