David Randall


David Randall is a British journalist and author of The Universal Journalist, a textbook on journalism.

Education and career in journalism

Randall was born in Ipswich and studied History at Clare College, Cambridge. While at Clare College, Randall was recruited to write for the student newspaper Varsity by editor Jeremy Paxman. After a brief period as a professional comedian and a brand manager at a cosmetics company, he joined the Croydon Advertiser as a trainee reporter in 1974 and became the paper's editor in 1980.
In 1981 he joined The Observer as deputy sports editor. He was promoted to the post of assistant editor. Since 1998 has been at The Independent on Sunday as a news executive.

Books

Randall is the author of The Universal Journalist. In a review of the book in the British Journalism Review, Ann Leslie stated "How I wish this book had been around when I was a young reporter." In the book Journalism, Ethics and Society, David Berry labels Randall a "prominent critic of the debate" concerning journalistic ethics and quotes Randall as arguing in The Universal Journalist that "the objectives and resolutions of ethical debates are unrealistic in the real world of practice ."
He is also the author of The Great Reporters, which profiles thirteen reporters he regards as being the best journalists. Among the reporters included were Edna Buchanan, William Howard Russell, Hugh McIlvanney, Ann Leslie, and A. J. Liebling.