James Franklin Archibald "Archie" Bland, is a British newspaper journalist. He is the only child of Sir Christopher Bland, and half-brother to four siblings from his mother's earlier marriage to Thomas Edmund Byng, the 8thEarl of Strafford. Bland was the deputy editor of The Independent, a national British newspaper, a post to which he was appointed in April 2012, at the age of 28. He was also the editor of the Saturday edition of The Independent. He was one of the youngest people to have ever been appointed to a senior editorial post in the British national newspaper industry, described as "easily the youngest deputy editor in the paper's history, the youngest in national newspapers today and perhaps ever on Fleet Street". In July 2013, Bland took up a new role as senior writer at both The Independent and The Independent on Sunday newspapers, and in September 2014, he joined The Guardian newspaper. He later became Deputy National Editor of The Guardian.
Between the years 1997–2002, Bland was educated at Winchester College, a boarding independent school for boys in Winchester in Hampshire, where he stayed at Boarding House I, known as Turner's. At Winchester, Bland obtained four A*s, three A's and two B's at GCSE, followed by Emmanuel College, Cambridge, at which he became the editor of Varsity, the student newspaper of the university. He was named Guardian Student Columnist of the Year in 2004, for his work as Varsity's Editor, and elected to a Senior Exhibition in the years 2004 – 2005, gaining a First in English Literature. He received the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism for 2006–7, a scholarship which enabled him to study at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, from which he received a master's degree in Journalism in 2007. He graduated from Columbia with Honors, receiving the School's Henry N. Taylor Award.
Life and career
Bland joined The Independent on Sunday newspaper in 2007 as a graphics researcher. In October 2010 he became Foreign Editor, replacing Katherine Butler, and Deputy Editor of the paper in April 2012. He was a regular columnist in the Independent, and a contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review. In September 2014, Bland left the Independent to work for the Guardian newspaper. Bland won the last-ever episode of the BBCtelevision game showThe Weakest Link, in March 2012. He had previously appeared on the programme in 2003, at the age of 19.
