Simon Kelner, former editor of the London Independent and one of the most colourful and high-profile newspaper editors of the past decade, has been confirmed as guest speaker for the inaugural NNI Journalism Awards on 27 October.

Kelner (53) took over as editor of The Independent in 1998, where he remained – as editor, editor-in-chief and briefly as managing director – until this summer.

His leadership was characterised by a number of ground-breaking innovations: turning the newspaper from a broadsheet into a compact format (a move since copied by 55 newspaper titles around the world); introducing single issue, poster-style front pages that coined the term “viewspaper”; and launching The Independent‘s sister title i.

His 13 years at The Independent yielded two Editor of the Year awards (2004, 2010) as well as a host of other accolades including Newspaper of the Year, Media Achiever of the Year, Marketeer of the Year and the ‘Editorial Intelligence Comment Award’ last year.

During a stellar career, Kelner has held a number of other positions including editor of The Sunday Correspondent, sports editor of The Observer Magazine and editor of The Mail of Sunday supplement ‘Night & Day’.

In 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bolton.

“We are thrilled that Simon Kelner has accepted our invitation to speak at the inaugural NNI Journalism Awards,” said NNI Chairman, Paul Cooke. “He is one of the most successful and talked-about editors of his generation and some of the bold decisions he took at The Independent have actually shaped today’s newspaper landscape.

“This is NNI’s first journalism awards initiative and it’s fitting that an editor of Simon Kelner’s stature will be there when we honour this country’s finest writers, critics and commentators,” Mr Cooke said. “I’m sure he will have some very interesting things to say about the past, present and future of our industry.”

For further information: 

Tel: Ann Marie Lenihan 01 6689099

Email: amlenihan@cullencommunications.ie

Note for editors: The closing date for entries to the NNI Journalism Awards was 16 September 2011. Further information at www.newsbrandsireland.ie/journalismawards