Andrew Neil

Journalist & Publisher

Between 1997 and 2005, Andrew Neil was Publisher of The Scotsman Group of newspapers, which was acquired in 1996 for £85m and sold to Johnston Press in January 2006 in a deal worth almost £200m. He was also CEO of handbag.com, the UK’s biggest online women’s magazine, which he acquired for his proprietors for £500,000 and sold 18 months later to Hearst Magazine for £22m.

During his career Andrew Neil has been UK Editor of The Economist, Editor of The Sunday Times, Executive Chairman of Sky Television, Executive Editor of Fox Television News of America, a well-known anchorman on British television and a regular political/economic commentator on all the American networks and news channels.

The Early Years of Andrew Neil

Born in Scotland in 1949, Neil attended Paisley Grammar School and the University of Glasgow, studying economics at the same university where Adam Smith prepared his famous “Wealth of Nations” in the 18th century. Neil graduated in 1971 with an MA (Hons) in Political Economy and Political Science. He also studied American History.
His first job (1971-72) was as political adviser to the Secretary of State for the Environment in Edward Heath’s Conservative Government in London. He specialized in housing and regional policy, regularly briefing ministers and members of parliament.

Andrew Neil became a correspondent for The Economist in 1973, where his first major assignment was to cover Ulster at the height of the “Troubles” from Belfast. He returned to London to become the magazine’s political and lobby correspondent in the House of Commons, then its industrial and labour correspondent covering both unions and business in Britain and Europe.

Andrew Neil became American correspondent of The Economist in 1979, working out of New York and Washington. He covered the Iranian hostage crisis and the 1980 (Carter v Reagan) presidential election as White House correspondent for the magazine; he also wrote on Wall Street and US business.

Andrew Neil becomes Britain's best known Editor

Andrew Neil returned to London in 1982 to become UK Editor of The Economist. The magazine broke a series of scoops, from the Thatcher government’s plans for cable television to a secret cabinet report on the future of the welfare state.  The official history of The Economist says that, under Neil, the magazine enjoyed more scoops than the rest of Fleet Street put together.

In 1982 Andrew edited and published The Cable Revolution, a prophetic guide to the new multi-channel world of cable and satellite in Europe.

In 1983 Neil became editor of the prestigious Sunday Times of London and remained in that post for 11 years (until end-1994). He developed the newspaper into the undisputed 10-section market leader (which it remains today), breaking many scoops and putting the paper into the midst of many controversies in the process. Neil built on the paper’s global reputation as one of the world’s foremost newspapers.

Under his editorship, The Sunday Times exposed the full details of Israel’s nuclear arsenal, revealed the secret link between Libya and Britain’s coalminers’ union, published Peter Wright’s Spycatcher (for which the British government tried to jail him), named the secret billionaires who were funding the Tory party and published Andrew Morton’s controversial book on Princess Diana. The newspaper became famous for its fierce anti-Establishment views, pro-market economy stance and campaigning, investigative style. By the early 1990s The Sunday Times was selling 1.3m - over 150,000 more than its two nearest competitors combined.

While still editing The Sunday Times, Neil presided over the successful launch of Sky Television, the new satellite service that brought multi-channel TV to Britain early in 1989. Within a year Sky had already reached 1m homes.  Today Sky, now BSkyB, is one of the most successful television ventures in the world. His task of launching Sky and seeing it through its first difficult year completed, Neil returned to being a full-time editor. He had been Executive Chairman of Sky from 1988 to 1990.

In the summer of 1994, Neil was seconded to New York to become executive editor of Fox TV’s first tentative steps into network news.
In late 1994, with Fox uncertain of its plans, Neil decided to resign from both The Sunday Times and Fox Television to begin a new career as an independent broadcaster, publisher, writer and businessman. It was something he had been anxious to do since celebrating his 10th anniversary as Sunday Times editor in 1993.
After a year of writing columns for The Sunday Times and Daily Mail and writing his story of 11 years with Rupert Murdoch (Full Disclosure), Neil became Publisher of The Scotsman Group of newspapers (The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, Edinburgh Evening News), Scotland’s most prestigious newspaper publishers.
In early 1998 Neil presided over the launch of a new broadsheet Sunday paper, “Sunday Business” which was named “Sunday Newspaper of the Year” in 1999 by the industry, an award it took from its stable-mate, Scotland on Sunday, which had won the award the year before.

Life in Broadcasting & Presenting

While carving out a reputation in print journalism that made him Britain’s best-known editor, Andrew Neil has also enjoyed a distinguished career in broadcasting.

While at The Economist, Neil began appearing regularly on British television and radio. In 1975 he presented the first network documentary special on North Sea oil for BBC TV. This led to presenting “Tomorrow’s World”, a BBC TV network science and technology series, the “Risk Business”, a BBC award-winning documentary series about business, and “Look Here”, a weekly media show for the ITV network. Neil also commented regularly on economic and political matters for a variety of programmes, including BBC TV’s “Nationwide” and BBC Radio 4’s “Today”.

While in America for The Economist, Andrew Neil made several BBC network documentaries, including one on union busting and another on the airline business. Andrew also appeared regularly as a political and business commentator on US and British radio and television
As The Economist’s UK editor, Neil also began broadcasting to America from London, appearing regularly on the breakfast shows of all three US networks – CBS Morning, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today -- and ABC’s “Nightline” as well as CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. He also became London correspondent for PBS’s “Inside Edition”, a weekly US show on the media.

In 1991 he launched his own Sunday morning talk radio show for London Broadcasting (LBC), while still editing The Sunday Times. It became the highest-rated show on LBC.

In late 1994 Andrew Neil began anchoring the “Midnight Hour” -- renamed “Despatch Box” in 1997 -- a nightly network political show for BBC TV and, between 1997 and 2001, “Late Night Live”, a topical talk show for ITV.

In January 1995 he launched the “Andrew Neil Show”, a three-times-week interview programme simulcast domestically on BBC2 and internationally to more than 100 countries on BBC World, the global cable and satellite news service.

He also anchored “Is This Your Life?” - a major network interview series for Channel 4.

In the autumn of 1998 he started the Andrew Neil Breakfast Show for BBC Radio Five, a network Sunday morning news programme that became the highest-rated news show on the station.

From 1996 until 2000 he presented live prime-time special reports for BBC2 every autumn from all three British party political conferences; in the 1996 US presidential election year he also covered the San Diego and Chicago conventions; in 2000 he broadcast live from New York on US election night for BBC radio; in 2001 and 2005 he anchored a daily BBC network news show on the British general election. On British election night he commented on the results for CNN.

Since 2000 Neil has anchored the BBC’s live coverage of the annual British party conference season every autumn; in 2004 and 2005 he broadcast 38 hours of live coverage from the Liberal, Labour and Tory conferences.

He continues to appear regularly on TV on both sides of the Atlantic and has been a consultant to NBC News. Recent US broadcasts have included CBS’s “60 Minutes” and NBC’s “Dateline”. Among the many world leaders he has interviewed are Ronald Reagan, Mrs Gandhi, Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher, Henry Kissinger and Boris Yeltsin.

In 2002 the BBC undertook a major review of its political coverage. As a result, in January 2003 Neil began anchoring two new network shows: This Week with Andrew Neil for BBC1 on Thursdays; and a new late morning political programme four days a week, The Daily Politics, on BBC2 covering events at Westminster. In April of 2006 he began hosting Straight Talk with Andrew Neil, a 30 minutes interview show for BBC News 24.

Andrew Neil as an Author

In October 1996 Macmillan published his autobiography “Full Disclosure”, on his Sunday Times and Sky TV years, which sold 60,000 copies in hard and paperback. It was serialized in the Daily Mail in Britain and Vanity Fair in America; he is a senior contributing editor to Vanity Fair, specializing in long dispatches from places like Paris and Hong Kong.

Corporate Speaking Events

Andrew Neil is much in demand worldwide as a speaker lecturing on British, American and European politics/economics, the future of the euro and the dollar and the impact of information technology on business, with special emphasis on the opportunity and challenge of electronic commerce, on which he has spoken to most of the world’s major IT companies. Indeed, Neil has addressed some of the most important corporations in the world, including Microsoft, Netscape, GE Capital, BT, The Carlyle Group, Blackstone, SAP, Unisys, UBS, IBM, Infobank, Ericsson, Lexis/Nexis, Goldman Sachs, Nokia, Cap Gemini, Warburg Dillon Read, Morgan Stanley, European Chemical Federation, AT Kearney, Arthur Anderson Consulting, Bankers Trust, Belgian Newspaper Federation, Oracle, Unysis, Alcatel, Compaq, James Lang Wooton and Compaq.

Neil is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA). He has honorary degrees from Napier University (Edinburgh) and the University of Paisley. In the autumn of 1999 he was elected Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews, one of the oldest and most distinguished universities in the world. He was made a Doctor of Laws by the university in 2002.

Who’s Who lists his recreations as dining out in London, New York, the south of France and Aspen, where he has also been know to ski. He is also a keen cyclist. Under clubs he lists the Royal Automobile Club.

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