My life: a summary...

For most of my working life I have been a journalist – mainly on the Guardian, which I edited for 20 years from 1995-2015.  I was Principal of Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford for six years. Now I’m back editing again - Prospect Magazine, the UK’s leading political monthly.

After reading English at Cambridge I started in journalism, progressing from local papers to a job as a reporter on the Guardian in 1979. Over eight years I reported and wrote a daily diary column and features before leaving to become the Observer’s TV critic in succession to Clive James and Julian Barnes.

In 1987 I moved to Washington to become the US editor for the (now defunct) London Daily News. I then returned to the Guardian, launching its Weekend magazine and G2 section before becoming deputy editor; and, finally, editor.

The paper I inherited was print on paper. By the time I left in 2015 we continued to print a paper (in a different format) but had transitioned the Guardian into being a 24/7 digital news operation based in London, US and Australia.  We had overtaken the New York Times to become the largest serious English language newspaper digital operation in the world.

The journalism won multiple awards, including, in 2014, and Emmy and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (shared with the Washington Post).  The economic model of news was – almost universally – challenging. By the time I left the Guardian we were heading for £100m a year in digital revenues and had built a endowment worth £1bn which was held by the Scott Trust, the owner of paper.  Since 2015 the Guardian has continued to develop the membership scheme we first originated in 2012 as an alternative to paywalls. The paper now has more than 1 m paying readers, helping it to break even in 2019. Digital revenues have grown to £126m in 2020, with 1.5 bn unique browsers: its adjusted net operating cash outflow was declared sustainable by the Board.

The last five years of editing saw the Guardian breaking many stories that were followed up globally, including the Wikileaks diplomatic cables revelations;  the phone-hacking story which saw News International journalists jailed; disclosures about illegal torture and rendition; tax avoidance; toxic-dumping by Trafigura;  and, in 2013, the Edward Snowden disclosures about mass surveillance.

Three of these stories – Wikileaks, phone hacking and Snowden – later become films made, or in development, by Stephen Spielberg, George Clooney and Oliver Stone. Our coverage of undercover policing led to a public inquiry, launched in 2020. Our coverage of phone hacking led to the Leveson Inquiry.

In 2014 I published a memoir of journalism and music, Play it Again, describing how a passion for amateur music-making (piano and clarinet) helped achieve a semi-sane work/life balance in the most stressful of times. My next book, Breaking News - about what journalism was; where it is going; and what it may become - was published by Canongate in September 2018 in London; and by FSG in December in New York.

This was followed in November 2020 by News and How to Use it (Canongate), which explores the question of information chaos and what journalism needs to do to win back trust.

I have also written a screen play, Fields of Gold (BBC1) with Ronan Bennett; a screenplay for Working Title for a full length animation feature; and a play about Beethoven. I have written regularly for the New York Review of Books, the Observer and the New Statesman.

I am Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and serve on the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom.  I was previously chair of the Photographers’ Gallery and the National Youth Orchestra and spent six years on the Board of the Royal National Theatre. In 2020 I was appointed as one of 20 members of the newly-formed Facebook Oversight Board. 

At Lady Margaret Hall I launched a pioneering Foundation Year, designed for students from under-represented backgrounds. This scheme, it has been announced, will now be rolled out across both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. In November 2020 I announced I would be stepping down from LMH in the autumn of 2021.

I talk, write and lecture about information chaos; journalism; the media and climate change; inclusion in education; and music (please contact karen@chartwellspeakers.com) and have had honorary degrees, professorships and/or awards from, among others, Queen Mary’s College, London; the Open University; The University of Oslo; Roehampton University; CUNY New York; Harvard; Columbia University, NY; Kingston University; Lincoln University, Coventry University and Cardiff University.

I am married to the journalist and think-tanker, Lindsay Mackie. We live in London. We have two children and a Lancashire Heeler, who has his own Instagram account (@lmhdogs).  I am @arusbridger on Twitter and Instagram; and can be contacted via email at alanrusbridger[at]mac.com. My PA is kiri.lizama [at] prospect-magazine.co.uk