Bridget Rowe

{{Short description|British newspaper editor (1950–2021)}} '''Bridget Rowe''' (16 March 1950 – 12 January 2021) was a British newspaper editor.

==Life and career== Rowe worked for a succession of magazines: ''19'', ''[[Petticoat magazine|Petticoat]]'', ''Club'', ''Look Now'' and ''Woman's World'', before becoming Assistant Editor of ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'', then editor of "Sunday", the ''[[News of the World]]''{{'s}} magazine. In 1986, Rowe became editor of ''[[Woman's Own]]'',<ref>Hugh Thompson, "Dallasty and Glynis recipe", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 7 July 1986</ref> then left to become editor of ''[[TV Times]]''.

Rowe edited the ''[[Sunday Mirror]]'' from 1991 to 1992, then moved to edit ''[[Sunday People|The People]]''. In 1993 ''The People'' published a photo of [[Sonia Sutcliffe]] taken by a freelance photographer that breached [[Press Complaints Commission]] code of conduct on privacy.<ref name=telegraphy-bridget-rowe-obituary>{{Cite news|title=Bridget Rowe, award-winning tabloid editor with her finger on the populist pulse – obituary|date=26 January 2021|access-date=29 March 2021|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/01/26/bridget-rowe-award-winning-tabloid-editor-finger-populist-pulse/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127114515/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/01/26/bridget-rowe-award-winning-tabloid-editor-finger-populist-pulse/|archive-date=27 January 2021}}</ref> Her refusal to accept respsponsibility for the actions of the photographer was described by the PCC as "lamentable".<ref name=telegraphy-bridget-rowe-obituary/>

In 1995, she became managing director of both newspapers, and in 1997 she returned to editing the ''Sunday Mirror'' for a year.<ref name=telegraphy-bridget-rowe-obituary/> After this she served as the Director of Communications for the [[National Magazine Company]], and later was the content director of Yava until it closed in 2001.<ref name="exed">"[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/inside-story-the-exeditors-files-490081.html Inside Story: The ex-editors' files]", ''[[The Independent]]'', 9 May 2005</ref><ref name=telegraphy-bridget-rowe-obituary/> She was a panelist on the first series of ''[[Loose Women]]'' in 1999.

A friend<ref name="IT1232474675764">[http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0123/1232474675764.html "Libertas faces UK electoral hurdle over party name"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021012200/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0123/1232474675764.html |date=2012-10-21 }}, Irish Times, Friday, January 23, 2009</ref> of [[UK Independence Party]] (UKIP) leader [[Nigel Farage]], Rowe registered as the leader of Libertas UK with the United Kingdom [[Electoral Commission (United Kingdom)|Electoral Commission]] in December 2008,<ref name="IT1232474675764"/> in order to prevent [[Declan Ganley]]'s political party [[Libertas.eu|Libertas]] from fielding candidates in the UK's [[2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom|European Parliament elections in 2009]] under that name.<ref name="IT1232474675764"/> Rowe worked as public relations chief for the businessman and UKIP donor [[Arron Banks]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Syal|first=Rajeev|title=Ukip donor Arron Banks shows tax cheque sent to HMRC for £1.86m |url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/04/ukip-donor-arron-banks-shows-tax-cheque-sent-hmrc|work=The Guardian |date=4 October 2014|accessdate=8 December 2016}}</ref>

Rowe died from [[COVID-19]] in [[Farnborough, Hampshire|Farnborough]] on 12 January 2021, at the age of 70, during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/trailblazing-journalist-fleet-street-legend-23332013|title=Trailblazing journalist and Fleet Street legend Bridget Rowe dies aged 70|website=[[Daily Mirror]] |date=16 January 2021}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-media}} {{succession box|title=Editor of the ''[[Sunday Mirror]]''|years=1991–1992|before=[[Eve Pollard]]|after=[[Colin Myler]]}} {{succession box|title=Editor of ''[[The Sunday People|The People]]''|years=1992–1996|before=[[Bill Hagerty (newspaper editor)|Bill Hagerty]]|after=[[Len Gould]]}} {{succession box|title=Editor of the ''[[Sunday Mirror]]''|years=1997–1998|before=[[Amanda Platell]]|after=[[Brendon Parsons]]}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, Bridget}} [[Category:1950 births]] [[Category:2021 deaths]] [[Category:English magazine editors]] [[Category:English newspaper editors]] [[Category:UK Independence Party people]] [[Category:The Sunday People people]] [[Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in England]]